First attempt at cold smoking haddock. Smells bad! Help!

[Jho88]

my equipment.
Masterbuilt pro electric smoker (unplugged)
Masterbuilt cold smoker box attached with 1 1/2 foot 3 inch vent pipe

Ingredients:
Haddock skin on dry cured for 4 hours
Salt
Cherry wood chips

The smoker is wisping our white smoke. According to masterbuilt, white smoke is normal.

The smoker is only turned on to get it started but it is turned off and left to smolder. The exhaust vent on the smoker is completely open.

The fish smells really strong. Almost cigarette like and not pleasant. Is this creosote? I called masterbuilt and they said I have it set up right and that creosote is what gives it flavor. Don’t know what to think about that.
Is this something that will mellow out when i take it out of the smoker? Do I need to rest the fish for a long period of time to get it to smell the way it should?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

White smoke isn't good. You want thin blue smoke, almost invisible.

 

[Jho88]

White smoke isn't good. You want thin blue smoke, almost invisible.

There doesn’t seem to be any form of adjustment available. Do you know how I would go about correcting that?

 

[lovethemeats]

I seen the setup that Masterbuilt has for their cold Smoke Box. That's your problem. I would buy an AMNPS and change over to that.The only other alternative for using that box is to put in one chunk of wood at a time that way you get The Thin Blue Smoke. Find your biggest pieces of wood that way you will have a little bit of time before having to add more

 

[lovethemeats]

And do not soak the wood chips.
I would see if they would take back that cold smoke attachment. And buy a mailbox and do the mod off that

 

[chef jimmyj]

I can't think of a way to fix the fish you smoked. While time can make heavy smoked cheese taste better, I fear the fish would spoil before it improves. The AMNPS or Tube is a better choice but putting about 10+ feet of hose between the MB smoke generator and the smoker will help as it give creosote time to condense out...JJ

 

[SmokinAl]

Try making smoked fish dip out of it.
Al

 

[lovethemeats]

I can't think of a way to fix the fish you smoked. While time can make heavy smoked cheese taste better, I fear the fish would spoil before it improves. The AMNPS or Tube is a better choice but putting about 10+ feet of hose between the MB smoke generator and the smoker will help as it give creosote time to condense out...JJ

Hey JJ. There are members that don't believe in long tube runs in here. They don't understand about creosote. I got into a discussion in a thread and instead of making a argument out of it. I just dropped it. My units all have long tube runs. I know the smoke entering the smoke chamber is alot cleaner than what I was getting before. I had smoke scrubbers in one tube to help but ended up pulling them out. Instead I just clean the tubing every 3-4th smoke. You can definitely taste a difference in everything I do. Maybe more knowledge is needed in raising the topic of creosote and smoking food with some in here.

 

[Jho88]

I’ll try running a long hose. What method do you use to clean it?

Just tasted the fish. The smoke wasn’t bad but the the fish was as salty as a salt lick.

I was going for a 3 hour dry cure and ended up doing a 4 hour cure.

Salt only. Loads of it. I assumed that it would only take in so much salt.

Silly me. 8 lbs of fish wasted.

I’m going to give this another try soon.

FYI, I am attempting to make a Finnan Haddie.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

I’ll try running a long hose. What method do you use to clean it?

Just tasted the fish. The smoke wasn’t bad but the the fish was as salty as a salt lick.

I was going for a 3 hour dry cure and ended up doing a 4 hour cure.

Salt only. Loads of it. I assumed that it would only take in so much salt.

Silly me. 8 lbs of fish wasted.

I’m going to give this another try soon.

FYI, I am attempting to make a Finnan Haddie.

Salt only isn't a good thing.

My go to dry brine cure is 4:1 ratio Brown sugar: kosher salt. Usually 6-8 brine time depending on the fish. Fatty oily fish like salmon, tuna, etc can go 6-8. White meat lean fish 4-6. Sometimes for the leaner fish I'll bump the ratio up to 5:. At the end of the cure you need to rinse off the fish really good.

 

[Jho88]

Salt only isn't a good thing.

My go to dry brine cure is 4:1 ratio Brown sugar: kosher salt. Usually 6-8 brine time depending on the fish. Fatty oily fish like salmon, tuna, etc can go 6-8. White meat lean fish 4-6. Sometimes for the leaner fish I'll bump the ratio up to 5:. At the end of the cure you need to rinse off the fish really good.

Is the amount of salt important or just the ratio and time?

