Smoking

[den]

This will only be of interest to one of you.

Today I smoked fillets of cod. I soaked the fillets in brine for a couple of hours before-hand, then put them straight on the top grill without the water pan. It was effectively a dry smoke rather than the steaming smoke with the pan.

What makes me really happy about this is that I used a small packet of iron-bark wood I purchased from a local camping store. Iron bark is an Australian hardwood that grows around here. From the colour of the wood it looks like it's just the heartwood of the tree with none of the sapwood or bark. The store also has stringybark lumps for sale so I might give that a go next time.

The verdict on Aussie wood and salty fish? My goodness I couldn't get enough! It was just astonishing how nice it tasted.

Comments

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Which one of us?

I'm fascinated. I would love to try this someday.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Crossfire, since he has the same smoker I have. It's his fault I *have* a smoker.

Next time you come here with your partners we'll try some bbq vegetarian. I think a pizza would work as well as other things. Also, I found a Tappas place in town. We don't have to do crepes again.

[brucebergman.livejournal.com]

Well, the second response just blows your whole theory right out of the water - or the smoke, as the case may be...

Smoking is a great way to cook, only problem with doing fish on a grill or smoker is it has a very narrow window between raw ("and I don't feel so good..."), done, and "eeeeewww, fish leather"...

I hate wrecking perfectly good defenseless food, so I stick to the simpler stuff.

Then the next wrinkle, figuring out what woods work best, and you have a totally different taxonomy to work with. I doubt there are too many members of the Eucalyptus family that will work well, unless you are cooking for a Drop Bear. ;-)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I cooked until the thinnest bits of the fillets were going tough, then stopped cooking. The rest of the fillets were very yummy.

Choosing the wood wasn't random; it is packaged as "smoking wood" so someone has tried it before I did. No way would I experiment with local wood! I prefer my food to NOT taste like throat lozenges.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

*sigh*
I just had to be born too far away.
It prevents me from having food I haven't tried. ;)
And yes, I've had vegemite and it is NOT sufficient.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Let me know when you're coming here and I'll stock up on meat pies, sausage rolls and meat.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

oooo, a locally available hardwood? Most excellent!

That setup is exactly how I do salmon candy, by the way. I suspect it would work great with cod, if you're into the idea. (Lots of people wrinkle their noses when you say "salmon candy" but just about everyone likes it.)

I should probably get a smoker icon too.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I wasn't game to try any, but the local camping store has iron-bark, stringybark and blue-gum pre-packaged as "smoking wood." I bought some working on the assumption that someone must have tried it, and liked it. There is no way I would normally try a eucalypt. I let others experiment like that.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Omnomnomnom... :P

[jasonhackwith.livejournal.com]

There's almost nothing nicer than home-smoked fish smothered in hardwood smoky goodness... except for fish that was fresh caught before being placed in said smoker. Mmmmm......

Alton Brown has a brilliant home smoker idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=_Ka2kpzTAL8

[(Anonymous)]

Chloe(your niece) adores smoked salmon so it must be in the genes!...Can you send your current email address as Robyn hasn't seen some photos of the kids..Happy Easter in your new digs!

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

battyden@gmail.com will always get to me! I saw the last batch from your holidays and showed Mum. She was happy to see them.

Next time you visit, Chloe and I will get SMOKING.