Mackerel Smoking
After a few years of never getting around to it, I finally bought a Fladen fish and meat smoker so I could experiment with fish and other smokable stuff.
First to be tried was the humble mackerel that I went out and caught first thing this morning down at Brighton Marina. Now I’m new to this so wasn’t sure whether the fish needed proper brining or not, so I took the gamble and didn’t; I just gutted, cleaned and thoroughly dried the fish before applying a liberal sprinkling of salt.
I set up the smoker as per the instructions and within minutes, the fish were on and left to get on with it. After the allotted time, which in this case was about 30 minutes, I removed the ‘box’ from the burners and opened it up. The mackerel were a lovely golden colour and were cooked right through to the point of being overdone (will reduce cooking time by about 10 minutes next time). They tasted wonderful with that appealing smoky twang, although for my taste, they could have done with more salt, so perhaps brining would be a better option. This may also help to make the fish a bit drier, as I found these ones to be a bit wet, almost as if they had been smoked/steamed.
Anyway, for a first attempt, we were pretty pleased with the result and can’t wait to experiment with various wood chip and seasoning combinations to obtain different flavours. Next on the list will be smoked chicken, so watch this space.