How To: Smoking Bluefish

[SportFishStaff]

AH the frowned upon bully of the sea, A street fighter to the end but at the table often dismissed as a scourge.

I disagree, the small ones chilled, fileted and grilled that day are very enjoyable. As a kid pop who grew up as a farmer never released them even the big ones. The key to blue fish is Bleed, chill and remove all dark meat.

Bluefish, because of there high oil content are a very good choice when cared for properly for the smoke house.

In this How To: I will show the proper way to trim and slice your blue. The brine preparation is explained and the smoking process shown.

Brine:
4oz of coarse non iodized salt (kosher or sea)
2oz of sugar
approx. 2 gallons of cold water enough to cover the fish
2 - 15lb blues trimmed


Brine fish for 24 to 36hrs

Dry Rub
2 parts garlic powder
1 part dark chili powder
1 part black pepper

place in smoker so they are touching as little as possible

I used 4 pans of hickory chips and total time in smoker was 14 to 16 hrs or until the fish is dried with a nice smokey color and flavor



When done place a paper towel in zip lock bags to absorb any oil on fish and store in fridge or freezer

[thoffman]

that looks great. What temp are you smoking? I've always cold smoked them and it was a big hit every time. Can you give us a little info on your temps? Thanks

[SportFishStaff]

Sorry T i did not see you replied to this thread, If you have a thermostat on your smoker, I suggest keeping it under 200 as you don't want to cook the day lights out of it before it gets a great smoke, so when I had my commercial smoker I would keep the heat up for the first hour or so than drop the heat way down and just smoke. Unfortunatly the little chief I have you can not control the temps so I smoke it for much longer to get the desired affect, you don'twant to dry it out. Brining will help to keep it moist, but to much heat will dry it out. So its your knowledge of the smoker you have that will help in the long run. Thanks Tim

that looks great. What temp are you smoking? I've always cold smoked them and it was a big hit every time. Can you give us a little info on your temps? Thanks

[Bud Man]

Serve it with a garlic lemon dill sauce and dip the smoke blue in it

[SportFishStaff]

Sounds good I'll have to try it next time, we get to smoking.