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He always has plenty of Mackerel and Whiting, along with cod or haddock. Flat fish are the most plentiful fish down there (brill being the most common) very tasty but unsure whether it would suit smoking. never seen Herring as an option on his counter. I am not keen on Kippers tbh. Although my wife is.

I  love going to this shop just to see his filleting and shelling skills. He can fillet a flat fish perfectly in seconds. It is amazing to watch, never seen anything like it.

Had Turbot for tea last night. What a piece of fish that is. It was bought as a treat for us on our last visit. Can see why it is more expensive than fillet steak, not something I could afford for my weekly bit of fish, but worth every penny, even if it is just to try the once.

They also sell locally caught mussels and some great crabs dressed or whole or pure crabmeat by the container and crab claws. Had a wonderful meal of a bucket of crab claws done in Garlic Butter done on the BBQ out front at a restaurant in Teignmouth late last summer called The Crab Shack. Great menu overall. Definitely want to try Crab Claws done this way soon, the garlic butter and crabmeat once the claws had been cracked, had a real delicate smoky flavour from the soaked wood chips that didn't overpower the crab meat he used on embers of the BBQ. Really good, would imagine they could be done on a smoker, but the roasted/smoky taste the BBQ gave it may work better.

I would imagine mussels could be done the same way also and something I am looking at trying myself later this year.

Thanks for that Wade, will have a look around and see if I can find any larger trout.

Visiting family In Brixham next week, . I have a favourite fishmonger on the harbour front down there, so going to pick up some Mackerel and Whiting (and anything else he recommends smoking from the sea) and have a first time go at hot smoking them when I get back. 

On 1/18/2018 at 1:38 PM, Wade said:

You can smoke any size of Trout however the size will depend on the type of smoking. To use it for traditional smoked salmon style the fish really needs to at least a kilo in order to get decent slices. For the smaller fish fillets then a "light" smoke is usually preferable.

To control the saltiness with the smaller fillets it is often easier to cure with a brine.

1. Dissolve 150g of salt in 1 litre of water. Stir until dissolved
2. Immerse the fillets completely in the brine and leave for 5 minutes. This is sufficient to kill off any spoilage bacteria on the surface of the fish.
3. Remove from the brine and hang. Allow to drip for 1 hour.
4. Smoke the fillets for up to 24 hours at up to 20 deg C.
5. Refrigerate after smoking

The smoking of the Trout in this way is similar to smoked haddock and the fish will need to be cooked before eating.

Wade where do you find a trout that gives you a side weighing 1kg once filleted, I would imagine the Trout whole would need to start out a 3-3.5kg minimum to get close to that. I never see a trout (whole) larger than 250-300g on my supermarket slab.

I take it you know a good fisherman or order it online or from a wholesaler? 

The lemon flavour is noticeable in the finished flavour, but a butter and herb mix, thyme rosemary without the lemon etc would probably work, that would maybe suitable for your Moms digestion

Glad you enjoyed it Steve, I find it very simple to do, and tasty especially using next doors cherry wood from the tree they prune every year. Be nice to find a spiral ham, but a decent supermarket deli ham hasn't let me down yet.  i understand Wade's suggestion of curing it yourself. But time and space make the option I choose, much easier. 

How big a side of trout does it need to be to smoke succesfully. Fancy trying it in the coming weeks. Unfortunately most trout I see are between 4-8oz and don't look big enough to smoke, once filleted, when compared to salmon.

I have tried this last summer and found it really refreshing and probably the moistest chicken I have managed so far. Using a foil tray rather than a chicken stand. I cooked mine on a proQ with the water pan so could only really maintain 230 deg F so took a longer cooking time than at the 300 deg F in the description, although if I left the waterpan out I am sure I could have got up to 300 deg F

Hopefully it is ok to link to another site? Lemon & Rosemary Butter Chicken http://www.smokingpit.com/recipes/Lemon-Rosemary-Chicken.htm

You could leave the garlic out. But I always use the garlic in jars or some homemade garlic confit, find it much milder than raw garlic

If you have a Morrisons by you they are doing whole salmon for £5 a kg at the moment. The fishmonger at our store is happy to fillet it for you (way better job than I could ever do) and from a 3kg salmon you get 2 x  1kg side fillets usually. Whole salmons range from 3-4kg. 

Looks lovely and I bet it tastes delicious

12 minutes ago, Smokin Monkey said:

The Cockerel sounds interesting.

They're really tasty. Converted a few other people to them now. As I say I get mine from my local butcher. Plenty of other farms do them, so always worth trying your local independent butcher,  to see if they sell them, or you can get them delivered from the farms direct., or Ocado sell the Packington Farm ones, but they are in and out of stock at the moment for xmas...

Costs around £8 a kg which is comparable to a Bronze Free Range Turkey. Even if you don't have one for xmas dinner,  If you have the freezer space. I reckon these would smoke really well.

Cooking in the traditional way, no smoking. But I cook a Packington Free Range Cockerel with goose fat potatoes and all the trimmings for the main meal now. Found over the last couple of years the meat on a Cockerel is so much more juicier and tastier than a turkey. Can thoroughly recommend if you find turkey a bit bland and dry and you can get them up to 6kg+ which will feed 10 comfortably..

Only ever see them at Christmas and Easter, I would use them in place of chicken, if they were more widely available throughout the year. Haven't the freezer space to store them unfortunately.

May be of interest and worth considering  in the future? if they allow BBQ Events of course?

