Best way to grill/smoke bluefish

[Fishinfool]

I went out w/ a friend today on his Parker 25 and kept four keeper blues, which are now iced down and have been since taken off the hook. It's been a long time since I caught and cooked fresh bluefish. I hear that smoking is now the way to go. I've had smoked bluefish when it's done right, and it's fantastic.

In addition to a regular gas grill, I have a smaller weber I use for camping and tailgating. I have some mesquite chips which he suggested I soak in water prior to grilling/smoking the fish.

Should I use foil, and maybe a little corn oil on it (with punched holes to let it drain while cooking), or just directly on the grill. Should I wait till the coals die down some, to increase smoking time?

What about salting them with rock salt or kosher salt for a fours hours prior to grilling? Any special herbs/spices?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Slobber Bob]

Smoked blues! Yum!! I just smoked 10 blues yesterday I caught on the beach. I use an actual charcoal smoker with a water pan above the coals, but I've read about just using a regular charcoal grill and adding a foil water pan between the coals. If using a propane grill, I think you can wrap the wood chips in foil, poke holes, place over the burner on low, and add a water pan over that, but I've never done it so hopefully somebody else will chime in for you.

I brined them in a standard solution: For every 2 cups water add 1 tablespoon sugar & 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Brine time depends on thickness. All my blues were small (14" - 16") and I soaked for about 1.5 hours. Pat dry real well when your done and season as desired. I did half in 'Slap Ya Momma' cajun seasoning (good stuff for smoking chickens too!) and half with Lawry's season salt & pepper with a little squirt of lime. You can also add seasoning and flavors to the water pan to increase flavor supposedly but I've never really noticed a taste difference between when I do and don't do this.

I try to keep the temp between 200 - 225 degrees. With small blues like I had it doesn't take very long so you don't need a ton of coals. Last nights batch were done in around a hour and a half. I used hickory chunks last night but mesquite, apple, cherry, sassafras, grape vine, etc. all work... basically any fruit or nut hardwood. No pines.

[Fishinfool]

Great Bob, thanks. Ten 14 - 16" surf blues; pretty awesome! These are snappers we caught casting at the BB; 10 - 13 ", so they are a bit of an experiment.

I also read that you can salt (rock salt) them overnight on ice, which I am doing now, and take 'em out to room temp about an hour prior to smoking.

[Tyrone Shoes]

I like Apple or Alder for fish. Not too overpowering......you still taste the fish.

Personally a young bluefish wrapped in foil with a couple pats of butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice is one of my favorite fish. 20 minutes at 450 degrees=awesome!

[Tyrone Shoes]

Oh yea......don't forget the onion slices on top of and inside the cavity.

[surfdog]

Prep is important. After catching bleed them.when cleaning them remove blood line its much better some soak filets in milk before grilling

[Mmacro]

X2 on the bleed and bloodline advice. I prefer buttermilk: the enzymes in it does a nice job IMO at cutting the oil based fishyness.

It's hard to do a proper smoke on a grill... Too much heat and not enough time on the smoke. I use a upright smoker and butterfly the fish open.

Take your smoked fish and cool it in the refrigerator. Flake it out in large chunks. Take out a package of cream cheese and let it soften on the counter. Mix in sour cream to keep the cream cheese soft. Mix in Old Bay, worstishire sauce and finely minced daddle peppers (or scotch bonnets or some other heat chili) to taste. Last thing you do is fold in the chunks of fish (this keeps them from disintegrating if you added them first) and mix till the fish breaks apart a little. Put back in refrigerator overnight (sour creek keeps it from turning back into a brick). Serve with crackers... Best fish dip I ever tasted.

[AbuMasgouf]

Hey Bro,

Bluefish is my favorite fish to be cooked Masgouf style. Hands down better than Rockfish. Check out the video MOC put up from when I explained how to Masgouf a fish at CBKA:

[Fishinfool]

Thanks to all, you guys are great! Unfortunately, salting them over night, even though rinsed off prior to smoking, made them way too salty. Add in getting an important call resulting in leaving them on the grill. They came out dry, like over salty potato chips. I need a real smoker.

Work calls, so I'll have to look at Mas-goof style rockfish later.

Question for Surfdog when you have a couple minutes; how do you "bleed them", and where is the "blood line"?

[Slobber Bob]

Sorry to hear it didn't come out as planned. Lesson learned for next time I guess.

Cutting the "throat" will bleed out a fish nice and quick. Only picture I had of fish after being bled. Cut at yellow arrow.
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[sparky1423]

I would stick with the brine before smoking. Slobber Bob has it right with the ratios. Back in my restaurant days, we would smoke 30 lbs of salmon at a time in a smoke house. That was the only time I would pack them with rock salt and cure them for days before smoking. This type of cure is more designed for very thin, very moderate table fair...not the "chunky" style we are looking for.

It's tough for me to smoke at home after my propane smoker reached it's shelf life. I use a weber now with small amounts of charcoal, the hardest part is keeping the temps around the 200-250 mark. Actually for fish, a cold smoke is recommended, but that is a temp around 125-150 which is impossible without the right equipment. I usually smoke ribs and pork butt, but if you can smoke a fish, your goal is slow and low. If it takes an hour than you really accomplished something in your smoking processes. In the end everyone has their own process and no one is right or wrong...that's the beauty of cooking.

Thanks to all, you guys are great! Unfortunately, salting them over night, even though rinsed off prior to smoking, made them way too salty. Add in getting an important call resulting in leaving them on the grill. They came out dry, like over salty potato chips. I need a real smoker.

Work calls, so I'll have to look at Mas-goof style rockfish later.

Question for Surfdog when you have a couple minutes; how do you "bleed them", and where is the "blood line"?

[Fishinfool]

I think the smoked bluefish I had (served as an appetizer with crackers) was probably smoked "cold" w/ professional equipment. My brother in law's sister (where we had the bluefish) owns a catering company and either has that fancy stuff or knows where to get her bluefish.

Next time, I'll definitely bleed the fish first, as there was still some of that oily bluefish aftertaste, even with the icing, salting , and grilling of it.

Every other fish that I catch and eat I prepare as simply as possible to preserve the taste of the freshness of the fish. Blues are a little different.

[Mmacro]

Make sure you bleed them while they are still alive and in water... learned that fishing for salmon in Alaska.

The bloodline is on the surface of the fillet, just under the skin and right along the center-line of the upper and lower portion of the fillet (its the stuff that turbns a dark grey when cooked... it tastes really funky).

[gillplate]

smoked is the way to go with blues especially bigger blues. soak in brine for at least 4 hours,set a plate on top of them to keep them submerged, let air dry til tacky on a drying rack, smoke for about 4 hours at 200-230 degrees or until it starts to split. I cant keep the stuff around everybody tears it up!

[ronaultmtd]

There are just too many good eating fish for me to mess with oily, strong, nasty-tasting blue fish- fun to catch just like lady fish and tarpon- no one I know eats lady fish or tarpon...they make great cut bait and crab bait..