Newbie here, I've gone through a lot of the old posts and found a couple on smoking carp but they didn't answer my question.
I shoot carp with my bow in NM and have smoked a couple batches and while the flavor is great they aren't as tender as I remember from growing up in WI and getting them from the fish shop in Port Washington.
I did fillets the first time and smoked them to IT of 160 but being thin they got leathery but not bad. I looked for another recipe on line an did another batch in steaks/section about 4" long but that recipe said IT 180 and the fish pulled away from the bones and again got really leathery. I did do them slow as it took 8 hrs to get to 180.
I started to look farther into this and USDA suggests IT of 145 to be safe for fish but all the carp recipes have had much higher temps, am I missing something in regards to carp. I think most of my problems would disappear if I only went to 150, BUT id rather not get sick.
I have a small master built propane smoker and a probe IT temp gauge and another that clips to the meat grill so I can control the temps well. I replaced the little chip box with a cast iron frying pan and can use larger chunk wood and smoke for much longer periods before adding wood. I start out at just over 100 degrees for the first couple hours and gradually go up to 225-250. I do brine them for 12hrs before smoking.
Any thoughts.
First batch at 160
I shoot carp with my bow in NM and have smoked a couple batches and while the flavor is great they aren't as tender as I remember from growing up in WI and getting them from the fish shop in Port Washington.
I did fillets the first time and smoked them to IT of 160 but being thin they got leathery but not bad. I looked for another recipe on line an did another batch in steaks/section about 4" long but that recipe said IT 180 and the fish pulled away from the bones and again got really leathery. I did do them slow as it took 8 hrs to get to 180.
I started to look farther into this and USDA suggests IT of 145 to be safe for fish but all the carp recipes have had much higher temps, am I missing something in regards to carp. I think most of my problems would disappear if I only went to 150, BUT id rather not get sick.
I have a small master built propane smoker and a probe IT temp gauge and another that clips to the meat grill so I can control the temps well. I replaced the little chip box with a cast iron frying pan and can use larger chunk wood and smoke for much longer periods before adding wood. I start out at just over 100 degrees for the first couple hours and gradually go up to 225-250. I do brine them for 12hrs before smoking.
Any thoughts.
First batch at 160
