Hey bro. I just got back from fishing and caught an eel about that size but had no idea how to smoke it so I threw it back. Next time I will definitely be keeping it.
eel and all other fish should be smoked with the skin and head together as one. You only wish to scrape and wash the outside, eliminate the guts, and cut any blood spots out. Add enough kosher salt to a bowl of luke warm water until a potato the size of your fist starts to float (just starts to rise in the water maybe 1 inch). put the cleaned eel in the water, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Hot smoke. keep the flame running for the first 30 minutes until the skin is loose and easily slides from the meat (don't slie it off, it is just a way to test to see if it is cooked before continuing to smoke it). Then smother the flames and make sure there is just enough oxygen to allow the wood to smolder. Smoke for 3 hours, Use beechwood or an applewood/hickory mix for best flavor. The eel should be served at room temp. If your refrigerate it, take it out 1 hour before eating. The bone will pull completely out of the meat while warm and oily. Eel is extremely fatty, the majority of the fat will rise to the top, under the skin along the location of the dorsal the fin. Good luck, that's the way it is done in Germany. I use a 55 gallon steel drum with a grille on top, opned up on both ends. I place the barrel on a sand pile and use a bucket full water and clean burlap sacks to cover over the eel, allowing the smoke to slowly escape, keeping the temp up to at least 140 degrees F while smoking, 250 for the first 30 minutes. If the fire comes back to life, kick more sand to the bottom edges of the barrel to smother the fire, but allowing enough to keep the wood smoldering
I really appreciate your comment. Amazing how I can search around the net for information and then find it in a comment :) When you say about the bucket of water, do you mean to soak the burlap and then just lay it over the top of the drum? Also do you mean that you leave a gap or two at the bottom of the drum for air flow, which can be more or less covered to regulate the temp? Thanks :)
@@samiamnot8906 yes, bucket of water is to keep the burlap wet so it doesn't burn, then they need to be replaced when dried with other wet burlap sacs. The holes in the bottom is to regulate the oxygen flow. I let the wood burn until it gets hot enough to sustain it's coals, then smother it, leaving little openings, enough to maintain the coals and smoke for 2 to 3 hours, depending on how large of batch you put on the grate. I prop the fish or eel's bellies open with small sticks cut from my lumber cuttings scrap pile so the smoke penetrates the inside too. The drum is the perfect distance from the meet so it smokes it well, but it leaves enough heat to partially cook the fish. This is great for salmon, trout, steelhead trout (my favorite) bass, sea bass, pretty much any fish, however the bottom feeders have more fat ending up being more of a delicassie. Cat fish, bullhead, eel, all early season if fresh water otherwise they get a muddy, gamey taste. Salt water fish could be cold smoked, but I prefer this method, it is tastiest.