Stonington seafood lists only salt as part of the curing process so I was aiming for that.

http://www.stoningtonseafood.com/?menutype=finnanhaddie

Maybe I didn’t rinse the fish off well enough.

I ran it quickly under the sink just to get the salt grains.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Missed that you are trying to make Finnan Haddie. Which would be saltier than most. I would go for a wet brine. Use 3 cups salt, 1 cup sugar, to 1 gallon of water. Brine for 12-14 hours.

Alternately you could do a dry brine using a 3:1 Salt to sugar ratio. Apply dry rub to both sides of fillet, wrap tightly in plastic place in fridge for 16-24 hours. Drain off excessive liquid as it accumulates

Are you using green fir or peat for your smoke?

You may have been able to salvage the fish by soaking it in cold water prior to cooking it.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Is the amount of salt important or just the ratio and time?

Stonington seafood lists only salt as part of the curing process so I was aiming for that.

http://www.stoningtonseafood.com/?menutype=finnanhaddie

Maybe I didn’t rinse the fish off well enough.

I ran it quickly under the sink just to get the salt grains.

I would suggest starting with 4% (fillet weight) salt & 2% sugar (thinking along the same lines of gravlax) so if you had a 2 pound (907+/- grams) fillet. You'd want 36.28 grams of salt and 18.14 grams of sugar. You would rub that evenly on both sides of the fillet.

Having a good gram scale that measures to the hundredth of a gram is critical when making cured meats. It allows you to easily duplicate the process. There are several good options on Amazon for less than 10 dollars.

The salt and sugar remove the moisture from the fish which in turn makes it less hospitable to microbial life. The salt, meanwhile, also helps ward off bacteria that would otherwise quicken spoilage.

 

[Jho88]

Missed that you are trying to make Finnan Haddie. Which would be saltier than most. I would go for a wet brine. Use 3 cups salt, 1 cup sugar, to 1 gallon of water. Brine for 12-14 hours.

Alternately you could do a dry brine using a 3:1 Salt to sugar ratio. Apply dry rub to both sides of fillet, wrap tightly in plastic place in fridge for 16-24 hours. Drain off excessive liquid as it accumulates

Are you using green fir or peat for your smoke?

You may have been able to salvage the fish by soaking it in cold water prior to cooking it.

Thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately I do not have either of those.

I’m going to use cherry wood

I would suggest starting with 4% (fillet weight) salt & 2% sugar (thinking along the same lines of gravlax) so if you had a 2 pound (907+/- grams) fillet. You'd want 36.28 grams of salt and 18.14 grams of sugar. You would rub that evenly on both sides of the fillet.

Having a good gram scale that measures to the hundredth of a gram is critical when making cured meats. It allows you to easily duplicate the process. There are several good options on Amazon for less than 10 dollars.

The salt and sugar remove the moisture from the fish which in turn makes it less hospitable to microbial life. The salt, meanwhile, also helps ward off bacteria that would otherwise quicken spoilage.

Thank you! Attempt #2 I did a 4% salt 2% sugar. It is much less than I originally did. I originally buried the fish in salt!

Just doing one filet this time. Keeping the same equipment but I may need to do something to mitigate creosote.

Will report back soon

 

[Bearcarver]

my equipment.
Masterbuilt pro electric smoker (unplugged)
Masterbuilt cold smoker box attached with 1 1/2 foot 3 inch vent pipe



The smoker is wisping our white smoke. According to masterbuilt, white smoke is normal.

The smoker is only turned on to get it started but it is turned off and left to smolder. The exhaust vent on the smoker is completely open.

The fish smells really strong. Almost cigarette like and not pleasant. Is this creosote? I called masterbuilt and they said I have it set up right and that creosote is what gives it flavor. Don’t know what to think about that.
Is this something that will mellow out when i take it out of the smoker? Do I need to rest the fish for a long period of time to get it to smell the way it should?

Thanks in advance.

Don't go by what Masterbuilt tells you about how to use an MES.
White smoke is only good if it's very light.
If it's too heavy it is bad & even heavy for a short time can be bad.
That's why we like the AMNPS---You can't make it too heavy with an AMNPS lit only on one end.
Creosote is bad, not good, no matter what Masterbuilt says--They also tell you to soak your chips & close your top vent, and put water in your water pan. That's 3 more things that are wrong.
There are a lot more guys on this forum that know more about using an MES than the people at Masterbuilt do.
Just my 2 cents.

Bear