Smoked mackerel

[otolith]

Took the dog to the beach this afternoon.



I threw a spinning rod in the boot, just in case.

There were mackerel about, chasing fry onto the beach, so I got the gear out of the car and chucked a few lures about.



video

Caught seven, and thought I'd better not be greedy and called it a day.



In the smoker



Smoked







Ride in the car, walk on the beach, paddle in the sea, fishing with dad, just ate the fish heads. Sleeping off BEST DAY EVER.

[NorthDave]

Those mackerel look amazing. I would love to be able to do this on a day to day basis.

Do you also do sashimi? I buy the mackerel from the fish monger - landed 12 hours or so earlier - and it's good but wont be a patch on yours!

[Tony Angelino]

Brilliant.

I'm off to Whitby in 2 weeks and plan on going on a short fishing trip. Last time we went me and the lad fought dozens, every time we put the line in we came out with at least 2 if not 3 for the first 30 mins or so, until it just stopped dead. As we were camping we couldn't take them all with us so ended up leaving loads with the boat

Won't make the same mistake this time as I'm taking the cool box and will try both hot and cold smoking when I get them home.

[NordicCrankShaft]

Nice!

Love mackerel. We eat a lot of it here during the summer and can catch so much. We grill it, make sashimi out of it along with sea urchin, leave it a day or two then use it for bait from the crab pots or just make kilner jarred mackerel in tomato sauce.

[21TonyK]

Looks like a pretty perfect day. Might try to get out myself if the weather holds.

[otolith]

They were very tasty. I'm just getting to grips with controlling the temperature in the new hot smoker I bought the other week. These got about 40 minutes with the temperature gauge in the lid reading around 120C - a probe at grill level was more like 85C, which I think is about right for getting enough smoke into them without cooking them too quickly.

If I'd had a good knife in my bag, and a bit of soy and wasabi, I'd have definitely tried some sashimi on the beach. I had scissors, so I could have gutted them for the BBQ, but cutting sashimi with scissors is probably a bit messy! There is a risk of worms from fish that hasn't been deep frozen, but...

[otolith]

21TonyK said:

Looks like a pretty perfect day. Might try to get out myself if the weather holds.

Got to be done! They're so fickle from the shore, though. If they're in, it's easy, if they're not, they're not. Much more reliable with a boat.

[soad]

If you don’t bring him, you’ll be sorry…

[feef]

otolith said:

They were very tasty. I'm just getting to grips with controlling the temperature in the new hot smoker I bought the other week. These got about 40 minutes with the temperature gauge in the lid reading around 120C - a probe at grill level was more like 85C, which I think is about right for getting enough smoke into them without cooking them too quickly.

If I'd had a good knife in my bag, and a bit of soy and wasabi, I'd have definitely tried some sashimi on the beach. I had scissors, so I could have gutted them for the BBQ, but cutting sashimi with scissors is probably a bit messy! There is a risk of worms from fish that hasn't been deep frozen, but...

What smoker do you have? I've been looking at the Bradley units and am >< this close to buying one

[otolith]

feef said:

What smoker do you have? I've been looking at the Bradley units and am >< this close to buying one

One of these - it's a barbeque with an offset smoke chamber.

http://www.landmann.co.uk/charcoal-bbqs/smokes/ken...

Currently about £120 from Homebase.

[otolith]

soad said:

If you don’t bring him, you’ll be sorry…

Unfortunately, he barks every time I pick the rod up. There were complaints to the committee from some old git the other year when I took him pike fishing in the winter.