>>> Part 1 of 7... -=> Quoting Jim Weller to All <=- > I have the method written up if any fish smokers out there are > interested. CB> Oh yeah.. write away~! JW> It's too long and kinda off topic for the list. I sent out eight JW> copies earlier this evening. Did I miss anyone? I've had 12 requests for the file so far. It seems to be a popular topic. So perhaps I can send it to the list even though it isn't chile related..... Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan and published by Airie Publishing in Deep Bay, B.C. was the first good book on smoking I ever came across. It's out of print now. Here are some extracts, not just on canning but on the whole smoking process. MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05 Title: Smoking Salmon and Trout Part I - Caring for the Catch Categories: Fish, Smoked, Info, Salmon, Trout Yield: 1 text file Fish begins to spoil the minute you land it. Enzymes and bacteria go to work immediately especially in the slime, gills and intestines. To reduce spoilage and maintain flavor you must bleed, clean and cool fish quickly. ~1- Remove the slime and scale [if applicable] as soon as possible. ~2- Cut the throat and remove the gills. The intestines can wait a few hours. -3- Remove the intestines. Save the liver, roe and milt. Remove the kidney, that dark streak along the backbone by cutting away the covering membrane on either side of the kidney, where it is attached to the flesh. Then scrape out the kidney. -4- The head may stay on but remove the head now if you have to save cooler space. Leave the lug bone, that bony plate behind the head if you are going to smoke the fish as the lug will support the handling cord. -5- Cool the fish to close to freezing with chipped ice. Make sure that there is a layer of ice between every layer of fish in the cooler. Careless handling can bruise fish. Use a net if possible; if gaffing, gaff the least valuable part- the stomach if possible. If using a fish club to kill quickly and prevent threshing, one sharp blow to the head is enough. Rigor Mortis: a dead fish will stiffen but in time will relax again unless it goes into accelerated rigor form being too warm. If you try to straighten out a fish in Rigor or the fish goes into heat induced Rigor, you will tear the flesh disturbing the appearance and allowing succulent juices to escape. Prevent Rigor damage with prompt cooling and filleting before or after the fish has passed through rigor but not during it. Cooling: Ice has a terrific ability to absorb heat when it melts as it took a tremendous amount of heat removal to freeze the water in the first place. 2 lb of ice melting will do the same job of cooling as 37 lb of block ice or extremely cold water. Chipped ice will melt faster and therefore chill fish quicker than block ice. Pack the belly cavity of cleaned fish and make sure there is a layer of ice between every layer of fish. To transport frozen fish you need dry ice or Eutectic ice, as melting ice would thaw frozen fish. Eutectic ice is a solution of 23 salt by weight and 77 water by weight, which freezes at 0 deg F. [-18 deg C.], in a breakproof plastic container. You can buy these or make your own. Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by: Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim Weller MMMMM MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05 Title: Smoking Salmon and Trout Part Ii - Filleting And Boning Categories: Smoked, Info, Bbq, Salmon, Trout Yield: 1 text file A very sharp knife [and a whet stone and a sharpening steel nearby] is essential. ~1- Skin on Fillets: Begin at the vent [anus] making a cut on either side of the anal fin just deep enough to reach the backbone. make these cuts all the way back to the tail. Start the next cut where the head has been removed on top of the backbone. Cut through the fish, from back to belly, lengthways right down to the tail. You will run into the belly bones which get tougher as the fish gets bigger. Here is where the *sharp* knife comes in; it must be able to cut through the belly bones easily. As you continue the cut from head to tail work the knife along the backbone with the cutting edge slightly slanted towards the bone. Remove the first fillet, turn the fish over and cut the second fillet. There should be very little meat left on the backbone. Now the belly bones can be removed without loosing any meat. this leaves you a boneless fillet except for the line of long, thin bones just above where the backbone used to be. You can feel their sharp ends with your fingertip. These last bones can be lifted out in a strip by making a cut on either side of the row _just_ to the skin. This final deboning will somewhat spoil the fillet in appearance and utility when making smoked products that are thinly sliced. A more finicky method is to remove these bones one at a time with small needle nose pliers. If the bones don't pull out of the flesh readily, you can do it after smoking. ~2- Easy Skinless Fillets: [This section by JW not the author.] Most smoke recipes call for skin on fillets but for sauteeing, frying, poaching and grilling fresh fish the easiest way to get a skinless fillet with just a little waste is as follows: Start with whole fish, uncleaned and head on. Make the first cut just below the gills done to the backbone at a slight angle. Turn the knife and cut along the backbone to the tail at a slight angle so as to "float" over the belly bones. Stop just short of the tail and peel back the skin-on fillet without tearing it away from where it is attached to the fish at the tail. Lay the fillet on the table skin side down and start a cut at the tail. Cut down to but not through the skin and turn the blade sideways. Cut the fillet away from the skin and continue back up the fillet to the other end. Turn over the fish and repeat. Be careful throughout not to puncture the intestines, bladder or stomach. You should now have two skinless fillets with the guts still attached to the carcass. This way you do not have to scale or clean and you loose only a small amount of meat and belly skin. This works best on larger fish say 4 lb and up. -JW ~3- Defatting Fat Fish: Salmon and trout are fat fish and you *may* want to defat them for various reasons- to adhere to a low fat diet or remove contaminants that may be concentrated in the fat tissues of fish from certain waters. To do this, when you fillet, leave plenty of meat on the backbone where the meat is especially fat. Cut off the belly portion. Skin the fillet leaving about 1/8" meat on the skin. Make cuts on either side of the lateral line, lift it out and discard >>> Continued to next message...