Smoke Your Own Fish 



Here is a simple 

 method of constructing 

 an inexpensive smoke- 

 house suitable for 

 smoking fish or meats 



By A. M. Jungmann 



TRY smoking your own fish if you have 

 the space to put up a small smoke- 

 house. It will be an interesting 

 experiment as well as the means of obtain- 

 ing wholesome and palatable food at a very 

 small price. 



There are many fishes of excellent food 

 quality which ordinarily are discarded be- 

 cause their texture or flavor is not approved 

 or because they are too bony. Such fish as 

 bowfins, buffalo-fish, carp, mooneyes or 

 sturgeons, of the fresh water fish, while not 

 popular fresh, are excellent smoked. Bony 

 fish acquire a firmness through smoking 

 that makes the removal of the bones quite 

 easy. 



Fishermen frequently sell the less popular 

 fish at from I to 3 cents a pound at the 

 docks. A customer who might ordinarily 

 buy only 2 or 3 pounds of the more ex- 

 pensive fish could buy, if he had a place to 

 smoke them, enough cheap fish to last for 

 one or two weeks. Also pond owners who 

 desire to rid their ponds of ordinary fish 

 in order to make room for game fish will 

 find a smokehouse invaluable. 



The United States Bureau of Fisheries 

 constructed and operated a small experi- 

 mental smokehouse on the Mississippi 

 River. This house has proved most satis- 

 factory in every way and its construction 

 is so simple that anyone can build one 

 along the same lines. 



The house measures 6)4, ft. in height at 

 the front, 6 ft. at the back, the roof having 

 a single pitch, and 3 by 3^ ft. inside 

 measurements. If you build your house of 

 plain boards it is necessary to prevent the 

 escape of smoke by covering the cracks 

 with batten strips. If you can get yellow 

 pine shiplap you can make your house 

 smoke-tight without using battens. The 

 2 by 4-in. corner pieces may be on the out- 



side, the inside walls being perfectly smooth. 

 Two doors are built in the upper half of 

 the front of the house. They are hung on 

 the corner pieces. The outer edge of the 

 right door should be fitted with a batten 

 that overlaps the other door. This holds 

 it shut and prevents the escape of smoke. 

 The doors may be fastened by two wooden 

 thumb buttons, one above and one below 

 the battened door, near where the two 

 doors join and just beyond the batten. 



The inner walls have strips on which to place 

 the trays holding the fish to be smoked 



Ventilation is provided by an opening in 

 the roof over which a ventilator is placed. 

 The ventilator is a box having a 3 by 4 in. 

 opening front and back. This permits the 



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