Some smoking outcomes

[Martijnf]

I read the other thread about smoking a while back and since have been researching it a little bit for my trip to australia.

One thing I came across that is interesting and might be worth a look is that some smoked fish aren't actually smoked but more smoked/steamed. That's what they do with mackerel here in Holland. It's usually mistakenly called smoked mackerel but unlike eel, it's cooked differently.

From what I understand the basic brining process is the same, then you fire up the smoker so it's well hot and get some wet wood chips, prob just chuck em in a bit of water overnight or something and lay those onto your heat source. Now the thing is to get a proper steam going and keep the smoker hot while making sure the wood chips don't light on fire. If they do, quickly douse it with a spray of water, being careful not too much heat escapes from the smoker.

This way the fish cooks through, gets a nice smokey flavor but it doesn't dry out, you get a beautiful soft flesh. It should work a treat for thicker oily fishes which tend to dry out of if you just smoke them.

I'll defo give this a go but it'll be a while before I can so if someone feels like trying it out before then, give it a whirl!

edit: oh yeah I forgot.. they gave the tip to stick a small wooden peg, like an inch long, in the body cavity of the fish to spread it open if you're keeping it whole. Might be a good one for regular smoking of bigger fish as well