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to do is poke small holes in the bottom of the foil to allow smoke to get up into the fish.
be sure to scale the fish as you prep it (you don’t have to scale salmon).
Here’s one big piece of advice before you put the fish on the plank, on the foil, or directly on the grates: Put a good coating of olive oil (regular or extra-virgin) on the fish. This prevents sticking — you don’t want to have to clean a stuck-on fish out of your grill or smoker, or off the cedar plank. For the smoke itself, I like to use pecan. It creates a good, neutral smoke that isn’t going to do much to the delicate flavor of the fish. In the northern states, birch is a good option. You can also add in a little oak — anything from nut trees. You want to avoid fruit tree woods (apple, peach, cherry, and so on). These will offset the flavor of the fish, so just be mindful of what you’re using. Now, it’s time to smoke it. Like I said early on, salmon is easy to cook, but it’s just as easy to overcook. Basically, you don’t want to take your salmon over 140 F. if you go past 140, you aren’t going to like it. In fact, I recommended pulling it out of the smoker just short of 140. Call 140 the max temperature. How long is it going to take in the smoker? Like many types of meat, it’ll depend on the size/thickness of the fillets. I usually get mine done in around three hours. If you really roll the smoke, you might get it in under. I’d say allow yourself three hours, but if it hits 140 F at the 2:30 or 2:45 mark, that’s okay. You just want to make sure it’s still pink on the inside and not flaky. There will be some flaking around the edges, but the fillet itself should still be together. If the meat is white and flaky, it is overdone. But if you keep an eye on the internal temp, you shouldn’t have any problems! Now, I do want to talk just a little about carp (and buffalo fish). I’ll have more on the recipe pages, but I feel the carp deserves some time in the spotlight, as well. It’s a tougher, fattier fish than the salmon. A lot of people fish carp for sport and catch-and-release. They don’t think of it as an eating fish. Carp is a white fish and a bottom feeder. When it isn’t prepared just right, it can taste like mud and be just plain awful. But it doesn’t have to be like that! It can be a great fish that’s full of flavor when cooked up right. The challenge comes with the mud vein. When you prepare the carp, you need to take out the mud vein. This runs along the spine and is where the muddy flavor comes from. To do this, you lay the fish flat and cut along the ribs where they connect to the backbone. Make sure not to cut into the spine or the vein. Then discard the vein and
You also need to take out the lower ribs. This is another reason people tend to avoid carp and buffalo fish. There are four
bones in the lower rib cage that can be a choking hazard if they get caught in your throat. They
dig in and don’t to let go. So, you’ll want to cut those bones out. Watch a few videos online on how to do this and get a good idea of how it’s done. We will include a link to a good video of this process on our resource page at gsa.life/2019february. It’s worth taking a little extra care for the safety of yourself and for anyone coming to the dinner table. And don’t let dogs or cats get ahold of any of these scraps. Wrap up anything you remove from the carp in plastic before you throw it away. When I was young, I got one of these bones stuck in my throat. My grandmother took a piece of bread, rolled it into a ball, and forced me to swallow it. Thankfully, it dislodged the bone. It hurt, but it worked! When it comes to brining the carp, you don’t have to be as careful with it as you would salmon. Brine it overnight and pat dry in the morning. It will also develop a pellicle that you can add seasonings to. One of the big differences between carp and salmon is the internal cooking temperature. With carp and buffalo fish, you need to hit an internal temp of 165 F. Freshwater fish carry waterborne bacteria, and this temp will make sure to kill it. As a fatty fish, it will also take longer to smoke — about an hour longer than salmon, depending on the thickness of the fish. In the end, you’ll be left with a delicious and highly underrated piece of fish. If you’ve never had carp or avoided it because you heard bad stories, prepare to be surprised. You may end up making carp a staple for your dinner table!
–Danny McTurnan
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