Cold Smoked Tuna
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: January 26, 2009

I've started smoking. No, not cigarettes, but food. I wrote before about the electric smoker I gave Barnaby for his birthday in December and we've been going crazy throwing down various meats and fish on the grill: mangalitsa pork, trout, skirt steak, shrimp, scallops. Next on the list is cheese: provolone, mozzarella and cheddar.
Last night we tried a new preparation: cold smoking. Traditional cold smoking requires cooling the smoke before applying it to food, however, that's both difficult to achieve and requires special equipment. Our version of cold smoking is much easier: toss a piece of frozen meat on the grill and let the smokin' begin. Starting with frozen fish minimizes the amount of cooking so the result is a delicious smokey flavor and ever so minimally cooked - perfect for sashimi!
We used a 1.2 pound sashimi-grade albacore tuna loin and smoked it over alder pellets for about an hour and a half. If you're looking for a more fully cooked preparation, or you are smoking meat, then you can sear it afterward. Our meal was Japanese-style; the tuna drizzled with a bit of ponzu sauce and served with rice, seaweed salad and yaki imo (grilled sweet potato). The smoked tuna would also be delicious in a salad, such as niçoise.

Comments:
Amy Pennington
January 26, 2009

As a dinner participant, can I just say YUM?  I gotta admit - that whole smoking-a-frozen-protein was questionable, but the end result was super good &amp; tasty.  Now, I'm craving sushi today.  Thanks, B!
mike

That tuna looks great! We do a lot of smoking (in fact we did cold smoked cheddar and salmon this morning, and have a duck going right now!), but I've never thought to try starting with frozen protein.
Was this a technique you guys came up with, or did you read about it somewhere?
Sheri Wetherell

Hi Mike, 
Ooo, smoked duck, yum! 
Barnaby came up with the idea of smoking the fish frozen. As he likes to say, "Necessity is the mother of invention." We were stuck with a frozen loin and didn't have time to thaw it out, so we threw it in the smoker and held our breath! Fortunately it turned out perfect!