Fish Smokers

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

i have been wanting to get a fish smoker for awhile now, i love smoked fish and with it being winter and the Salmon Trout taking over now seems as good a time as any to invest in a smoker.now, i have two options, just buy one all ready to go or try my hand at making one. i have gotten my hands on an empty beer keg, do u all think its worth trying to make one out of it? will it be too small?what does everyone use as a fish smoker, homemade or bought? if homemade how did u make it? if bought what brand, type etc?also, i understand that there are two different ways to smoke fish, hot smoke and cold smoke? what do u all use and why? i have heard cold smoking tastes a bit better but takes a bit longer, is this true?cheers

[Del 245]

ive just got a metho burning hot smoker.. for less than a hundred bucks.. was a good way to get it... real time experimentation with how much heat and what saw dust to use is the trick..

[Wadey 4]

ay mate one better than salmon is Snapper . I have a mate that smokes it for me ill find out and get some pictures of the smoker for ya . all I can tell you is that's it a old Steel fridge the old school ones that are all metal ( yes very old ) it has all the smoking racks already set up . He uses Oregon wood saw dust .Ill sus him out but the key is in the salting process before the actual smoking . I actually have some in the fridge now .

[brenton 637]

I use an old clothes drying cabinet but started out using an old tea chest i reckon a keg would work fine as long as you have a small flame to smoke rather than cook your fillets.Cold smoking takes up to 5 hrs but is dependant on how dry the fillets are when put in the smoker and of course how big they are.Fillets off a size S/T will take aroun 3-6 hrs cold smoked and 15 mins hot smoked.Cold smoking for me all the way plus you can do squid, beef etc and they'll keep for a lot longer than hot smoked food.......except you'll eat them all before that is a problem. cheers brenton

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

i have not much experience in smoking (none actually, not actually tried it, only eaten it), how would i go about making the smoker itself? i know i have to put in racks for the fish to sit on, what else would i have to do? and how would i make it a cold smoker? my missus works in a pub, i could get more kegs, make one hot smoker, one cold smoker maybe? what do u reckon?

[Wahoo 146]

We use an old galvanised dustbin. Bolted on some legs, cut a hole in the bottom, drilled some holes in the sides to accomodate rods to put racks on. We've got 2 racks and can take a decent feed of Tommy/ST/Mullet fillets. We fit a tray with the sawdust/chips on it over the hole in the base, put a burner under it to get things smoking then turn it off & keep an eye on it, if we need more smoke we'll fire it up again. Experiment with different brine mixes to get the flavour you like.

[brenton 637]

If you can get the kegs the you can have both by joining the two kegs together with a short length of downpipe(around 50cms)one above the other,the one with the flame is your hot smoker then the second one is your cold smoker,have a look on the net and you'll get the idea its easy as. cheers brenton

[archerfish 685]

G'day w2bfIf you decide to buy "off the shelf" instead of building your own, this mob have a fairly good reputation (and the prices aren't too bad at the moment, either):http://www.hark.com.au/I believe there are a few users of these smokers on this site, so hopefully they may be able to offer some feedback.Cheersaf

[kon 300]

AFThe Hark link is topical for me - a mate bought one of these earlier this year and we christened it on a trip in Aprilhttp://www.hark.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&path=24&product_id=80Not cheap at $400-ish, but does the business to be sure.(BTW we found out the hard way with the second lot - go very conservative on the saltiness of the brine mix, recipe or no recipe!) :ohmy: But moving slightly off-subject, this one caught my eyehttp://www.hark.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&path=24&product_id=88Looks a lot like what is marketed by ALDI in Vic as the "Coolabah mini-spit rotisserie grill", I scored one on sale for $50 (retail $70) during a visit a few months ago.- Passed a post-cooking redgum torture test with flying colours, and the enamel coating is weapons-grade!- Don`t use the legs, a couple of bricks will do- Can be used as rotisserie, grate cooker or open-top shashlick skewer cooker- 2 small netted lamb roasts over (judiciously replenished) charcoal are done in 2 1/2 hours...with the 2 D batts still going strong (I am a rusted-on Duracell fan though - pay the bucks and don`t buy anything else)- Basically a "poor man`s" spit roast, if you don`t need to feed more than 6-8 people of course...- And the beauty is you don`t need a 240V socket nearby

[Hugo 120]

Heading slightly off subject, I recently shelled out 5 bucks and scored enough redgum sawdust and wood chips from a local cabinet maker to last me for years. I blend this with off the shelf hickory or whatever else you get in the small woodchip packets from camping and outdoors shops. Most furniture makers would be happy to let you have some if you offer to pay and take your own bags. Should save you heaps in the long run.

[Luke5600 61]

if you just get a wok, a lid to fit and a cake cooling rack you have a quick hot smoker. put it on the stove at the lowest heat or even heat a cast iron grill plate or something similar start it on the stove until its smoking then put it on the plate with the plate off the heat, the plate should hold enough heat to keep the chips going nicely