I'm living in an apartment these days and don't have a deck or a patio on which to set up my smoker and -- yep -- smoke some fish. Does anyone know of a good meat/seafood shop where they'll smoke your steelhead and salmon for a reasonable price? I live in Seattle and work in Kent, so anywhere within 1/2 hour of those areas works. Thanks.

try larry's smoke house, only eaten fish from him, never had any done my self, excellant tasting

The Caveman in Kent does a good job.

Thumbs up for Jensens Smoke House in Seattle.

Parker

I would fire up the little cheif or big cheif
on the deck/porce/front yard and have at it before I'd ever pay someone to due this for me.Home made is the way to go.Don't really care for commercial style brines.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

A few years back I lived in a apt and I ran that smoker all the time. My back patio faced a green belt in Factoria located between Bellevue and Renton. Upon my return home from a season in AK with a load of silvers for the smoker I get the word that a black bear was seen in my back yard and also in the Factoria mall parking lot. I'm thinking I got to get these fish in the smoker, but there was a really good chance a bear would feast upon my smoked goods, so I hung the smoker from the upstairs deck. I attracted raccoons, possums, a load of cats, but no bears, a couple days after processing was done, I noticed my smoker was lying on it's side. When I went to pick it up I saw bear tracks all around the smoker, and the grills were scattered and also very clean. So no matter where you live, look around when you go out at night to check on a batch of fish in the smoker. Also A friend of mine had his smoker, load of fish and all stolen from the patio of his apt.

One other problem with smokers and apt living is everyone smells the goods and come a knockn.

I don't know if the GENERALS BBQ in Madison Park is still open, but he smoked large batches for me before, but I used my brine, he just ran his smoker in trade for some tasty morsels of fish.

I would suggest finding a fishing buddy/friend to smoke your fish. I have a few friends that stop by from time to time and drop off fish and their recipe. The trade off is the smoker gets half. But the smoker also buys the ingredients, uses his electricity and spends his time tending the fish. If you have lots of fish this can be a very fair trade.

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"Just Say No To Sovereign Nations!"

I would second the reply on Jensen's Smoke House. Their garlic & brown sugar mix is very good!

If you already own a smoker I would try and find a friend who has a backyard and likes smoked fish. I live in an apartment complex, and the last time I smoked fish the neighbor started knocking on everyone's door wondering where the fire was...(guess I had too many chips on the coals ) So I have a deal worked out with my fishing buddy-I bring over the fillets, he brines and smokes 'em and it's a 50-50 split. Works out great.

This is probably too far for you but for anyone around Olympia out by the airport there's a place called Briney Sea Delicaseas that does an excellent job. You can get it regular flavor, bbq, or cajun. Their # is 360-956-1797 or 8887salmon for toll free.

[This message has been edited by fish_finder (edited 12-06-2000).]

Another vote for Jensen's. They're reasonably priced, for a little more they'll vacuum pack your fish and they turn out a first-class product.

Thanks everyone for the solid advice. Lots of good ideas here. One more small question...

When you bring your fish to a place like Jensen's, do you just bring your whole, cleaned fish -- or do you bring fillets/strips?

Jensen does a fair job at smoking, but thier brine is terrible. I recommend brining your own and have Jensen's smoke it.


Catch and Release all Wild Fish

Just take the cleaned fish to Jensen's, they'll do all the rest.

I knew a guy who was in the same situation that you are in. He wanted to smoke some fish but lived in an apartment that he couldn't watch the smoker all the time and was afraid someone would help themselves to it. He was pretty new to fishing and hadn't had any experience smoking fish, so me being the nice guy that I am, I gave him my recipe for the brine and told him the specifics on how to do it.. The next day he asked me to come over to check the fish out. I went on over to his apartment and didn't see the smoker anywhere outside. I knocked on the door, he opened it and I could smell the fish and the smoker. I stepped inside and on top of his kitchen table was the smoker, wrapped up in a blanket. I couldn't believe it. I asked him what the heck he was thinking about. He just said that he had no place to do it and figured if he opened the window and disconnected the fire alarm everything was alright...... Unreal...... I took the smoker over to my place and finished the job, for half of course....

Just picked up my goods from Jensen's. Mike and his crew always do a good job. 32lbs. of fillets cost me a little over $90 bucks smoked and vacuum packed. About $2.75 lb. Not too bad. Hand it out for Christmas. Saves me lot of anxiety of what to get who and the dreaded hoards at the mall. The hard part is not eating it all before Christmas. Then I'll have to go shopping. Ick. I'd rather go fishing.