Opinions on Fish and Meat in the same box

[maineac]

I could use some opinions here.  I've been smoking for 8-9 years now but have never smoked sausage and I am ready to jump in.  I have an Original Bradley which was my first smoker and I still use it for salmon and mussels because it fills that low temp niche nicely but it hasn't had anything but fish in it for maybe 5-6 years.  I have read in a number of places that you should have separate boxes for fish and meat and I'm wondering how important that is.  Before I had other smokers I did both fish and meat in it and I don't remember a cross effect.  I know some of you guys have super taste buds but I'm thinking I might not know the difference if I smoked some sausage in that OBS.  I realize that I could try it and see what I think but if you guys think it would be a mistake I will do something different from the get-go.  I don't want my first sausage smoke to be a bust. 

Thanks for looking, and maybe some insight.

 

[crazymoon]

M, I would give the smoker a cleaning if you are worried about cross contamination?

 

[maineac]

 
M, I would give the smoker a cleaning if you are worried about cross contamination?

That might be the thing to do, even though it would be a lot like work.  That thing is black inside.  Thanks.

 

[tropics]

I have an MES 40 and do both meat and fish,never had a problem.No one that has eaten any of it had any complaints

Richie 

 

[daveomak]

Maineac, morning...   I had and still have and use my original smoker...  All I ever smoked was fish...  salmon, trout, oysters etc.... for years....   Then I smoked a turkey in it...   Turkey tasted like fish... had to throw it out it was sooooooo bad....  

I've read where folks say "there's no problem"...     I always smoked Pacific Salmon..  wild caught...   very fatty fish with a powerful flavor...    

Anywho, I bought a second smoker for meats... beef, pork and poultry and never looked back....

If you have the room and a few extra bucks, my advice is buy a second smoker and save the fish smoker for fish...  Probably makes the best smoked fish anyway...   that's what I find with mine..   had it over 30 years.....

Totem Smoker.jpeg

• daveomak
• Jul 14, 2017

 

[maineac]

Thanks, Dave.  I think I'm going to watch Craigslist for another Bradley since I'm set up for it.  There is one avail now but 5 hr away.  I do get some wicked nice salmon out of that box so I hate to mess with the inside.  My wife has smoked salmon 4-5 times a week for breakfast so I go through a bunch.  I'll work on fresh sausage until I get another box.

garage%20obs.jpg

• maineac
• Jul 14, 2017

 

[shyzabrau]

I like your mod. I may have to do something similar so I can get true cold smoking and still use the Bradley biscuit burner if I ever get it to feed correctly...

 

[maineac]

Thanks, Doug.  I did it mostly so I could smoke out of the elements.  It's in our detached garage and it works great for the salmon and mussels.

I have had problems with the biscuit feeder also and right now it works correctly but I stopped using it last year.  Now I use 2 of the foot long A-Maze-N tubes with apple pellets.  They last about 4 hours and give me the heavy smoke we like.  I added the cold smoker microwave to do cheese and ended up not liking the cheese, but it works great so I just left it that way.