casebeag Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Planning on doing my first salmon smoke this weekend. The fish is in the brine now. I'm using the recipe/algorithm from the Naked Whiz site. I did a test temperature run with some residual ECC last night (lit it with a couple kingsford briquettes from a chimney) and kept the temp at about 195 through the night. I'm aiming for 180...seems like I'm almost going to have to have the top hat completely closed with the smallest slit in the bottom air dial to get this. 195 wouldn't be the end of the world if that's where it ends up on Saturday. My question is about the wood. I'll use Alder chips. How would you recommend I add these to the coal? Would you soak them first? Just scatter them about the coal at the beginning of the cook? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemonkey Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Re: Smoking question I'd probably put them in a foil pouch and nestle that on top of your hot spot in the coals. At the temps your talking about, the fire will spread very little. Scattering them about would mean most of them would not get used. You could also use the charcoal pan method...put your chips in a pie plate, and then add a handful of charcoal to get it all going and also help keep your temps more manageable. See the recent post from Whiz, he used this method to smoke the cheese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee grabowski Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Re: Smoking question I have just smoked some Salmon last week and have found that using a set of mechanics feeler gauges in the bottom ash door helps to make small changes in temperature adjustments. Try using about .030 (30 Thousands) for 175-180 Degrees. Open the top hat about 1/4 turn. Firemonkey is right about the smoking chips because a small amount of charcoal will be used, put the foil bag with Alder over the charcoal hot spot. Enjoy the Salmon it is the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Re: Smoking question You could try the Alton Brown method. Put a hot plate in the bottom of the KK, a metal pan or cast iron skillet on the hot plate, and some wood chips in the pan. No charcoal fire. This will probably yield a very low temp smoke. Might be good for cheese. On Alton's show, he did have to reload the wood chips now and then. You might want to put the hot plate really close to the ash door so you could reach in there to scrape out the ash and reload the pan without having to open the lid. I have not tried this, just thinking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland-B Posted August 24, 2012 Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 Re: Smoking question As usual i'm late in reading the forum but,to smoke I use a small cast iron smoker box purchased from Amazon,put your chips in an lay right on the coals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Re: Smoking question I have one of those also for the small chips. It's a Bobby Flay model from Kohls. It's held up surprisingly well for being about $20. An earlier one by another company didn't last very long - rusted out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
