Temperature question for you smoker guys

[Gone Fishin]

Well gpc I think the whole brown sugar thing might have been my problem. I did use it in my brine and did not rinse it off before smoking. Like you said it must have burnt and caused the outside to get a little hard layer. It is actually still pretty good like that, it has great flavor. Its kinda like smoked fish wrapped in fish jerky... if thats possible

[kutthroatkilla]

Yes, indeed. I smoked some salmon the daughter just loved. Then tried the same thing with trout...and the response was "Daddy, why is it so hard...?". "Well, sweetpea....I don't know, here drink a bit of water....".

It was sad indeed... :-(

Ouch...sorry to hear that. Who else uses a Bradley Smoker? I don't think that many. Those things mean serious business and smoke with an attitude. They will smoke trout in under 3 hours and my brine only takes about 2 hours, so the whole process only takes around 6 hours. So fun to do when having a brew on the patio and smelling that smoker go crazy! :chef: KTK

[gpc]

Well gpc I think the whole brown sugar thing might have been my problem. I did use it in my brine and did not rinse it off before smoking. Like you said it must have burnt and caused the outside to get a little hard layer. It is actually still pretty good like that, it has great flavor. Its kinda like smoked fish wrapped in fish jerky... if thats possible

Yeah it took me a while to figure that out, I thought by rinsing off the fillets all the flavor would rinse off as well.

Up until last year I would only fire up the smoker 5 times a year or so. Which equaled about 2 good batches and the other 3 crap. But with that huge run of humpies that hit the Green last year I was smoking at least once a week if 2 or 3 times. (I am the only 1 with a smoker out of about 10 people, so guess what I get to do with all their fish) This went on all summer right up to Christmas. Then we did a couple of Rufus trips, and the smoker was smoking again.


Now I can almost do it with my eyes closed.I like a dry brine, 4 to 1 brown sugar to salt. Layer the fish then put a layer of brine and repeat until the bowl is full. Let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Take out rinse off pat dry and air dry over night and then throw them on the smoker. Bigger pieces on bottom rack. Sometimes I like the really dry stuff and other times I like the moist stuff, just what I feel like at the time.

[Toad37]

GPC,

Is it because of the salt etc. that makes it is safe to let sit out at room temperature all night? No worries about bacteria when it's drying over night?

Thanks,
Toad