Smoking Fish

[Stan Wright]

The bone fishing was a little slow the other day so my son moved off the flats and got into a school of akuli ( big-eye Scad ). In Hawaii a lot of people eat dried akli. The fish are butterflied, salted and put in a "dry box" and placed outside in the sun to dry. My wife loves it and since we don't have a wire dry box, she used the food dehydrator. The whole house smells of fish… like dead fish left out side in the sun.



My son and I agreed that the smell of "smoked fish" would be much more pleasant. So, any suggestions on a start up smoker for the beginner?

There was a smoker at a local Honolulu store for about $400 that uses little wood chip pucks fed into the side… adjust the temp and watch the time. The $800 one you just set it and forget it. I also see the "Little Chief" kind for around $150.
Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Ahnkochee]

My Bro-in-law in Cali swears by his Brinkman electric smoker, and from the samples of smoked Rainbow Trout he brings over I have to agree. They are pretty solidly built, and very affordable at around a hundred bucks a pop.
If you're industrious you can make a smoker from an old steel locker and use a electric hotplate and a cast iron pan for a burner using soaked wood kiawe and guava chips being a couple favorites.

[Stan Wright]

I kind of like that idea of putting the Chips in the hopper, setting the temperature and the timer, turning it on, and forget about it.

[Crash]

Here's my take but please take it with a grain of salt as the wife and I are BBQ/smoking nerds.

Great smoked meat is best cooked over coals with real wood. Sure, the "pellet poopers" work OK, but they just don't impart the same flavor. If you don't plan on smoking often and are really set on the "set it/forget it", go with the Little Chief. Obviously, your yield per cook will be very small as it is a small smoker.

I know I have seen the Traeger pellet poopers at Iwilei COSTCO in the past. They have a good reputation as a set it/forget it cooker, hold more capacity than the Little Chief and many competition BBQ cooks use them. The only issue is finding a consistent source of fuel (pellets) on island.

Personally, we use WSM's, UDS's and Pro Q Excel 20's as our cookers. They work well for us and allow us to make large quantities when needed. We have many more cookers than I would actually care to admit to and honestly Stan, any time you want to borrow one, just let me know.

Oh yeah, one thing about smoking fish to note. Fish will taint the inside of a smoker and leave a fishy taste on anything cooked after the fish. For this reason, we do a high heat burn on our smokers after smoking fish. This helps to burn off the fishiness and "clean" the smoker.

Feel free to contact me for any questions or additional info and fo'reals, if you want to borrow a smoker...can.