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I am heading off to Chesil Beach on Monday 4th June, hopefully to catch Mackeral, and then smoke some of them in my Bradley.

The last time I did this I over cooked them during Hot Smoking, can anybody remind me of the following please.

1) Brine strength, I think I used 80% last time
2) Brining time, (2-3hrs I think)
3) Smoking Time and Temperature <--- The Crucial Bit
4) Fish 'filleted' or 'left whole' (I left mine whole last time)

This time I will keep a diary of what I do, and add it to my files.

Anybody care to join me at Chesil, you would be welcome

Regards - Tony

Hi Tony, there was a thread I started on smoked mackerel about a year ago in this section that might help you.
Roy

Ps Found it ! It was dated 17 May 2006

Mod edit: Here in fact:
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1650&start=0

Hi Tony,

There's lots of info in the fish curing section, including a recommendation not to brine mackerel if it's to be hot smoked. Also, if you are going to brine I think 2-3 hours is a long time for such a small fish, especially if it's filleted, but then I don't like things too salty. I only left the haddock and trout I did at the weekend in the brine for 10-15 minutes. 80% brine with half as much brown sugar to salt. The trout was fantastic.

Hope this helps

Jen

Thanks for your help Jenny and Royt


I will see how many Mackeral I catch (if any???) if I get enough I can try experimenting.

I quite like the idea of minimal brining, that is an interesting thought Jenny. Although I believe the idea of brining is to extract water, and assist smoke penetration. I still have a few days to decide my smoking strategy.

Many thanks for your suggestions, it is all 'food for thought'

Regards - Tony

Tony,

You will be surprised how quickly thin seafood will take on a brine. I brined some king prawns a while back to a recipe that said 3-5 minutes. I tried them at 3 mins and they were nice, but at 10 minutes, (I forgot them...) they were really very salty!!

I was surprised at the rate at which they took on the salt. I would think thin fillets of mackerel wouldn't need much longer than a few minutes.

Keep us posted,
FB

Keith Erlandson's 'Home Smoking and Curing' is a useful read. He suggest a brief brining time for smaller fish, and the forum linked to the Bradley site has a lot of good input to browse through.

Mackerel, being very oily, could probably stand a little longer brining time, but haddock for me is 10 minutes max or it's only fit for kedgeree.

Hope you have a good catch this weekend to experiment on.

Cheers

Jen

Hi FB

Did you cold or hot smoke your prawns?

I have been asked to smoke some prawns for one of the old game keepers in the village so have purchased a Lb of cooked prawns and intend giving them a go later on. I was undecided weather to brine them or not in the first instance but I suppose half and half would be good for a first attempt.

No problem with it being too hot to smoke today - its peeing down here at the moment................

cheers WW

we hot smoke cooked prawns/crevettes/mussels from frozen
no need for brining
we don't re-cook them
they just defrost and take on the smoke and colour during the time taken

It is recommended that a gutted mackerel of average size and fat content has to remain in the usual 80� brine (use 275g salt per litre of water) for up to 5 hours. This ensures a salt penetration of the flesh to a level of 3 percent - acceptable to most consumers.
However, if the mackerel are filleted, the immersion times rapidly decrease. An average fillet takes about 3 minutes in 80� brine.

As to smoking, I use a Bradley so can only give suggestions for that. First set the thermostat to 30�C for � hour. Then raise the temperature to 50�C, which should be kept for another � hour. For the final cooking stage the thermostat is reset to 80�C for 40 minutes or so.

Good luck!

Thanks Hobbitfeet


I will print out your reply, and keep it for future reference, for when I next get some Mackeral, to smoke in my Bradlkey. I went to Chesil Beach in early June targeting Mackeral - did'nt catch a thing...........


Regards - Tony

I have heard they are in at the moment in the Southwest. Let us know how you get on.

Do you get mackeral off the Suffolk coast at this time of year? (End of the month is when I am going)

Dave

Corton, Dunwich have some good sole at present, Kessington some good chance of bass. Felixstowe should be getting mackerel soon.

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Thanks , we will be just south of Felixstowe.