Important Suggestions When Preparing Fish To Smoke - Smokehouse Products Little Chief Operating Instructions Manual

Important
Suggestions When
Preparing Fish To
Smoke
Handle your fish carefully in the many processes necessary to get them to our dining
table. You will have a better product if your fish is not bruised or mistreated in the
catching, cleaning, and preparing stages.
Proper field dressing and cooling is imperative. Smoke curing won't restore freshness lost
because of poor handling. Clean your fish as quickly as possible, and cool them with a
grass evaporation pack or bag, or on ice if it's available.
If your fish must be held for some time before smoking, they should be quickly frozen.
Small fish can be totally immersed in water or a light saline solution (1 Tbsp. salt to a quart
of water) and brought to 0ºF. by a good cold freezer. Larger fish can be cleaned and
sectioned into convenient chunks that will fit into a 1/2 gallon milk container and quickly
frozen in the saline solution.
You will notice that the partially frozen fish is much easier to handle and to cut. Try a stiff
sharp knife on your semi-frozen fish. It's like cutting balsa wood.
Depending on the size and thickness of your fish, you may elect to:
(1) Prepare for processing by cutting fish into chunks, completely deboning as you
go.
(2) Filet your fish with a thin knife, cutting above the bone layer to eliminate further
deboning and then smoke the whole or portioned filet.
(3) Simply remove entrails and head, and smoke the remaining fish whole. (smaller
fish such as smelt, herring, small trout or kokanee.) If you hang the whole fish in
you smoker, be sure to prop open the belly cavity with a toothpick.
Lastly, be sure your prepared chunk filets or whole fish have been neatly prepared so that
they are nicely presentable when done. Cut away all unsightly material and wash the
product thoroughly before brining or placing in the smoker.
The "STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS" pictorially illustrates the exact way to prepare a
salmon (or any larger fish), using the "Easy-cure" brine method and the "Little Chief"
electric smoker.
You may nicely store your smoke fish in aluminum foil or a tightly covered plastic
container in the refrigerator, for up to 4 weeks. (If it lasts that long.) The longer the drying
process, the longer it will keep.
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