Low-Tek

[pasithea]

So... When faced with 12lbs of fresh salmon left that could go bad if not used quickly, not a large enough apetite and no money, what does our gadget-girl do?

(Assembled smoker with door closed)

The salmon I caught on Friday have been absolutely delicious and we've had them lots of different ways and shared them with friends but we still had a whole fish left yesterday morning and I realized it was gonna go off before we were done eating it if I didn't come up with a plan of some kind. Can't really freeze fresh fish. At least not the way commercial fishing companies can do it. It woulda turned to mush when we thawed it and it would have been flavourless. I could have made jerky but that reduces the fish so much that there really isn't enough left to worry about so... I thought about it and realized what I really wanted to do was smoke it. that'd make enough to share with friends on memorial day and it would make sure it held until then. Just one problem. I had no smoker and no money.

(Grill access door open)

So I hobbled out to the garage and looked around... Hmm. It was gonna take a little ingenuity but I thought I could pull it off, so I went back inside and made a marinade for the salmon (soy sauce, kosher salt, black pepper, sage, thyme, ginger, and the last of my sherry) Then it was back to the garage and straight to work. Construction is fairly straight forward. The hibachi fit between the legs of the broken coffee table, since I was unsure of the paint on this or the quality of the metal and I didn't want to totally destroy it, it also had to stay outside the heated area. I secured the shelves to the table with aluminum wire I'd bought that turned out to be no good for stop-motion armitures (too brittle) and used twigs from the cherry tree to tension them up. On the tabletop side, I just wraped the foil around the frame. On the far side I used more wire tension to hold the foil against the shelving. Cut one of the shelving legs in two to make a crossbrace and a place to put the hibatchi grill. (The leg had buckled and was no good anyhow) Finally, the hibatchi itself made my firepit at the bottom. The dutch oven of course serves a couple of purposes. First you put stuff in it to aromacize and flavour the smoke. (I chose garlic, green onion and dried serano peppers for this as well as some of the hickory chips) and second, as the water in it boils, it adds moisture to the smoke and cools it making the smoking process happen a lot slower and it keeps the tempurature down in the range where you want it. the foil on the top and at the bottom edge on the back can also be adjusted to control tempurature. So then it was just charcoal in the hibatchi (with some soaked wet hickory chips) and a LONG LONG wait. (a full 18 hours!)

Parts Hibatchi Coffee table frame Metal shelving Heavy aluminum foil. Cast Iron Dutch Oven Bailing wire (required for an invention of this caliber)

Results? GHLAHALAHALAHG! I had REALLY forgot how good smoked stuff was. We used to smoke stuff when I was a kid all the time because it'd keep better during rendesvous. Stacey moaned and whimpered and said it reminded her of the smoked salmon she used to get from the reservation stores up in Washington. ^_^ As smokers go, it worked PERFECTLY. Moving the dutch oven to add more coals and wood chips was a bit of a bother but all in all a very usable design. ^_^ I guess it also makes me feel good to know that I can still just come up with a plan and build something from the hip and make it work. ^_^

Comments

[the-vampkitty.livejournal.com]

That is the MOST amazing thing I have seen in creative thinking in such a long time.

We have a webber smoker, (it was a gift) but neither Fox nor I have any experience with it and how to cook on it. I SOOOO want to learn but don't even know where to start.

Man...now I am envious!!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Meep.

It's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The real trick is getting the tempurature just right for whatever it is you're cooking. Has to be hot enough to kill microbials (about 140 degrees) but not so hot that it cooks things quickly or dries them out.

If you've ever dehydrated meats, you use the same basic type of marinade for smoking except it doesn't have to be as salty because you're using the smoke to perserve the meat instead of the salts. You can also smoke stuff without a marinade at all (My mother frequently smoked whole turkeys this way)

Then basically you just soak woodchips (and other things like onion/garlic paper and green onions, chives, peppers, whatever you want to add flavour to your smoke) and you use these as a damper on your coals so they put out lots of smoke and don't burn too fast.

If yours has a liquid reservoir like the one I put in mine, you can use that for additional aromatics and to help keep it from curing the food too quickly. think of it as being part steamer and part potpourri pot.

Once it's set up, you just check it every few hours, add a few briquettes of charcoal and some more soaked woodchips and more water to the reservoir as needed. I added woodchips and coals just before bed last night, then stoked them again frist thing in the morning.

I'm surprised yours didn't come with an instruction manual and some recipies. ^_^

[voidheart.livejournal.com]

Once more, you prove just how damn creative you are. This thing is just amazing, in a weird science way lol.

[the-vampkitty.livejournal.com]

It did...but to be honest, as technical as we are... instructions are very hard to follow.

I am more, show me type girl...show me and I get it.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Just like an episode of Good Eats, on Food Network! I love that show. (:

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown approves. In fact, send this into him and he may reply.

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Wowzers!