Discussions

Where can you buy quality smoked salmon or other types of smoked fish? Years ago my parents used to buy smoked tulibee but haven’t seen that around. Saw a small package of frozen salmon lox at Sobeys but was extremely pricey for such a small package. We have ten thousand lakes in Manitoba you would think fish would be plentiful and reasonably priced. Might have to try ice fishing this winter.

If you like smoked fish, why not do it yourself. I wouldn’t buy a large salmon fillet, but try and find some smaller frozen pieces to experiment with. Salmon is easy to brine, and smoking can be done with moist wood chips placed on a metal tray in your barbecue.  
In a barbecue you could keep your temperature down, then dry to the moisture level you like in your oven with a temperature in the 170 F level.

Well I actually did try it with some pike last summer in my Weber smoker but it came out very dry and over smoked. Used oak which I though would be mild enough and kept the temperature down around 165. In theory it should have worked but didn’t. First attempt maybe try again next summer.

Try watching this guy:  
 
He's Canadian, so very informative and entertaining and does lots of smoking and interesting things. Maybe you can pick up some ideas to make your smoking more successful.  
 
Because yeah, smoked fish is very expensive. Fish generally is.

Found out early that sometimes the flavour isn’t what you want or the texture is a disappointment. They say that you can smoke nearly any fish, but my best results have come from fish with a higher fat content. Quite often times that are given seem to result in extremely strong Smokey taste.  
It’s sort of like making sausage, sometimes I find it unbelievable that a sausage can taste so horrible.

Superstore has had smoked Tulibee in the fresh fish section for a long time now