"Fish oils permeate everything"

[DaveD]

Hey folks, in Meathead's book on p. 324, there's a blue box titled FISH OILS PERMEATE EVERYTHING. "Fish oils can get into the walls of your smoker, so it is a good idea to give it a thorough washing after smoking fish. If you do a lot of fish, it might be worthwhile to have a separate smoker for fish."

I see plenty of SUWYC posts with fish, but I've never seen anyone post anything about the problems of having to clean out the fish oils. I'd love to smoke some salmon, but I don't want to have to clean every single time. Do y'all do this?

[Alan Brice]

I do not notice any remaining fish odor in my PBC. If I did I would wash it with Sodar

[Alan Brice]

Seriously, I do Salmon quite often on the PBC. Not noticing any carry over.

[texastweeter]

Never had an issue with it.

[Jerod Broussard]

I reckon I never did enough to warrant another smoker for just fish. No problems with the limited number of salmon runs.

I thought I used permeate to kill ticks and mosquitoes.

[RonB]

I occasionally cook salmon without any problems.

I have an old electric smoker, and the instructions said cooking salmon occasionally would not have any effect. But if cooking a lot of salmon, you should have a seperate cooker for salmon.

[Uncle Bob]

Something fishy about that belief.......................never experienced a "problem" either. And just to further go down the thought trail, we often use Worcestershire sauce, which has anchovies as a major ingredient, and Asian foods are often spiked with fish sauce...............both for their umami properties.

[Mosca]

I don’t eat fish. But Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce don’t taste like fish.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

The only time it's an issue is if you do ALOT of fish in my opinion. Especially low and slow like oily smoked salmon or whatever. I typically do a hot and fast cook after doing any fish, so no issues... I would NOT cold smoke cheese in my MAK while smoking some fish of any type in the main chamber...

[Huskee]

I don't do a lot of slow-smoked fish, but I'd say I do my fair share. 3-5 times a year maybe. I don't notice this problem personally and I don't dedicate one cooker to fish. But that doesn't mean it's not important to others' circumstances. Meathead swears by this being a problem and uses his electric solely for fish.

[jfmorris]

I am thinking Meathead is one of those folks with more taste buds than me, i.e. a more refined palate than the ordinary person. It's a thing. I'm in a beer club, and during our meetings, it been interesting to see how some folks can taste certain off flavors that other folks just can't.

[DaveD]

It is absolutely a thing. Did some beer-judge training decades ago and it was extremely eye-opening.

[Skip]

I cook/smoke salmon and other fish probably 10 time s a year. Never have I noticed any type of carryover.

[Draznnl]

Skip wrote almost word for word what I was going to say. I’ve never noticed any carryover from occasional fish smoking.

[acorgihouse]

I've been doing Meathead's Fancy Schmancy Smoked Salmon for years, every couple of months, and never had a problem. I have one of those old CharBroil smokers that looks like your high school locker, it's well over ten years old, and never had any issue.

[DaveD]

Thanks for the great discussion folks! My lovely bride would love for me to smoke up some salmon but I've resisted, pointing to that blue box in Meathead's book. Looks like an experiment is in order, at a minimum...

[jfmorris]

I grill fish on occasion, but do not dedicate a grill to it. I probably do wash off the grates before the next cook, or burn them off. I don't smoke fish though - just grill it.

[fzxdoc]

I am thinking Meathead is one of those folks with more taste buds than me, i.e. a more refined palate than the ordinary person. It's a thing. I'm in a beer club, and during our meetings, it been interesting to see how some folks can taste certain off flavors that other folks just can't.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head, jfmorris .

I am not a fish lover, although I do grill or SV/sear it for my husband. I only use my gasser for fish, mostly because I don't want to fire up coals for just one serving.

I'm very attuned to fishy smells in restaurants and a fishy taste, especially if I eat something cooked in the same deep fry oil that fish has been cooked in like french fries or hush puppies in some seafood restaurants.

All of this is to say that if there was a fishy outgassing in my gasser, I'd be the first one to notice it. So far, not a problem, but that may be due to the relatively low incidence of fish cooks and my usual vigorous cleaning routine after every single cook anyway.

Kathryn

[jfmorris]

Kathryn,

I think this is also the reason some folks, like you and my daughter in law, are sensitive to "leftover" taste that most of us also don't detect. You've just got more of the tastebuds to detect that stuff. I.e. you are a "super taster".

[Tax Man]

I've smoked lake trout in the PBC several times and do notice a heavy odor is there after smoking. Lake trout is very oily and a good fish for smoking. I just wash out the PBC and let it air dry for a couple of days and all's good.