I smoked up a couple Steelhead fillets yesterday from Sam's and tried something I normally don't do. I usually don't put water in the smoker when doing fish but for some reason I did yesterday. I think I was more or less just playing with the smoker and seeing how it reacted with a big tin of water compared to the small pan that came with my Smoke Vault. One thing I noticed is that the fished took forever to cook. Usually at the 190-200 range, it takes around 3 hours. Last night I hit the 4 hour mark and ended up turning up the heat because I wasn't even close. Was this because of the water? I filled up a foil turkey pan full of water and even tho is did seem to help with heat recovery, I think I screwed myself on the actual smoke. I know it makes sense, for fish you basically want to remove some of the moisture, so why add it to the smoke. But was that the case?
BTW, I did finally reach a pinnacle on this smoke thanks to this forum. I have always been a more smoke the better kinda guy and never really had any issues with taste. So I never bothered soaking chips and so on. But I did have to contently keep adding chips over and over again. Yesterdays smoke I decided to soak the chips and try and control the smoke. I reached what I think ideal TBS should be instead of ThickBS. Flavor was still great and I didn't have to add chips nearly as much as I usually do. Thank SMF.
BTW, I did finally reach a pinnacle on this smoke thanks to this forum. I have always been a more smoke the better kinda guy and never really had any issues with taste. So I never bothered soaking chips and so on. But I did have to contently keep adding chips over and over again. Yesterdays smoke I decided to soak the chips and try and control the smoke. I reached what I think ideal TBS should be instead of ThickBS. Flavor was still great and I didn't have to add chips nearly as much as I usually do. Thank SMF.
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