All you need to know about smoking fish | The Honolulu Advertiser

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All you need to know about smoking fish | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Wednesday, May 6, 2009

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
All you need to know about smoking fish

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Columnist

In response to a request for information on smoking fish, we received this recipe from Nancy Milller of 'Ewa Beach, who sent along a brine she uses for ribs, chicken or fish.

NANCY'S SMOKIN' BRINE

2 cups soy sauce

1 cup water

1 cup apple juice

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 cup uniodized salt (Hawaiian, kosher, sea)

1 tablespoon Liquid Smoke

In a large container with an airtight lid, combine all ingredients. Immerse food to be smoked in the brine and marinate overnight in refrigerator.

Miller says she smokes fish for two hours, ribs and chicken for three hours.

Vanessa Tom, who sent in the original question, asks, specifically: To get a sweeter flavor, does she need to apply a glaze in addition to a brine? Smoking expert David Izumi often pours pancake syrup over smoked meats after they come out of the smoker but he's careful about using anything containing too much sugar during smoking, because sugar readily burns or discolors the fish or meat.

Izumi likes to use a brine of 1 1/2 cups sea salt, 1 cup sugar and whatever else you want to put for flavor to 1 gallon of water. "That should be enough sugar," Izumi said, "it is for me." Boil the brine first, let it cool.

Tom had asked about something she'd heard about the fish needing to form a pellicle (a skin or film) before being smoked. Said Izumi: "One doesn't form for me either unless I dry it in a dry box for a day or so, depending on the amount of sun. I usually only do this for dried marlin or dried 'ahi, then cold-smoke it for 30 minutes or so."

For even sweeter smoked fish, Izumi recommends a spray bottle of fruit juice (passion orange, pineapple, guava, apple) then spritzing the fish during the last 10 minutes of smoking, or use a teriyaki sauce. If too much sugar is added, it will make the fish appear black or burnt because of the sugar burning.

Some smoking tips from Izumi:

Begin with charcoal briquets and burn them until they ash over, then add chips, chunks or even hunks of wood. Never use liquid fire-starter, which can flavor the food to be smoked.

The smaller the piece of wood, the more it will smoke.

Meat should be smoked unwrapped or it will steam. Fish, which can fall apart, may be smoked atop a length of heavy-duty foil.

The goal is to expose the most surface to smoke — whole chickens may be split, roasts butterflied or thickly sliced.

Season meats and fish before smoking. They may be marinated (but dry them off before smoking) or rubbed with a dry seasoning mixture.

Always use Hawaiian, kosher or sea salt; iodized table salt won't cure the food properly.

Proper smoking temperature is about 200 degrees, no higher than 225.

Never leave the smoker unattended for long. Keep it low and slow and watch for flare-ups.

There is hot smoking and cold smoking. In cold smoking, the food is offset from the source of smoke and the temperature is kept at about 100 degrees. Cold-smoking is often used with salmon and other fish, or with delicate foods such as cheeses.

Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

For more information about our 150th anniversary cookbook, call 535-8189 (message phone; your call will be returned). You can order the cookbook online.

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