# Help Needed: Smoking Panfish



## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

Has anyone trying smoking panfish? I've done crappie fillets before and they were pretty good but I'm still new at this. 

I plan on not filleting the smaller panfish so I'm wondering if some of the experts could offer any advice. I did find this link and it looks like I should brine them and open them up with a toothpick to hold the sides apart. Should I remove the fins before hand?

http://www.3men.com/threemen1.htm#Prepare the Fish 

One thing I haven't found info on yet is what the shelf-life would be after vaccum sealing in bags.

Thanks for any suggestions!


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

I've smoked mostly mackeral but pan fish shouldn't be much different, just harder to keep lit.


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

:hijacked:


stranger said:


> I've smoked mostly mackeral but pan fish shouldn't be much different, just harder to keep lit.


:flame:

:gaptooth:


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

Hmm, I have no idea what pan fish is...but, we do a lot of smoked salmon here. We always brine our fish, because this helps draw out moisture from the flesh. We brine from three to eight hours, depending on contents of the brine. From there, brine is washed off well, fish is patted dry, and placed under fans for at least three hours. THen, cold smoked for two to four-depending on outdoor temperature. From there, its either pressure canned, or placed in the dehydrator to finish. Your smoking and drying time will be cut by quite a bit if you skin the fish completely before you start.


Yes, you need to trim the fins, tails and heads off. One way to smoke a cleaned fish, is to make sure you leave a half inch attached at the tail. Then you hang it over a rod, tail end up and fillets on each side if that makes sense. They do this in the Bush sometimes, for drying/smoking fish caught fresh too. 

We vaccum seal also, but always store it in the freezer-just in case. Otherwise its in a jar.


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## Solarmom (Jun 17, 2010)

Jeez o peet, I'd love to live in Alaska!!!!


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

Maybe so, but processing the salmon is a big job....we do ours generally just once a year. It is at least a three day process. Thaw, trim if needed, brine, rinse, dry under fans, smoke, pressure can. Lots and lots of work, I do the canning, he does everything else. And when we have lots of salmon to process-ugh! Very long days and nights.


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## Tobster (Feb 24, 2009)

Pouncer said:


> Maybe so, but processing the salmon is a big job....we do ours generally just once a year. It is at least a three day process. Thaw, trim if needed, brine, rinse, dry under fans, smoke, pressure can. Lots and lots of work, I do the canning, he does everything else. And when we have lots of salmon to process-ugh! Very long days and nights.


Is the benefit worth all the work? Salmon is a main staple for you in Alaska I assume? How much gets canned during the marathon? Thanks


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

Tobster said:


> Is the benefit worth all the work?


Well, I didn't have a huge salmon harvest but my catch of panfish (bluegill, sunfish, rock bass, pumpkinseed) were certainly worth the effort. I haven't had much time off (6-7day weeks, 10-14hour days) to enjoy nature so having a couple of meals off the effort of my own hunting/gathering/cooking etc. was very satisfying. 

I've just finished a plate full of panfish that were brined in a mix of salt, lemon juice concentrate, and sugar for several hours in the fridge. I then patted them dry with a towel and coated them with bread crumbs, old bay seasoning, cayenne pepper, and put them in a frypan on the outside grill (mrs. calicoty doesn't want the house smelling like fish). Absolutely delicious except that I could have done with less cayenne. I'm saving some for the wife and son who were out picking strawberries (u-pick) and bringing home pizza for themselves. :shocked: Maybe the boy will try some of his own catch... 

The rest of yesterday's catch (brined as mentioned above) went into Foodsaver bags, vacuumed, and is in the freezer for some future gumbo recipie or possibly smoked (but I still don't have my smoker setup yet).


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

The wife and son got home with pizza but still wanted to try the fish. Both said it was very good and didn't smell at all like fish! I took all the bones, leftovers, and skillet juices and added them together with some water, boiled them down and after straining them through a sieve vacuum sealed it all. This boiled down to a very concentrated paste which I plan on using for some future recipe. It's all in the freezer now. 

I can't wait for the nexty opportunity to repeat the last couple of days. 

Ain't the Lord good!


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

Here's a photo of the brined and frozen fish that I hope to smoke in the near future. I still need a smoker. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.


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## Susie (Sep 25, 2008)

Tobster said:


> Is the benefit worth all the work?


Salmon is on sale here this weekend for $8.99 a pound...it's usually $11.00. My husband brings back about 500/600# a year from AK. Believe me it's worth every minute I spend processing and smoking it


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

Wow, Susie, that is a LOT of salmon, omg! We do (generally, depending on the run and our luck) around 10 to 12 cases in pints. That's not counting for any sqauw candy, kipper, plain fillets kept for eating the next year-sealed and frozen, or just snack goodies the hub makes. I have found that about one pound of raw salmon (trimmed, mind you) ends up being about one pint in the jar. 105 minutes a batch too, ugh. 

To the OP, Morton makes a product called "sugar cure" which is basically a premix in a five pound bag. We do use that, but I ind it pretty salty. We always add more brown sugar. A really big batch of salmon might use six pounds in just the brine, haha Which is usually filling our largest Coleman cooler nearly to the brim too.


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## tinknocker66 (Jul 15, 2009)

Living in Wa. in the great north west we get good runs of salmon.After loosing more than 60 lbs of salmon when the freezer went out, All I do is can the stuff now. I smoke some of it first, but you should know that when you can smoked fish the smoke flavor becomes greatly intensified. For this reason I only smoke the fish with skin on for around an hour.The fish is still firm and the skin comes off with not much work at all after the time in the smoker.I do not brine the salmon either I find that it tends to make it a bit drier. p.s. dont forget to put a tsp. of white vinegar in each pint.it helps to disolve any pin bones in the fillets.


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

tinknocker66 said:


> p.s. dont forget to put a tsp. of white vinegar in each pint.it helps to disolve any pin bones in the fillets.


Thanks for the tip! I'll have to google this to find out more. I haven't used vinegar yet in my brining. I suppose that brining isn't needed for canning but the reason I wanted to smoke was for the preserving aspects if I end up dehydrating it. 

I'll probably try all methods for preserving eventually so, again, thanks for the info!

BTW, I have an old propane grill that I'm going to use for smoking. I've done this before and it seemed to work ok. I just didn't do as much as I wanted. Now, since I work from home, it will be a lot easier to tend to it while keeping the temperature where it needs to be.


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## MrCalicoty (Jun 27, 2010)

Well the boy and I went out for some more panfish yesterday and got another mess of the delicious little critters. Went through pretty much the same brining process and vacuum sealing a nice freezer bag of future table fare. Unfortunately I didn't get the message about vinegar before giving it a try. Probably wouldn't work in the 12 or so hour brining that I've been doing. I have made saviche years ago and I guess I forgot that the vinegar I used in the recipe accomplished the bone softening that tinknocker66 recommended.

If all goes well we may go out for some more panfish in the morning. We found a great little spot above the reservior dam under the boat docks where they've been hanging out. First, though we need to water the area we get our worms from tonight so we have fresh bait in the morning.


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