Last year we found this Dutch bread tin at a flea market and thought it would make a perfect smoker:
The idea is to light a fire on the barbecue and put some sawdust in the base of the smoker. The choice of sawdust is important and some woods work better than others. We tried cedar wood last year and that was definitely not a good idea: it had too strong a flavour. So far, we’ve tried apple and almond and both worked really well. It is OK just to collect the sawdust from a chainsaw but if you are worried about traces of chainsaw oil an electric planer works very well. Aparently softwoods such as pine should not be used.
The fish fillets are put in a weak brine solution for as long as possible. We were a bit short of time today so they were probably only in there for about 30 minutes. The fillets are then put on a mesh about 10cm above the sawdust and the smoker is put on the barbecue. Note: We also tried this using no salt and we could not tell the difference so from now on we won’t bother with the salt.
Once the sawdust has reached a high enough temperature it will start to smoke.
Once the smoke starts coming out of holes, the timer is set. We estimate that it will take about 10 to 15 minutes for the fish to be smoked and cooked.