Photo Tutorial: Smoking with the Big Chief Smoker (Part Two)

**Ed Fast** · 10-14-2010, 11:13 PM

Well, here's part II:

SMOKING THE CURED FISH

If you want to see part one of the tutorial, click here:

http://northwestfishing.info/showthr...oker-(Part-One)

Load your racks of fish into the smoker and fill the pan with wood chips.

Plug the smoker in and watch for it to start smoking. It should take about twenty minutes. When it starts to really billow smoke, unplug it.

When it stops smoking, plug it in again and repeat this step until the first pan of chips is burned up. This allows you to smoke the fish, instead of cook it.

Now, reload the pan with chips and rotate the racks in the smoker. This time, leave the smoker plugged in a little longer and start 'cooking' the fish. After two pans of chips and some time in the heat, your fish should look like this:

Note that the fish looks squishy and lacks color. What you will need to do now is choose the method you want to use to cook or 'finish' the fish.

I chose to reload the pan with wood chips and give it one more round of heat and smoke. Here's what it looked like:

IMPORTANT: The outdoor temperature determines how long it will take to finish the fish!

The Big Chief does not produce high temperatures, so most people insulate the smoker so that it gets hot enough to finish the job.

Some people cut out the box the smoker came in and use it to insulate the smoker by slipping it over the top. Others use blankets or some othere insulating material. Another method is to build a little 'smoke house' out of wood that you can set over your Big Chief or fashion a door to access the front of the Big Chief through.

Always place your smoker away from your house and beware that you could start a fire! I am not recommending a particular method of insulation nor am I responsible if you burn your or your neighbor's house down!

Another way to finish the fish after the smoking process is to cook it in the oven.

In the previous picture, the fish looked done, but what you didn't see was that the thicker pieces of fish further back on the racks, just out of the picture still felt squishy and did not have the nice, red glazed look that you want on your salmon:

Take these pieces and put them on seperate racks. Put them in a pre-heated oven at around 250 degrees and cook them until they are firm and colorful. I like mine a little over done. Here's what they looked like when ready to remove from the oven:

Note: the fish in these pics is overdone by most people's stardards, including my own. One of the nice things about smoking your own is that you can do it how you want. Sometimes the overdone pieces, where the edges taste like salmon bacon or jerkey, are the very best ones!

As soon as your pieces are cool enough to handle, vacuum pack them and label them:

Remember this pic of some cohos I posted in September?:

well, here's what those 3 fish turned into:

The buck got filleted and frozen and the hen and jack got smoked. I like to make packs that are just the right size to take out for a snack, a family dinner or to give as gifts. They will keep in the freezer for a loooooong time.

Final thoughts.... Only smoke quality fish. Process (freeze, smoke or can) your fish within a few days of catching it. Your smoked fish will always taste better after 'aging' in the fridge for a few days. (Don't ask me why, it's just true.)

There are so many variations to smoking, curing, etc, that you can never stop experimenting, so have fun!

Ed

**hamfish** · 10-14-2010, 11:18 PM

Thanks for part 2 Ed. I guess now I have to get a smoker....... Well Done!

**Goldenstone** · 10-14-2010, 11:26 PM

Ed thats great! makes me wanna eat salmon haha....if you know me that says a lot lol

**Chief'n** · 10-15-2010, 07:53 AM

Great tutorial man!

I've never seen the Chief that loads from the front! Maybe I'm from the stone age, but mine loads from the top.
Maybe that's the difference between the Big Chief and the Lil' Chief???
Either way, stay Chief'n...

**OregonSportsman** · 10-15-2010, 11:03 AM

Well done Ed. Doesn't vary very much at all from the way smoking fish was handed down to myself. The differnce in the Lil' Chief the the Big Chief is the capacity. I believe the Lil' Chief holds roughly 25 lbs. and the Big Chief about 50 lbs. Both come in either model, top loader or from loader. I like the top loader myself because you can fill all the racks up the way you like then just drop it in. It's also easy to bring all racks in at once. Now if I could just catch a fish I'd be doing some smoking myself!

RollinontheRvr · 10-15-2010, 04:24 PM

Very good tutorial Ed. I can tell you that letting the meat rest works with other meats and cheese as well. I am a member of a smoking forum as well as here and I read where one guy smoked some cheese and it tasted too smoky at first then after resting in the fridge for two weeks he said it turned out fabulous.

The nice thing about smoking is you can totally play with flavors right down to the wood you smoke with. If I smoke something with a brown sugar rub I use some type of fruit wood. If I am using a brine then I might add some liquid smoke to soak into the meat a bit. It adds to the smoke flavor of whatever you are smoking and either Mesquite or Hickory wood.

For fish, I like 3 cups of brown sugar to 1 cup of kosher or sea salt and add some allspice. I never use salt that has Iodine in it because it is supposed to add a medicinal/metal taste to your cook. I know a couple of guys that use soy sauce instead of salt to.

I also found in my Big Chief that if you smoke for 8 hours don't put a full pan of smoke in four times. That batch of Steelhead turned out very bright orange and SUPER tangy. Almost too tangy to eat but I forced myself to finish it off...

**Spade** · 10-15-2010, 09:01 PM

WOOHOO I just went to an auction and picked up a lil' chief smoker and a bunch of chips for....$25 CHA CHING!!! Now I just need some feesh!

**hamfish** · 10-15-2010, 09:19 PM

You want me to pick you up in the morning?

**spactrukn** · 10-15-2010, 09:24 PM

Great tutorial Ed. I really like the fact that you mentioned finishing off your process in the oven. Thats how I do it. I set the oven to about 190 to 200 and stick the handle of a wooden spoon in the door of the oven to hole it open just a bit. This allows the fish to dehydrate more than cook. It's works much faster and makes your house smell like smoked meats.