Hot smoking.......DIY

[DJFish]

After seeing Hugh Fearnley Dunkingstool hot smoke some Grayling in a recent River Cottage programme I thought I'd have a bash at it myself.

I'm just going to lob some salmon fillets in my BBQ with some oak shavings, if all goes well I'm going to serve something similar for Christmas as a starter as there's always big lumps of the stuff on sale just before they close for a couple of hours over the festive season, anyway I digress.

Has anyone done any hot smoking? Any ideas about how much wood to burn, cooking times etc?

Cheers
Dave

[ManicMushroom]

a bit off topic but you know you could turn a robin reliant 'plastic pig' into a mobile smoker.

think ramsey did that in his back garden.

[DJFish]

This isn't just salmon, this is M&S hot smoked salmon infused with the essence of fibreglass resin and shame, nice!

[Don]

I've got one of these. Brilliant.

It has a firebowl at the bottom. Half way up it has a second bowl that you fill with water or a "steaming mixture". I usually put half water, half brown ale, some cloves, a quatered orange and a quartered lemon in there.

Above the steaming bowl there are two racks. I usually smoke some pork on the lower rack and salmon on the upper rack. The salmon gets a tarragon-rub made with olive oil. The pork gets marinated in a mixure of light and dark soy sauce.

The pork takes hours as it is slow cooked at a very low temperature. The salmon is usually about 45 minutes.

I am careful with the amount of wood chips I use as it is possible to make the food very, very smoky and unpalateable therefore. So I find one handful of chips at the beginning is quite enough. Remember to soak them in water for an hour or two first else they just burn up and don't smoke at all!

Good luck.

[mechsympathy]

DJFish said:

This isn't just salmon, this is M&S hot smoked salmon infused with the essence of fibreglass resin and shame, nice!

[singh]

Don said:

I've got one of these. Brilliant.

It has a firebowl at the bottom. Half way up it has a second bowl that you fill with water or a "steaming mixture". I usually put half water, half brown ale, some cloves, a quatered orange and a quartered lemon in there.

Above the steaming bowl there are two racks. I usually smoke some pork on the lower rack and salmon on the upper rack. The salmon gets a tarragon-rub made with olive oil. The pork gets marinated in a mixure of light and dark soy sauce.

The pork takes hours as it is slow cooked at a very low temperature. The salmon is usually about 45 minutes.

I am careful with the amount of wood chips I use as it is possible to make the food very, very smoky and unpalateable therefore. So I find one handful of chips at the beginning is quite enough. Remember to soak them in water for an hour or two first else they just burn up and don't smoke at all!

Good luck.

Agreed I use the brinkmann gourmet pretty much the same as yours but with a seperate fire bowl so its a bit easier to top up mid-way.5 hour ribs are fantastic..I use these pellets http://www.bbqrsdelight.com/ they dont need to be pre-soaked and if you get the starter pack they come with a little cast iron pot that you put the pellets in and sit in the charcoal when the pot reaches temperature it gives off a sustained smoke.Try cherry wood smoke pellets with a rack of chinese five spice rubbed pork ribs. Three hours wrapped tightly in foil and then 1-1 and a half hour's unwrapped

Edited by singh on Monday 8th December 14:25

[DJFish]

Wow, that all sounds fiendishly complicated, but tasty!!

I thought Hugh just lobbed some oak chips in a bucket and set fire to them, looks like I may have to give this some more thought.

[Don]

DJFish said:

Wow, that all sounds fiendishly complicated, but tasty!!

Naaaah. It's a piece of piss to do - really. Five mins prep. Hours of cooking time (or 45 mins for salmon fillets) - during which you don't have to watch it particularly.

DJFish said:

I thought Hugh just lobbed some oak chips in a bucket and set fire to them, looks like I may have to give this some more thought.

You could jerry-rig up something but these smokers aren't expensive and make it super-easy to do.

Give it a go. Really! It's good fun and tasty...

[Nefarious]

I seem to remember seeing somewhere that lots of garden centres sell chippings from old whiskey barrels for some gardeny-type activity (it's all a mystery to me) - pretty good for smoking with I'd reckon.

[Rude Girl]

Not quite as adventurous, but Mrs GregE240 brought a couple of Savu Smoker bags back from a recent trip to one of the Carluccio deli shops. Basically, it's an all-encompassing system - the wood chips are in one part and the food goes in another - there's a permeable membrane between the two and you just stick it in the oven. She gave me one, but neither of us has tried it yet. The instructions reckon you can do a kilo of meat or fish in it. Might give it a roll over the Christmas break

[mechsympathy]

I've got one of these:

I picked it up second hand and it needs some TLC. The real problem in our old house was the garden was too small so the wife complained about the ammount of smoke. Fortunately the neighbours were too polite to grumble.

[Don]

Rude Girl said:

Not quite as adventurous, but Mrs GregE240 brought a couple of Savu Smoker bags back from a recent trip to one of the Carluccio deli shops. Basically, it's an all-encompassing system - the wood chips are in one part and the food goes in another - there's a permeable membrane between the two and you just stick it in the oven. She gave me one, but neither of us has tried it yet. The instructions reckon you can do a kilo of meat or fish in it. Might give it a roll over the Christmas break

We got given some - from Finland!

They work surprisingly well and the house doesn't reek of smoke. Much. Hardly at all.

[Rude Girl]

Don said:

Rude Girl said:

Not quite as adventurous, but Mrs GregE240 brought a couple of Savu Smoker bags back from a recent trip to one of the Carluccio deli shops. Basically, it's an all-encompassing system - the wood chips are in one part and the food goes in another - there's a permeable membrane between the two and you just stick it in the oven. She gave me one, but neither of us has tried it yet. The instructions reckon you can do a kilo of meat or fish in it. Might give it a roll over the Christmas break

We got given some - from Finland!

They work surprisingly well and the house doesn't reek of smoke. Much. Hardly at all.

That's irony isn't it?

These are Finnish in origin too - and even the bag alone stinks like a bugger!

OK, so when we try it, it's kitchen door shut and sealed with wet towels and duct tape, back door open and cooker hood on full... do you think that might save us?

[Don]

Rude Girl said:

Don said:

Rude Girl said:

Not quite as adventurous, but Mrs GregE240 brought a couple of Savu Smoker bags back from a recent trip to one of the Carluccio deli shops. Basically, it's an all-encompassing system - the wood chips are in one part and the food goes in another - there's a permeable membrane between the two and you just stick it in the oven. She gave me one, but neither of us has tried it yet. The instructions reckon you can do a kilo of meat or fish in it. Might give it a roll over the Christmas break

We got given some - from Finland!

They work surprisingly well and the house doesn't reek of smoke. Much. Hardly at all.

That's irony isn't it?

These are Finnish in origin too - and even the bag alone stinks like a bugger!

OK, so when we try it, it's kitchen door shut and sealed with wet towels and duct tape, back door open and cooker hood on full... do you think that might save us?

Sounds like a plan, RG! Actually - it wasn't that bad but you DO need to take mitigating action in advance. Then it's fine. We can open a couple of windows in the kitchen and close doors to the rest of the house and that was perfectly sufficient.

Enjoy!