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Get that barbecue smoking!
How to smoke a fish on your grill
by Mark Hutchinson of www.threeguysfishing.com

Ever thought it would be great to enjoy a nice smoked fish that you caught yourself but didn’t have the smoker? Well, I thought the same thing, so here is a description of my endeavor to smoke a fish using nothing more than my gas grill and some very basic techniques.

One of the first things we obviously need to do is to go out and catch a fish! (sometimes easier said than done) The best fish to smoke are those that have a higher fat content such as trout or whitefish since it helps to keep them from drying out as quickly during the smoking process. I used a nice five pound whitefish that Derik and I pulled out of Lake Simcoe a couple of weekends ago in the middle of the night. You can read up on overnight ice fishing in one of Derik’s articles here.

Once you’ve got your fish, clean it up and either butterfly the fish by cutting through the rib cage on one side of the spine like I did in the picture below, or remove the fillets from each side. Either way works well. If you decide to leave the bones in during the smoking process, they will come out very easily after it is smoked.

The next step is to prepare the fish for smoking. Find a pail or container which will be big enough to hold the fish in it, and mix up a mixture of about 1 cup of salt to 2 litres of water. You can also add about half a cup of brown sugar to this mixture as well. Let it soak for about 1 to 2 hours in the brine. Take the fish out afterwards and let it dry for about 30 minutes until a shiny skin, or “pellicle” forms on the outside of the fillet. What this entire process does is to help keep the moisture in the fish during smoking and also adds a bit of flavour as well.

While your fish is soaking in the brine, put your wood chips in another bucket with enough water to cover them up. You can buy wood chips for smoking at Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, or any other store that sells camping gear.

Once your fish is all set to go, fire up the barbecue and keep it on low setting. Spread your wood chips out onto aluminum foil and make sure that the grill is covered. Grease the top “bun rack” of your grill and set your fish SKIN DOWN on the grill. Close the lid and let it smoke for about 2 hours on low heat. It should look something like this:

After the first 2 hours, crank the heat up to medium-high and let it smoke for another 2 hours. Try not to open the lid too often since it will let all the smoke out. After the 2 hours, you should end up with a great looking piece of fish that looks something like this:

Take your time and I guarantee that you’ll end up with a wonderful smoked fish! Stay tuned for an upcoming article on how to actually build a smoker for dirt cheap! (cause we like cheap)