Smoking Fish

The Smoker Oven

The smoker oven consists of

a fire pit
a smoking plate
a dripping plate
a grille
a lid
a door
a chimney

A smoker oven can be bought or you can make one yourself.

Materials

Materials needed are:

fine splinters of wood
sawdust from alder
some branches of juniper
some sugar

Preparation of the Fish

Gut, wash and salt the fish. Smaller fish can be left whole. Larger fish should be splitted along one side of the backbone or filleted.

Preparation of the Smoker Oven

apply an even layer of the sawdust on the smoking plate
add the juniper branches ( see picture)
add some sugar - the burnt sugar will give the fish a nice golden-brown color
put the dripping plate on top of the smoking plate
put some of the splinters of wood in the fire pit under the plate
put the fish on the grille and the grille on the dripping plate
put on the smoker oven lid

The Smoking Process

light the splinters of wood in the fire box
close the smoker oven door
the smoking time varies from about 15 minutes to one hour
add wood when necessary to kep the fire burning, beware of over-heating
when smoking larger fish, you may also need to add some sawdust
when cooked, juices from the fish will start to drip on the dripping plate
to check that the fish are really cooked through, open the lid of the smoker oven and use a fork or a knife to check that the fish flesh easily comes off the backbone

Serving the Smoked Fish

Serve the smoked fish with

a fresh green salad
cooked potatoes

Fish to Smoke

The following fish are ideal for smoking:

common whitefish/ lavaret
flounder
grayling
herring
perch
pike perch
salmon
trout

You may also want to try:

carp bream - if it is big
ide/ orfe
pike - it will be bit dry, but it's OK

To the right smoked perch and to the far right smoked common whitefish/ lavaret. Believe me, when you really succeed with smoking fish, it is one of the best things in life... :-)

[ Photos by myself]