I have smoked things using the barbecue grill before, and it’s largely the same thing that I did here with an offset smoker.
I will explain the adjustments as needed for each step of the process.
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Full disclosure: I decided to start my adventure in smoking a whole fish when the outside temperature was 27°F (-3°C). I certainly don’t recommend doing this, since it was impossible to maintain the temperature I needed to fully cook the fish. I finished the cook of the fish in the oven. But, in fact, what I did constituted a Cold Smoke of the fish: the internal temperature rarely got above 85ºF, but the smoke flavor imparted by the process was spectacular.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 2 hours |
| Passive Time | 2 hours |
| Servings |
whole fish
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Ingredients
Brine Ingredients
- 1 liter water
- 7 ounces salt by weight
- 1 tablespoon peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
Smoker Ingredients
- 1 whole mackerel scaled and gutted
- smoker pellets or chips I used maple and cherry wood
- charcoal briquettes
- 1 ounce salt
- 8 ounces white rice uncooked
- 4 tea bags Earl Gray remove tea leaves and discard the bags
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- charcoal briquettes
- 1 ounce salt
- 8 ounces white rice
- 4 leaves Earl Gray tea bags remove teaand discard the bags
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Ingredients
Brine Ingredients
Smoker Ingredients
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Instructions
Brine the Mackerel
- Warm the water and mix the brine ingredients thoroughly. Cool the blend completely. Immerse the mackerel in the brine and allow to rest in a cool place for 2 hours. If there is not enough solution to immerse the whole fish, add water and salt in the same proportions. NOTE: this is a large bucket I used with a locking lid, so part of the fish does appear out of the water at this angle. I had it lying on its side during the process.
- Remove the fish from the brine. Rinse thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.
Smoke the Mackerel
- Load the fire box with flavored wood chips and briquettes and light according to manufacturer's instructions. If you're using a standard barbecue grill, the wood chips will be loaded into a "foil boat" and placed on the opposite side of the grill from the fish. Keep the burners off below the fish, and raise the heat only below the foil boat,
- Mix rice, brown sugar, and tea leaves together and place in a "foil boat". In my case, the foil boat was placed in a steel box for greater stability, but that's not required.
- Place the foil boat on the rack below where you intend to place the mackerel.
- When the temperature in the smoker reaches 120°F (50°C), center the mackerel on the upper rack. Install a remote temperature gauge if available to monitor the internal temperature.
- If the smoker is hot enough, and the internal temperature of the fish reaches 140°F (60°C), you can fully cook the fish on the smoker. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).
- Place the fish on aluminum foil and then place the foil on a baking sheet. Rub both sides of the fish lightly with olive oil, then rub with salt and brown sugar.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the fish reaches 140°F (60°C). Note that the heating process separates the skin from the flesh. This should happen on the smoker if the temperature is hot enough.
