Humidity Increase When Adding Wood Pellets?

[ghostguy6]

Yesterday I tried smoking around 15 lbs of rainbow trout but I noticed I had a horrible moisture problem that I could not get rid of. I wet brined the fish as usual overnight. I took the fish out, patted dry with paper towel as I loaded the racks then onto the counter for an hour before going into the smoker at 100*F with the vent wide open for 2 hours with no smoke to form a pelicle. At this point I bumped the smoker up to 120*f, added the wood pellets and walked away. When I came back about 45 minutes later there were noticeable drips coming off the roof of the smoker and landing on the fish. The water tray was about half full (I left it empty when I started), so I emptied it. Since the vent was already opened all the way I took the fish out and patted the whole smoker dry with paper towels. I even patted the fish dry once again. I gave the fish another 30 minutes in the smoker with the same results. Since I already knew I wasn't going to getting the results I wanted, I ended up just tenting each rack loosely with tin foil to direct the water off the fish. I continuously bumped the temp up 10*F per hour for the next 3 hours until the fish became slightly flaky. By this time the water catch at the bottom of the smoker had overflowed and was running out from under the smoker.
I removed the fish and tried to dry out the smoker before putting it away by cranking the heat to 275* for 3 hours which did allow most of the moisture to evaporate. For the heck of it, I added a small handful of pellets and allowed the smoker to continue for 15 more minutes and the moisture returned.

When I did my deer sausages and jerky this year I did notice I had a moisture problem as well, but it was manageable. The only thing I did differently was I used wood pellets instead of wood chips. The temps and humidity were about the same this year as the year before so I cant really narrow it down.
Do the wood pellets somehow induce moisture into the smoker? Any other ideas as to were the moisture is coming from and how to prevent it?

 

[pops6927]

I would suspect your humidity problem is due to marinating/brining the fish, not the wood pellets, plus you were cooking at a very low temperature. I put this in the Fish section so other fish experts could chime in!

 

[ghostguy6]

I don't think the brine had anything to do with moisture, Ive used the same procedure many times before in colder weather without a problem and I also had this issue with some deer sausage. When I did the final test with no meat in the smoker at high temperatures why would the moisture return only when I added the chips?

 

[SonnyE]

Um, I don't wet brine my fish (Salmon). I followed this guy's advice and have a bunch of Christmas Salmon ready.
And near the beginning he specifically covers wet brining for fresh fish, and dry brining for frozen fish. ;)
And all I get is frozen, fish farm raised, flash frozen Salmon chunks. Costco. I don't care for the skin on, I'm weird.

I use a Brown Sugar and Salt mixture, spread on the meat in a glass baking pan. The ratio is 4 brown sugar to 1 Salt.
Because I do smaller amounts (3 pounds), I make smaller batches. But stick to the 4 to 1 ratio. (2 cups Brown sugar to 1/2 cup of salt)
Then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 hours. The mixture draws a lot of moisture out of the meat. You'll know because it makes a brine in the dish, container. That's excess moisture from the fish. (Good riddance!)
Then I quick rinse in cold water because not all of the Sugar/Salt melts down. Pat down with paper towels.
Let the fish dry on racks to get the look. You know, looks like this: o_O (Because you don't think it will ever dry)
Rack it up for the smoker and get cookin. :)

If you suspect your pellets may be damp, microwave them to heat them up a bit. (But don't catch Mama's microwave on fire). Or spread and heat in the gas BBQ if you have one. (My wife would crap a long worm if I put firewood in her microwave. So I do my best to keep my fuel dry in the shop.) I've never had a problem with mine, if damp it just burns slower.

Remember I said I'm weird? I do not use a water pan. I have a dry pan in the bottom that catches any drips. And if it calls for 1-2 hours of smoke, I do 3 hours. I like SMOKE.
If I wanted something like the sell at the store, then why bother with a smoker? Just buy it.

I hope that helps. I agree with Pop's. I think maybe the brine was the problem. If your fish had been frozen, I'd bet on it.
Give it a shot with the dry method to draw out the moisture.
PS: I do small experimental batches to learn with.

Welcome to the Human Race. Every day is another chance to do good. ;)

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

What type of smoker are you using?

Also there is no way that you could get a pan full of water from the pellets. Pellets may retain some humidity but no way the pellets could have that much water in them. The volume and weight aspects just don't jive.

Where do you live? (hopefully not the Amazon rain forest lol).

It sounds to me that you have a high air humidity situation or that your smoker is somehow retraining water somewhere or getting a massive amount of humidity into it from somewhere.

Is your smoker insulated and uncovered outdoors where it could be getting rained into the body and insulation?

 

[GaryHibbert]

Don't know. Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I don't do much fish, but I did a batch of salmon not too long ago in my MES 30. I use nothing but pellets in my mailbox mod for smoke and had NO humidity problem.
Gary

 

[Bearcarver]

If you're using an MES, this is why we never put water in the pan.

And since you didn't put water in the pan, and Pellets can't hold that much water, it could have only come from either your Fish & Deer Sausage, or from the Humidity in your local air.

Sometimes I get a lot of condensation on the inside of my door glass, without putting water in the Pan, even with a Small Prime Rib, so those times must be from the Humidity, because there isn't that much water in my Prime Ribs.

Bear