love smoked food, First time hot smoking. found an old weber on the side of the road, brought it home, cleaned it up. 

experiment with mullet, salmon fillet and sardines. 

everything 1:1 raw sugar and salt for 6 hours. 

charcoal hot. cherry wood chips ontop, set on the side for indirect heat. lid on. set mullet closest and sardines further from the heat. about 1 hour for the lot.

mullet - meh, gutted, descaled, left whole. not enough time for cure or smoking i think. perfect juicy flesh, i couldnt have got the temp better when I cook it other ways, just cant get past the muddy flavour. 

salmon - fantastic, juicy, salty, sweet, smokey. 56 degrees c  internal temp. great!

sardines - dry, jerky, salty, sweet, decent beer snack, definitely cured through and strong smoked flavour. obviously way overcooked but potentially a great seasoning or base chopped fine. 

After this, i thought it was cool enough to throw some strong cheddar on to see what happens - failure, very slight smoked flavour but just melted cheescheese.

next day leftovers thrown in with mashed potatoes, garlic, spring onion, chilli flakes, leftover not so smokey cheese, white pepper, black pepper, coriander, sardines jerky chopped finely. 

\- this was pretty awesome, threw together a tartare sauce with plenty of capers. not a bad easter. 

What doesnt kill me makes me stronger