Hot smoked carp steaks

• 4 carp steaks, 200–250 g each
• 20 g fish seasoning
• 80 g salt
• 1 litre water

Alternatively:
• 100 g salt
• fresh herbs to taste
• 1 litre water

Aside from that:
• Beech wood, beech shavings

About 12 hours before you want to start smoking, the fish or steaks are placed in a brine. The rule of thumb is: for 1 kg of fish, use 100 g of salt to 1 litre of water. The fish must be completely covered with the brine. After 12 hours, remove the carp steaks from the brine, rinse thoroughly with cold water and dry with kitchen paper.

Before you start smoking, you should have all the basic utensils close to the smoking area. The basic utensils include: beech wood, beech chips, smoking hooks for hanging the fish and, in case of emergency, some water to extinguish the flames.
Preheat the grill or smoker for at least 10 minutes before smoking. There should be a small ember and the temperature in the grill should not exceed 120 °C. Now hang the fish or place them on the grill. They should not touch each other so that the smoke can reach all around the fish and they do not stick together after smoking.

Then close the lid of the grill/smoker, open the air supply and add some wood if necessary. From now on, the grill should not have any high flames. Now the cooking time for the fish begins; the temperature should be between 80 and a maximum of 120 °C. The fish should be cooked after about 20-30 minutes.

Then the actual smoking begins. To do this, you put another piece of wood or beech chips on top, but close the air supply completely. From now on, there should be no more flames, just swelling, thick smoke. The temperature should now settle at 60-70 °C. The grill/smoker must be constantly monitored. If necessary, add more beech wood or beech chips. These can be moistened a little if necessary. During smoking, you should try not to lift the lid.

The smoking process is complete after about 1-1 ½ hours. This time refers to portion fish in the 400 g range. Depending on the size of the fish to be smoked, the time may need to be increased or decreased. The fish are well smoked when the dorsal fin (bone with meat) can be easily pulled out of the back and the visible meat is no longer glassy!

FIRE&FOOD Issue 4-2019