Stratford Caravans close to the M40 and pretty central being just outside Stratford Upon Avon

Converted a few people to this paste,  this summer, who don't smoke meats, but now use it in chilli con carne, meatballs etc. They all seem to like the not overpowering heat it gives and loads of flavour. It seems to have many uses.

This is the one I use  comes in a 90g jar but they do 2 others. Which I haven't tried personally here if either link doesn't work just put chipotle paste into search box and it will come up with the products

This slaw goes well with pulled pork in a brioche bun or a burger bun or just on the side of the plate with chicken or a rack of ribs,

Serves up to 8 people

1/2 White Cabbage Shredded
1/4 Red Cabbage Shredded
200g of Tinned Sweetcorn Drained
Grated zest of 1 lime
Juice of 2 Limes
Bunch of coriander leaves
150g Mayonnaise
25g of Chipotle Paste (Sainsburys do a good one)
Sea Salt and Fresh Black Pepper to Taste
150ml Sour Cream

*** 6 Confit Cloves Of Garlic (There are 2 options for this you can choose the easy way and buy the jars of garlic in oil and crush 6 of them, in a garlic press. But if you have the time doing your own is much better.

You need enough Olive oil to cover the garlic cloves in the pan. You first heat the oil up very gently on the hob. If you overheat the oil it will just fry the cloves and make them bitter and unedible. I place the very edge of the saucepan on the very edge of the flame (the majority of the pan is not over the flame at all). That is the only way I can keep the oil at a low enough temperature to do this on my gas cooker.  Once the oil is just warmed up and a few bubbles are showing in the pan add the garlic cloves. After about 45 minutes to an hour they will be cooked, super soft and you can literally crush them between your thumb and finger.

I usually do about 3 garlic bulbs at once and the cloves and oil left over I put in a sealed container in the fridge and it keeps for up to 2-3 months, so long as you keep them covered in oil at all times.(The oil will be garlic infused after all this time, when the cloves have been used up and it can be used for frying and imparts a lovely gentle garlic flavour to the meats or stir fries)

 I always use a plastic spoon when removing them form the saucepan or container if kept in  the fridge. As metal spoons can cause possible contamination to the bulbs in the long run. Same with any pickled jarred product.

I sometimes add this as something different
150g Sundried Tomatoes (I use the ones out of jar and add a bit of the oil to the mix as well), but you could add pickled beetroot, red peppers whatever you fancy trying.

Not my recipe, but one I use regularly from an excellent BBQ/Smoker book I have Pitt & Cue The Cookbook works really well with slow cooked meats in a bun or over a plate of meat. Bit of prep but a really tasty sloppy gravy to use with pulled pork, brisket, beer can chicken etc

Either dip your bun in the gravy boat or pour it over the meat in the bun

Enough to serve 10 or more

Chicken wings 200g chopped
Chicken skin 200g chopped
Vegetable oil 10ml
4 shallots chopped
1 garlic clove
100g button mushrooms
1 sprig of thyme and 1 bayleaf
10g mixed peppercorns crushed
10g of chipotle paste (Sainsburys do a good one)
100ml of Madeira Wine
100ml White Wine Vinegar
500ml of Beef Gravy
500ml of Chicken Gravy (I use the fresh ready made ones you can get at supermarkets now, as I prefer it to powdered gravy in this recipe, but to keep costs down, powdered gravy will work).

At the end
100g Mustard (I use the Heinz Squeezy Mild Yellow Honey Mustard as English Mustard is too strong for me, depends how you like your mustard)?  You may need to adjust amounts if using a strong English Mustard or the like.
100g Butter

Roast the skin and chicken wings for 30 minutes @ 170C on a baking tray for 30 minutes until golden

Heat the oil and saute the shallots and garlic, add the chicken wings and skin, garlic mushrooms thyme and bayleaf, crushed peppercorns and chipotle paste until caramalised.

Add the Madeira and Vinegar then simmer to reduce by half before adding the Beef and Chicken Gravies, simmer for a further 30 minutes and pass it through a fine sieve.

Mix the butter with mustard and whisk it into the gravy and serve. The gravy can be done the night before and reheated and mustard/butter added once it has been if required.

Be interested to read what your thoughts are on it. 

I am not a big fan of spice and heat, and found this sauce recipe works well with ribs if you like them sweet and sticky.

I add this to racks of ribs when they are cooked and put it on the grill rack over slightly cooled down charcoal (so it doesn't flare up) to caramalise the sauce slightly on the ribs before serving. Works well on chicken pieces as well Can also be added earlier if you use the foiling method when cooking your ribs also. But I find it works best over the charcoal.

250ml Cola
250ml Tomato Ketchup
4 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar (I use 2 spoons each of Light Brown Cane Sugar and Molasses Sugar)
4 tablespoons of Clear Honey
2 Tablespoons of White Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper To Taste

Add all the ingredients to a saucepan bring to the boil and then turn the heat down really low and reduce it so it becomes the consistency of a thick sauce, takes about 45 minutes and reduces by a half of the original amount at least. Brush it over both sides your ribs or chicken once they are cooked. Enough to cover at least 3 full racks of ribs.

Can add whisky, teriyaki etc if you like a little kick or tang to it as well.

I have done this one several times, very simple and not too sweet. I just buy a joint of ready cured ham (never found a spiral ham. I use Gammon or Yorkshire ham) from Supermarket or Cash and Carry, I just find it much easier than using an uncured gammon joint and gives me a better result.

Holiday Ham