In true Hugh Ferningly Whittinstall style I spent all of yesterday building a smoker, It seems to work(lots of smoke) what I want to know is do any of you know how long you leave fish, sausages etc in there for?
I'm off for touch of fishing today in Yarmouth so hopefully will have something to smoke by tonight.

Oh well not to worry I have found out myself, Aprox 25 hours to smoke fish and fillets.

And I caught nowt today so I am not going to get a chance to try out my new smoker till I get to the fishmongers in the morning.

Hey Light,

Was just wondering if you knew what ingredients you would use to get the authentic taste of smoked fish as if you had just bought it from the fishmonger, hope it goes well

Hello George,

The "getting the authentic smoked taste" is a bit hit and miss but also the best part. You can "flavour" your wood shavings with oils and various types of other wood, mesquite being one excuse the spelling!, or you can experiment with what you are smoking but first of all a dip in brine or salt is in essential not sure why possibly as a preservative.
Then away you go, at the moment I just have a couple of hard boiled eggs in there, I have some haddock soaking in brine waiting to go in, also I have bought a lump of venison from the game dealer in town so I think I'll do that as well.
Also if any Bunnies have got too nosey with my traps, I might try smoked bunny as well.

Smoked boiled eggs are delicious!

The haddock is looking fine and so are the venison fillets, the local rabbit population avoided loosing a few of its members so no smoked bunny.

So it was a success, bet the rabbit was relieved

well done light glad its going well, can i ask though you haven't smoked nugget have you?

glad the bunny wabbit escaped

Does your smoker cook the food as well or just imparts the smoke flavour?

It sounds home made light, are you not worried about leaving it for such a long period of time with the obvious risk of catching fire?

I know I am not the most popular person here but I envy your comitment and tenacity toward the simpler way of life, I only wish I was surrounded by trees and not towers of concrete.
On the chicken front have you adequate anti fox devices in place?.

All the best in your ventures Light.

No banana it does not cook the food just gives it the smoked smell and look.
The venision steaks was fantastic griddled with some pan fried veg.
But what surprised me more was the boiled eggs, never tasted anything quite like them, hard to describe the taste not really eggy anymore..
On the fire risk point the fire is in a hole in the ground the smoke travels up a pipe and into the smoker where it circulates round before escaping through the vents, the smoker by the way is an old wardrobe. It looks a bit ramshackle but it does the job.

Aparently its best to have your chicken coup up high with a ladder as aledgedly foxes hate ladders, but I dont have that luxury. So far I have been lucky and my chicken defences seem to be holding up. I was out lamping the other night when I saw a big dog fox which a bit of a worry but so far he has stayed away.

Chickens in high rise apartments Light? hope this doesn't break any EU Laws. Glad things are going well for you.

Not going well on the chicken front as Thelma and Louse have had a bit of a disagreement over something and now don't seem to be clucking to each other!
On the other hand nugget has given me two double yolker eggs recently which had I known I would have smoked but you can't tell till they are in the frying pan!!