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Welcome to my personal blog. I have another blog, Herbert's Place, but that one limits me to what I sometimes want to publish, because it is mainly used to promote my books. As it says in the header, I want to use this blog to write about things that have nothing to do with my books. There is no real theme here. I'll be writing about anything that causes me to either be happy or somethings that concerns me. It could be political, travel, a hobby, or anything else. So come and visit me sometimes.

Monday, September 24, 2012

How to smoke Goldeye

After my first not quite so successful attempt on smoking Goldeye  a few weeks ago, I bought a smoker from Cabellas. A Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse with digital controls at the top and a meat probe. I smoked 4 Goldeye today and they turned out great.
I took the frozen Goldeye out the freezer yesterday. After they were thawed out, I put them into a brine and kept them in the fridge for 10 hours. After that I washed off the brine with clean water, dried them and left them on a grill in the fridge for a few hours, mainly because my smoker wasn't ready yet.
When I took them out of the fridge, they had glazed over nicely and were ready to be smoked.
After preheating the smoker for about 20 minutes at 275F I put the 4 Goldeye onto the rack in the smoker. The Apple chips were already smoking nicely. I had to add some chips after about one hour.
I smoked the fish for 2 hours at 200F. After the smoker shut off I still left the fish in the closed smoker for another 20 minutes, then I removed them from the smoker. Unfortunately, the skin stuck to the grill and it took some doing with a knife to pry them loose, but that was okay, because we only eat the meat. They were done and the skin just peeled off the meat.

This is the brine I used:

1 liter (or quart) of water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup of apple juice
1/4 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup light soy sauce
a dash of black pepper
a dash of onion powder
a dash of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Hy's seasoning salt (some people use Lawry's)
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce

Even though they tasted good, I'm always on the search for a better recipe. I used to get smoked Goldeye from an acquaintance once in awhile and I liked the way they tasted. When I called him up and asked him for the recipe, he told me he couldn't give it to me, because the recipe has been in his family for 100 years and it took him 38 years to perfect it. I was a bit peeved about it, but I have to respect his reasoning. My thoughts are different on that. If I have something I enjoy I like to share it with other people.
When I told a friend of mine about my brine and how I smoked the fish, he laughed and said "Never use sugar on Goldeye". This is how he prepares and smokes fish, using a dry-rub:
He rubs them with pickling salt, pepper, garlic powder and real garlic. Then he leaves them sitting for a couple of hours. After that he washes them and lets them dry. Then he smokes them. He assures me they taste great. He promised to smoke one for me. I may just use his recipe the next time.
Here is a picture of how the smoked Goldeye looked:

 Note: (November 17, 2013)
I couldn't get the results I received here after this again. The fish split in the back and the bellies opened wide. I'm only using the dry rub now. It is faster and less messy. Here is the link to the way I smoke my Goldeye now and they turn out fine. (Most of the time anyway. (^_^):

Smoking Goldeye - again.




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