New Smoker

[Terry P]

Hi folks,my mother in law has just moved into a new house and in the back yard is a smoker, its made out of brick has several shelves and hooks in it.Theres a tray at the bottom so far so good,about 3 foot away though there is another little heater connected to the main smoker buy some flexy pipe.I've never smoked anything before so fancy trying it.

Is the little heater for just putting smoke in the smoker and I'd need to heat under what ever is being smoked or can I just heat and smoke directly under whats being smoked.

Also I went out today and caught some mackerel I've filleted them,do I just hang them up or do I need to soak them,theres some brine and wood chips in a bin in the shed(no idea what type or wood).

It would be a shame to waste the smoker.

Also should I give it a good clean or just remove webs etc.

Cheers

Terry

[John_R]

You have a cold smoke setup there, ie all the heat is in the separate little oven, where the smoke gets generated, and it cools down by the time it reaches the fish/meat in the large chamber.

 

I have not tried cold smoked mackerel, but I bet they would taste nice, just they would need cooking after smoking. If you wanted hot smoke I think you would need a lot of heat, as it sounds like the volume/size is quite big.

 

I would suggest give it a brushing out to make sure there is nothing in there that could contaminate your food.

 

When I worked in a fish shop, our smoker was wood built about four foot square footprint, and about eight feet tall, with a tall chimney atop that. We used to hang everything on rods, put a pile of the sawdust mix on the floor, and light some shavings on top. That never got hot, all the fish came out really nicely cold-smoked despite not having a remote smoke box. It was decades old, and the walls were dripping with tar that had condensed out of the smoke.

[Terry P]

Cheers for that John