Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am inclined to try the hickory first up. They'll both get a whirl in time though - so the verdict will be known in due course :-)

I have to say I haven't tried this with fish but it's good with red meat.

If you have a winery near you, you may be able to get your hands on some spent "Oak Chips" . Don't be fooled by the name these are usually 6' x 10" x .3" planks or in metric 1800 x 250 x 20.

and your neighbour won't complain about the smell of the smoke

oh yeah, it's also good for the occasinal woodworking project as well.

H.

One of these

I used to make beef jerky and smoke it as a final flavour.
I got a 25L drum they used to store cooking oil at the fish shop, cut the top off it and bowed it's edges out to make a lid, put a metal rack in it to hang the meat from. i then tossed a hand full of wood shaving in the bottom and put a small kerosen burner under it to heat the shavings ( just a jar with a hole in the lid and a whick in it).
the tin walls of the drum were so thin they heated nicely and made the wood smolder for hours.

F&F - I had a feeling you would have one of those. Unfortunately I've just got a standard webber kettle - but it will do the job for small lots. If I like the outcome then I'll build something bigger.

Timmy - no wineries near me unfortunatelly

out near Canungra, and Toowoomba there are wineries

I know - not near me. Besides which, in Queensland they seem to be a lot more tight when it comes to giving things away or selling at a reasonable price.

The commercial product I bought will smoke a fair bit of stuff and is reasonably priced - so it would be false ecomomy for me to lug my arse off to some winery out west to buy some old wood, when I can pop down to B and buy me some pellets. Would be different if I was smoking meat every day of the week - but I only intend to do fish. Will see how I go.

yeah, just teasing

cos its fun

VB - you will be able to buy oak shavings from a home brew shop for sure, though that'd be a little on the expensive side knowing them.
you could look for small off cuts from a specialty timber store

Thanks Tim - I'll try the specialty smoking pellets first and see how I go. There are several different ones in the range - including ones with oak. For the amount of smoking I will do they are reasonably priced in my view. Claims to do ten batches (only webber size - not a huge smokehouse or anything) and they are only $12.

I like the idea of the smoked fish though. I could see myself doing a trade with the friendly butcher down the road once i have an excess.

grow all my own food in AP and get the stuff i can't grow myself like red meat via trade for things i have too much of.

ahh if only i had the space.

Sounds goo din theory Timmy - but I'm not sure a butcher would take the risk of buying from somebody who is not health department certified. If somebody got sick - he would be in the shit big time.

After the success with my last smoking experience and the dip I made, I figured that I need to be able gas power my smoking to give me better control over temps. Was fortunate enough to pick up a 2nd hand gas powered kettle BBQ on ebay today. This will come in handy not only for smoking, but also when I want a quick and nasty kettle roast (I prefer taste of charcoal cooked roasts though) or where I need to use 2 kettles due to number of people (one for roast and the gas one for the veg). Then of course there is the normal BBQ for the kids sausages :-).