Smoked Flounders and Sculpins?

Hi Guys! Does anybody have good recipes for smoking flounders and sculpins in electical smoker? I have tried to find anything in Google, but no luck. Then I tried some common recipes I found in net, but still not very happy with results. I tried three different recipes if you want I can share, but they are not that great at least in my taste. Thank you in advance!

In general, oily fish such as salmon smoke better than lean fish.  While I've never caught a sculpin and don't know if it is an oily fish or a lean fish, the problem may be that you are trying to smoke kinds of fish which are less likely to produce good results. 

The smoked fish section of the Bradley Smoker Forum, which is at http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=11.0 , is a good source of information about smoking fish.  Do some searching on that forum for recipes for lean fish, and try some of the recipes on that forum.  Kummok's wild Alaskan smoked salmon recipe and instructions, which are at the beginning of the forum, are an excellent place to start.  Other good sources of information about smoking fish are Smoking Fish at Home - Safely, by K.S. Hilderbrand, Pacific Northwest Extension Publication #238, which is available at http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/cepublications/pnw238/pnw238.pdf , and Smoking Fish at Home, by Chuck Crapo, University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service FNH-00325, which is available at http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00325.pdf . With the right kind of fish, you can quickly be producing very tasty smoked fish. 

What kind of smoker do you have?  It's easier to produce tasty and safe smoked fish with a smoker which has a thermostat which controls its temperature.

Pmmpete - thank you for the links, I will research them. About smoker - I got Masterbuilt 31.9 inch electrical smoker with digital controls , model 20071514 John McLemore'e signature series. It is very easy to use - you just need to set temperature and time, put fish inside, then add chips each 30 min and that's all. I just smoked 2 shelves, flounders came out nice looking, smelly and pretty edible, but not exactly what I wanted, still can't realize whats wrong My first guess - wrong brine, I tried 1oz water 1 cup salt 1 cup sugar - marinated 2 days, then dried 1 day, smoked 1.5 hours at 200F. I think I will try next time without brine at all to see what I get.

Masterbuilt makes excellent smokers.  I own two of them, one the size of yours, and a six-shelf unit.  So the problem isn't the smoker.  To produce good smoked fish, you need to do the following:

1. Start with fresh fillets from fish which were well cared for and bled and put on ice as soon as they were caught.



2. Soak the fillets in a fish smoking brine long enough to produce a desirable level of saltiness - salty, but not too salty.  Initially, follow the instructions in whatever recipe you are using, but you will learn from trial and error just how long to leave fish fillets of a certain species and size in a brine with a particular salt concentration to produce the taste that you like.  I soak my fish in ziplock bags, which keeps out all air and makes it easy to flip over the fillets and mix them around.  If the brine has a low salt concentration, you'll need to soak the fish for a long time.  If the brine has a high salt concentration, you may only need to soak the fish for a couple of hours.



3. Take the fish out of the brine and distribute them onto smoker racks.  Put the racks in front of a fan for a couple of hours until the surface of the fish is tacky, and your finger doesn't get wet when you touch it.  This is called forming a "pellicle."  If the fish is too wet or too dry when you put it into the smoker, it won't take up smoke flavor well.  Don't wipe or rinse off the brine before you put the fish on racks.  That will reduce the flavor from the brine, and will create a variable which will make it harder to produce consistently tasty smoked fish.



4. Put the fish in the smoker, and start smoking at a low temperature such as 130 degrees for an hour, then 150 degrees for an hour, then 170 degrees for an hour, and then hold that temperature until the thickest fillets reach an internal temperature of at least 150 degrees for half an hour.  If you start smoking at too high of a temperature, fat will seep or cook out of the fillets and form "curds" or "boogers" on the surface of the fillets, which aren't attractive.  With thick fillets, you may need to go to a higher temperature to get them up to temperature in a reasonable amount of time.  To smoke a batch of fish evenly, periodically rotate the racks from top to bottom in your smoker, and spin them 180 degrees.



5. How long you apply smoke during the smoking and drying process is a matter of taste.  Three hours may be enough, or you may prefer to apply smoke longer.  Then just leave the fish in the smoker until it reaches a desirable level of dryness and flakiness.  You don't want it gooey inside, and you don't want to dry it until it's dry and crackley.  This will require a bit of trial and error for each kind and thickness of fillets.

6. In order to be sure that you have killed all germs which might spoil the fish and cause food poisoning, you need to get the fillets to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for half an hour.  Buy an electronic digital cooking thermometer with a remote probe, insert the probe into the center of the biggest fillet, and run the wire out through the door.  For more information about the internal temperature required to produce safe smoked fish, see http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=30863.msg364765#msg364765 .

7. When the fish has reached the necessary internal temperature and a desirable level of dryness and flakiness, take it out of the smoker and put it on plates in a refrigerator for 6-12 hours to cool down and dry off further.



8.  Always keep smoked fish refrigerated or frozen until you eat it, to prevent spoilage.  You can keep it in a refrigerator for about a week.  Any smoked fish which you want to keep longer should be frozen. The best way to freeze fish is to vacuum pack it, because that prevents freezer burn, but you can put it into ziplock bags or wrap it tightly in plastic and freezer wrap.  Vacuum packed fish should keep for six months or so in a freezer.





9.  Take notes on the brining times and smoking times and temperatures, so you'll learn from your experiences.  This will speed up the trial and error process which is required to learn how to get best results from a particular brine recipe and a particular kind and size of fish.

I suggest that you start by following the instructions and recipe for Kummock's wild Alaskan smoked salmon which is at http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=107.msg935#msg935 .  It's an excellent recipe.  Once you are producing consistent good results with Kummock's recipe, you can start trying other recipes.

My wife has a Martha stewart book with several sole(other flat fish) recipies. I will look after work to see if there is a smoked one.

http://www.barbecuebible.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=16794

Found this.it lists sole not flounder.this is pretty much what pmmpete said.less oily fish don't smoke well but it didn't say can't be done with a little practice.

I did some black rockfish once that turned out pretty good but tasted more like beef jerky (probably due to hickory chips). I used this recipe (I cant find it online anymore) for smoking blue fish:

Brine:
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 cup non-iodized salt
1-1/4 cups soy sauce
1-3/4 cups water
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 cup dry red wine

Brine Bluefish chunks for minimum of 8 hours in refrigerator.


Place bluefish chunks on rack, pat dry, and let air dry for 1 hour.


Place in smoker. Use one pan of Hickory chips.

Leave fish in smoker for 8 to 12 hours. The amount of time will depend on thickness of bluefish pieces, outdoor temperature and how "dry" you want your bluefish pieces.