Smoked Pike?

[BigSage]

Has anybody smoked Pike before, and if so how was it?

[fishm_n]

Let us Know!!

[Cornbread]

Last year smokeybear's cousin did some up in a brown sugar and salt brine and then smoked it. It was flat out, outstanding. Not sure if he is on here or not but I liked it so much I am doing a bunch up this year myself. Whitefish is real good smoked up too.

[BigSage]

I like smoked whitey as well.  Smoked a batch of Kokes from Georgetown at work yesterday, and it got me thinking.  I love pike just about every way possible, but I have not smoked it.  Now I can't wait to try it!

[Neptune]

I have smoked Pike and it was very tasty...  it was no smoked salmon or Rainbow mind you but it was good.  What you need to watch out for is that it dry's out very quickly because it doesn't have as much fat as other fish.  I is perfect for trying flavored brine's because the fish has such a light clean flavor it allows you to taste any additions you make to your brine.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

[BigSage]

Going to smoke a batch as soon as I can get up to Dog or Salmon lake

[mtjigalo]

BigSage. I agree with cornbread and neptune. Smoked pike is damn tasty stuff. I like it just as much as smoked halibut (which is friggin excellent).
Speaking of Dog lake, I'll take a run up there tomorrow and have another look see. Night time temps have been reasonably cold over the last few days but yesterday was warmish. I'll let you know.

[BigSage]

EXCELLENT!

[Cornbread]

Here is what I did the other day at my cousins place here  in South Dakota and it came out really good.

1 cup kosher salt
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons high quality dark molasses
about a gallon of water

Four,  3 - 4lb pike filleted up with Y bones in, rib bones out and filleted off the skin

soaked the fillets over night in the brine in the fridge swirling it every now and then when I thought about it. Took the fillets out and dried them off with paper towels and then let them sit in the fridge all day on the smoking racks to form a pellicle. They didn't seem to form one that was visible like salmon do so maybe I did something wrong but it worked in the end. Stuck it in the smoker at 90 degrees for two hours with applewood chips until I figured they had plenty of smoke, then I turned it up to 200 degrees until the internal temp of the meat hit 160, then I turned the heat down to 160 and kept the meat's internal temp at 160 for 30 minutes then I took it out and ate a bunch and put the rest in the fridge. Tried the cold stuff the next day too. Both warm and cold it was excellent.

Smoker was a masterbuilt electric smoker with one of those prong deals you stick in the meat so you can check it remotely and know what the smoker temp and the meat internal temp is at the same time.

[fishin247]

Has anybody smoked Pike before, and if so how was it?

More of a cigar guy myself, but to each his own.

[BigSage]

Thanks Cornbread.  That sounds like a pretty good recipe.  Was there a reason you smoked them with the skin off?  Too much slime?  Just dying to smoke a batch.  I'm over Georgetown.  You have to clean too many of those little dinky salmon to get a decent batch.

[Cornbread]

Thanks Cornbread.  That sounds like a pretty good recipe.  Was there a reason you smoked them with the skin off?  Too much slime?  Just dying to smoke a batch.  I'm over Georgetown.  You have to clean too many of those little dinky salmon to get a decent batch.

Yes, the slime and their skin is so much thicker than salmon etc. I have had trouble with whitefish getting enough smoke taste due to their thick skin before and pike skin is a lot tougher than whitefish so I figured I had best go with skin off completely. I do whitefish the same way now to get more smoke taste in to them and less trout-ish taste.

[BigSage]

How do you keep the meat from sticking to the racks?  Pam or oil or something.  I would think the sugar would make them stick really bad?

[Neptune]

there are different schools of thought on smoking that is for sure..

My brine is basically the same as Corny's, but I leave the skin on and let the filets sit at room temp to "glaze" for about an hour.  The they go in the cold smoker with Cherry and Alder chips and I smoke them for 4-6 hours depending on the thickness of the fillets.  I never get the smoker hotter than 185 and I apply smoke the entire time.  I've never had the fish not have enough smoke.  One of the compliments I get from the people I give my smoked fish to is that "it has a nice smokey flavor"....  I remove my fillets from the smoker when the spring is almost gone from the meat.

[Cornbread]

How do you keep the meat from sticking to the racks?  Pam or oil or something.  I would think the sugar would make them stick really bad?

So long as they have formed a pellicle (or "glaze" like Neptune calls it) they don't seem to stick much at all to the smoker racks. I think when I do it again I am going to do it like Neptune does and just do a straight smoke for 4 hours with the smoker set to 180 or so. The pike takes the smoke really well or at least it did for me this time around but at home my smoker does better if I just set it to one temp and let it go for several hours with smoke the entire time rather than monkeying with temps and doing a smoking then cooking setup like I did with my cousins. If skin on works for Neptune you should try that if you are worried about it sticking to your racks. I have never had good luck with skin on myself though, but I could be doing it wrong too as I have sort of worked out what I like on my own, never had anyone around to show me how to do it correctly so I kind of trial and errored a lot (mostly errored) until I got the taste I like.

I am still trying to get whitefish down, I hate the taste of trout (long story) so I want all that taste gone because whitefish taste just like trout to me. When I get them down so there is no trout taste I'll post up how I finally made them taste good

[icing_perch]

If you like smoked pike try some ling smoked up.  I have tried both a sweet brine and just a salt brine on whole ling and I and many friends love it smoked in jsut a salt and lemon juice mixture.

[baetis_elk]

I've smoked white fish in my Big Chief a number of times.  I leave the skin on and prop the body cavity open with tooth picks (usually have to break them so they will fit.  Works just fine for me.  My wife told me not to bother smoking trout anymore after she ate some of the white fish because they didn't have that "fishy flavor".

[Cornbread]

I've smoked white fish in my Big Chief a number of times.  I leave the skin on and prop the body cavity open with tooth picks (usually have to break them so they will fit.  Works just fine for me.  My wife told me not to bother smoking trout anymore after she ate some of the white fish because they didn't have that "fishy flavor".

I tried the tooth picks thing today, it worked great. How are you guys getting the top thick part of the whitefish done without the bottom part over the ribs becoming fish jerky?

[Firetrap]

If you leave the skin on a pike maybe try scraping the slime off like what people do with catfish skin. Dull knife and scrape vigorously.