A native of New York City, 

 Michaels moved to this state to attend 

 the University of North Carolina at 

 Chapel Hill. While fishing commer- 

 cially off Harkers Island, he started 

 smoking fish as a hobby. 



"I grew up with smoked fish," 

 Michaels says, "and I have a fondness 

 for all the different kinds. I built my 

 first smoker out of an old refrigerator, 

 and it suited my needs just fine. Later, 

 when I had a restaurant in Chapel 

 Hill, I put smoked fish on the menu, 

 and it was real popular." 



At the time Michaels opened his 

 business, it was the only commercial 

 smokery in the state. (Last fall, 

 another smoked fish business opened 

 in Swansboro.) "I have developed a 

 market for smoked bluefish that we 

 fillet and use our own special process 

 here," he explains. "Regularly, we 

 smoke fresh rainbow trout from the 

 mountains of North Carolina and also 

 white salmon from British Columbia. 

 And, when we can get it, sturgeon." 



Although blues from the Pamlico 

 Sound account for 80 percent of the 

 total sales, the Chapel Hill Smoked 

 Fish Company does a good business 

 with its other smoked products and 

 specialty seafoods. In the refrigerated 

 case, frozen conch and squid are dis- 

 played alongside smoked eel and 

 turkey. Other products include Florida 



For centuries North Carolinians 

 have been smoking fish as a means of 

 preservation. The techniques used by 

 the coastal Indians years ago are still 

 in practice today. And, according to 

 Sam Thomas of the North Carolina 

 State University Seafood Laboratory 

 in Morehead City, "Smoking is still 

 basically an art here in the United 

 States that's been acquired through 

 experience." But, that's changing now. 



Jointly operated by Sea Grant and 

 the North Carolina Agricultural Ex- 

 tension Service, the Seafood Lab is in- 

 volved in research to improve the 

 quality and to promote the use of 

 North Carolina seafood products. 

 Research efforts are then extended to 

 seafood processors and consumers. The 

 Seafood Lab has just recently started 

 looking into smoking seafood. Thomas 

 says smoking is especially good for 



red snapper, king mackerel, king 

 salmon and swordfish, in addition to 

 local seafoods. 



Europeans and northerners who 

 grew up with smoked fish as a staple in 

 their diets make up his regular clien- 

 tele, although southerners are in- 

 creasingly among his customers. "All 

 of my during-the-week customers," he 



CAROLINA 

 WATERS 

 SMOKED BLUEFISH 



27S14 



says, "are steady, once-a-week 

 customers. As readily as they go shop- 

 ping for butter, milk and eggs, they 

 come and get smoked fish." 



"It did real well right away," 

 Michaels says, "and paid the bills from 

 the very day it opened." Seeking 

 markets elsewhere, he says, "I tried 

 my back door," and now sells regularly 

 to a dozen local restaurants. 



some species that do not keep well in 

 frozen storage, such as mullet and 

 bluefish. "These species have never 

 brought a good price to fishermen," he 

 says, "and they're very abundant." 



A year and a half ago, the lab ac- 

 quired a smoke box which has since 

 been in operation 16 times. "The first 

 five or six times, we were just getting a 

 feel for the box," Thomas says, "then 

 we started doing some different species 

 like eel, bluefish, shark, trout, ray, oc- 

 topus, mullet and scallops. We had 

 really good results on everything." 



Two of the best species for smoking, 

 according to Thomas, are the 

 American eel and bluefish. "High fat 

 content is of primary importance to 

 the final product," says Thomas, "and 

 the oil in the eel carries the flavor 

 beautifully. Mackerel and mullet are 

 also good." 



"I'm just starting to branch out 

 now," he explains, "and I'm doing a 

 really nice wholesale business in 

 Washington, D.C., Greensboro, 

 Charleston, South Carolina, and I just 

 started with Wilmington a few weeks 

 ago." Although wholesale sales ac- 

 count for only 20 percent of his 

 business, Michaels expects that to ap- 

 proach 50 percent in the near future. 

 "Right now," he says, "I'm operating 

 at about 20 percent capacity." 



But, what do you say to the con- 

 sumer who thinks $5 a pound is too 

 much to pay for smoked fish? Michaels 

 has an answer. 



"Number one," he explains, "you're 

 talking about a fillet of a product, so 

 you don't have any waste. Number 

 two, you're also talking about a 

 product that's already cooked and 

 ready to be eaten, so you don't have 

 any energy and time involved in cook- 

 ing it. You also don't have any 

 shrinkage. Furthermore, the smoking 

 enriches the product in such a way 

 that you consume very small quan- 

 tities. It's not ordinary; this is a gour- 

 met, premium product." 



"So, when you put all of these fac- 

 tors together," he says, "it's not that 

 expensive. I haven't raised my price in 

 three years, since I've been in business. 

 All they gotta do is taste my product, 

 they like it, and they buy it." 



Photo by Cassie Griffin 



Susan Lovelace in the lab 



Adding technology to an art 



