Hot Smoking Trout

Our very shiny new Hot Smoker

This weekend was our very first venture into the world of smoking…the food type!

We have been given a Ronnie Sunshine hot smoker for Christmas. It is described as a compact  type (40 x 25 x 11cm ) that can smoke 4 trout, it has two trays and can also be used for thin cuts of meat, poultry, cheese and vegetables cooking and smoking in one go.  I like the fact that its neat and packs away into itself. It  also came supplied with Alder wood chips.

We read all the instructions, first thing before any cooking was to bring the smoker up to 100C , It helps to stop the metal warping or so I am informed.  We had to do this by putting it on the hot plate on top of the stove, it wouldn’t fit in the oven. -Next  we filled the burners with methylated spirits. So far so good.

The instructions don’t say how much of the Alder chips to put in, so we filled the indent and hoped for the best.

Lighting the burners was an experience, the flames are quite alarming but were calmed with the adjusters, methylated spirit burns at a lower temperature so not quite so dramatic really.

Our whole trout we estimated would need about 12 minutes to cook.

I must say I was elated to see it looked exactly like a smoked trout, why it would look like anything else I have no idea but if I’m honest, tasted a little too smoky for us, so next time we will have to adjust the amount of Alder chips in the smoker. It’s a learning curve, so you try and learn as you go.

On the whole I would class it as a great success and hope to try out more in the next few weeks.

Will keep you posted.