Smoking fish

pisces47, Jan 14, 4:10am
When you use tea- tree chips to smoke fish etc do you soak the chips in water first.Read somewhere that you do this to get more smoke and it lasts longer .Also can you add lemon skin or similar to get another flavour.Thanks for any info
fisher, Jan 14, 4:46am
I dont wet the chips . I have a s/s smoker about 5 foot tall and use a double method for smoking. Salt and brown sugar the night before. drain off fluids and place on racks, scale side down. fire up my smoker for 1 hour which gives smoke and heat from the sawdust / chips .I add herbs like rosemary which imparts a subtle flavour to the fish. but it is dried and ground up and added as a powder to the sawdust.then I fire up my smoke cannon to impart a LOT of smoke for an hour or so and refill my cast holder with herbs and sawdust for the second smoke and heat for the remainder of the session.dried dill and fennel is great for fish.
beaker59, Jan 14, 8:48am
Never heard of soaking in water that would just create steam! Lots of different smokers out there and methods all good in thier own way most quick smokers though use dry sawdust or shavings with herbs sometimes as Fisher suggested and yes I have heard of dried lemon peel but not tried it myself.

I use my weber BBQ to smoke fish and do a one hour smoke over manuka sticks.
pisces47, Jan 14, 9:10am
beaker59.could you explain how you do a one hour smoke in your BBQ and not overcook your fish with the heat.Was going to put my sawdust in a pan over the burners for the smoke and the fish above on another grill with the cover on to cook and smoke.This would take about 10 minutes with the heat wouldnt it.!.How to get smoke with less heat in a BBQ.
bid-warz, Jan 14, 9:30am
We have learnt smoking it for about 20-30min is perfect any longer and it will overcook and become dry and tough, any less and not cooked properly.Salt and brown sugar over the fish for at least a few hours before.
Havnt heard of wetting the wood chips - doesnt sound right to me.
beaker59, Jan 15, 12:20pm
Webber BBQ is a kettle bbq that runs on charcoal not gas. It has two charcoal trays. I only light one side with a small fire using manuka sticks split from a larger log (the dark heartwood is best, sticks abour as big as your finger for thickness and lenght) the wood should be dry as a bone when the fire is half burnt then put the lid on to kill the flame then put the fish in and replace the lid leave wood and charcoal to smoulder away for an hour (extra wood needs to be added sometimes).
gerry64, Jan 15, 9:05pm
My old boy does the most beautiful smoked fish - especially salmon on his weber gas BBQ - he uses a mixture of tea leaves / brown sugar/ rice then adds either rosemary stalks - lemon rind or whatever takes his fancy - when he smokes duck he uses orange peel - when he does kawhai he uses lemon as well
davidt4, Jan 15, 10:40pm
I use a plain metal smoker box on top of a barbecue, and for the smoke use either dry wood chips (Mesquite or Manuka) or a dry mixture of Jasmine tea, rice and sugar.It is a hot-smoking process and very quick;10 minutes for a thick piece of salmon, 15 - 20 min for a whole split trevally.Eggplants take about 15 minutes.
peterlap1, Jan 15, 10:45pm
Try Juniper berries with your wood chips,they give a lovely flavour.
davidt4, Jan 15, 11:03pm
What a good idea!
peterlap1, Jan 15, 11:52pm
.and a Gin and Tonic on the side.LOL
davidt4, Jan 16, 12:33am
Also a good idea.Possibly even better.
purplegoanna, Jan 16, 12:35am
yip im the fish smoker queen in our house, ive moved ours onto the bbq, makes life so much simpler, i use brown suger and salt preferably overnight then woodchips and shes aways.i like ours so its slightly dry/chewy on the edges then it makes the best fish pie eva