CWLONGSHOT
Well-Known Member
I agree. Walleye is fine eating. (Striper is good to but not in same class to me.)Striper will benefit from smoking........walleye, not so much, IMO.
I agree. Walleye is fine eating. (Striper is good to but not in same class to me.)Striper will benefit from smoking........walleye, not so much, IMO.
Fish needs to be fatty/oily for good eating when smoked/cured.Yeah, this is what I was wondering. Hard to improve on natural walleye.
Have you ever considered canning your smoked fish? I do it all the time because smoked fish doesn't keep all that well and I get tired of it quickly. Having a bunch of 1/2 pint and pint jars in the cellar allows me to have some whenever I get the urge.Well durn it, the rabbits ate off my second attempt ar sunflower plants... ill try once more before I make rabbit pie..
Got the smoker out all Cleaned and prepped. About ten Ill start it and get it to temp. When I smoke fish Im more careful about temps and I like them LOW. ITS EASY TO OVER smoke fish. It generally takes smoke easily ESPECIALLY when fillet. I prefer smoke with skin ON. But didnt prep these for smoking. It was a after thought.
The fish looks great after nearly 48 hours in my seasoning brine. Nice and firm and tinted to brine color. Its in fridge now "tacking up".
Ill start about 11:30 -12:00. Planning on needing 5-6 hrs of smoke. Ill start about 250 to get smoke rolling, then down temps to 150° range for remainder of time. Only opening once about 15:00 to swap rack positions. Check 17:00 ish for doneness.
CW
I don't think walleye is fatty enough to smoke well. Sue and I put walleye on the foil lined broiler pan. Pre-heat the oven to 500°. While the oven is heating we melt butter, add fresh squeezed lemon juice, and finely minced capers to a bowl. We pat the walleye filets dry, then brush on the melted butter sauce. 10 Minutes at 500°, check the filet, a thick one may need two more minutes. Do not turn the filet. Add Panko bread crumbs to the remaining butter sauce and liberally coat the top side of the filet. Turn on the broiler and slide the filet(s) back in until the Panko browns, usually about 30 seconds before the smoke detector goes off. Serve with lemon wedge. We almost never fry walleye anymore.I am what many will call a lazy smoker. But it is because it was how I was introduced to smoking my own stuff. Guy let me borrow an electric smoker so I could do a turkey for a July 4th party about 25 years ago. The turkey came out great, was a hit at the party and became a party staple for 10 years of July 4th parties at our camp. I ended up buying a Brinkman electric smoker after that first experience and have been using it since. I just replaced the element in it 2 years ago. I also picked up another one at a garage sale that was like new so I have one at home, too.
Zero controls on the smoker. Plug it in and it goes to about 150F. Originally it had lava rocks in the bottom around the element and you put the chips on the rock. I made a chip pan out of an old stainless soup pot that sits right on the element. Much easier clean-up when done. My pulled pork is famous amongst family, friends and neighbors. I've done ribs and brisket. Have not done a turkey in a long time. Probably should. What I love is you grab the bones in the legs and they slip right out of the meat and it looks like the leg has never been touched. Skin is like rubber, though and that goes in the trash.
I'm on a major walleye lake so I might just smoke a walleye one of these days. Will only do one as an experiment. Walleye is such a delicate flavor that I might find that I don't like it. Don't want to ruin more than 1.
BTW, this is in a woodsy area, Mosquito Hell.
What!, no club members are offering to help?Last week, I was told there is a couple branches down, in front of the 200 yd berm (at the sportsman club), one of them hit the target backer (4x8 plywood) and knocked it off the posts. I was asked to cutup the branches and fix it. I said I would, after the weather cools down a bit (the last few days have been hot and humid, yesterday was 103º with "feels like temp" of 113º).
Today, is still to humid, but the next few mornings "might" be nice enough for me to tackle the project.
So, I went out there today, just to check it out. Well, the 200 yd berm has a large Ash tree down and major damage to the target stand, more than what I was told. ALSO, there is a mid sized Elm down, in front of the 100 yd berm, covering up 90% of the multiple target stands. There will be lots of brush to haul and plenty of good firewood. I will surely need my ATV and trailer...which I didn't think would be needed from what I was told. Probably 6 to 12 hours of work, not the 1 hour I guessed from what I was told. Now I just need to "get excited" about doing that much work, which is hard to do, when the temp is in the 80s and humid. If the next few mornings are a no go, we are suppose to get some GREAT wood cutting weather next week. I may just wait until then? I should of taken photo. BTW, this is in a woodsy area, Mosquito Hell.
Well, if it is like any other gun club I've been associated with, about 2% of the membership actually do work and make a contribution. The remainder, pay dues, complain when things are not perfect and always have a list of things that "we" should be doing to improve the club.What!, no club members are offering to help?
I was a single parent for the better part of 10 years. That started when number one son was almost 3 years old. Tried to raise him with varied tastes in food. One of the dishes he liked was swordfish covered with a caper-butter sauce. He also liked garlicky linguine and clams in white wine sauce.Cindy uses a lot of capers, sun dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives, in various different combinations with her seafood recipes. Swordfish steaks, Tuna steaks and Striper all benefit.
Ooooh, ooooooh, I save up the cheeks until I have about 30 then make a walleye cheek chowder.Okay, since we are sharing walleye recipes, here is what I do. I cut up the fillets with a pair of scissors into fat chunks. Then I fill a paper bag with flour and assorted spices depending on my mood that day. Put the chunk in the bag and do the cha-cha. I put about a 1/2" of oil in a pan and get it hot. I'll toss in a chunk of butter for flavor. Then I fry all those chunks until golden brown on the outside and dump the lot into a plate as finger food. Pop open a cold beer or maybe a bottle of champagne and dig in. Whoever caught the fish always gets the cheeks. But sometimes we share if we have a newbie in our midst.
My Dad always used to scale the walleye and perch we caught. But I skin them. Don't really have a place to scale them. We did at the old family camp and there were scales everywhere from years of cleaning fish. One side of the shed had more scales than paint on it. This was back in the day of no limits and I have photos of the clothes line filled with walleye.
I take a different approach. I keep only those fish I can eat that day. I tend to toss back the giants as they are breeders. 15 inch limit on the lake so a couple of 15-18 inchers make a nice meal.
We use the cheeks to test when the oil is hot enough, then consume as appetizer, while frying the rest. I even take the cheeks off Stripers. Never scaled a fish, always skinned them.Ooooh, ooooooh, I save up the cheeks until I have about 30 then make a walleye cheek chowder.
Mowed the front quarter this morning before it got hot .
Getting better in synch with the self-propelled Honda mower running out of rocks and bamboo shoots as long as we keep after them early in the season . The bamboo that is .