Steve Mackiewicz, president of Furnace Creek Gourmet Smoked Seafood, favors horizontal smokers. And I can get the coloration and the drying equal there are no hot or cold spots. The first step Prior to smoking, fish is normally soaked or coated in brine. The brine usually is made up of salt as well as brown sugar, garlic or pepper to add flavor and to help dry the product out. European processors are experimenting with injecting brine into the fish to speed up the drying process a method many U.S. plants frown upon because it makes the smoked fish less firm and silky even though it cuts the drying and smoking process down anywhere from 10 to 24 hours.
Modern kilns can do both.
F. As demand for seafood smokers has grown, oven manufacturers have enhanced certain characteristics of their ovens to increase smoking efficiency. The results are new and improved units that adhere to the traditional tenets of smoking but have simplified the process. As with most seafood-processing equipment, computerized features have given processors much greater control over the smoking process. It makes it almost idiot-proof. One of the biggest concerns in the fish-smoking process had been shrinkage during the drying stage.