KITCHEN SINK TO FISH SMOKER
GRAHAM WHEAL HATES ANYTHING TO GO TO WASTE SO HE COMBINED HIS EXPERTISE WITH STEEL AND HIS INTEREST IN FOOD TO GIVE NEW LIFE TO A DISCARD
Graham Wheal has forgotten more about steel than you and I will ever know. His work has been compared favourably to that coming off a robotic production line, and many of the stories from his time in the industry centre on his pioneering methods, particularly with regard to working with stainless steel.
Graham is the consummate professional, and like many with that mindset he cannot see something abandoned without seeing it resuscitated, restored, and reworked, not only for what it was but for what it might be — such as turning a stainless steel kitchen sink into a fish smoker.
“I just found it and hated seeing it go to waste; as I needed a new fish smoker anyway, here was the opportunity,” he says.
Home on the range
While Graham’s professional life has revolved around steel, his private life revolves around his family and a bach in Twizel. Founded in 1968 to house the workers on the Upper Waitaki hydroelectric scheme, Twizel was intended to be temporary and dismantled once the scheme was complete. However, when the time came there was sufficient opposition from those living in what is now the largest town in the Mackenzie District to persuade the Ministry of Works to sell the properties off instead.
Over the years Graham and his family have enjoyed accessibility to one of the most beautiful and adventure-filled parts of the country. Combine this with a passion for cooking, and it’s not hard to see how a discarded sink becomes a fish smoker.
“I do quite a bit of cooking at home and I like to experiment with different types of food,” Graham explains. No surprises there.
At about this point I get sidetracked as Graham raises the subject of cooking steak — one in which I also have an interest — but we digress, although
I do intend to try his method next time I cook one; then there’s Graham’s interest in curing and smoking bacon … So, has Graham made any other stainless steel cooking implements?
“Oh, some little trays to go on top of the sink like a colander to stop the peas escaping, some knives with cast handles when I was an apprentice” — and so on. This combination of steel and food has clearly been with Graham for much of his life, with experimentation and alternative methods being at the core — an attitude of curiosity that is very evident.
Making the sink a safe smoker
Part of his pioneering work was around sterilisation in hospitals and their use of pressure vessels and vacuum processes, combined with the meticulous work required to ensure high, and safe, standards. One such process involved TIG welding from just the outside of the vessel, as the inside was already sealed, with Graham developing a method to
achieve the outcome needed while still maintaining its integrity.
So, when Graham decided to make the smoker, it was about more than just process and method; it was about the application of years of experience in a highly specific and very risk-averse industry. Food preparation of any kind is not without risk, with bacterial infection, for example, being the largest shadow over badly prepared and stored processed food such as smoked salmon.
The conversion of the sink required three steps and a good understanding of both how the process works and the degree of control required to achieve the outcome Graham wanted.
For the sake of this article Graham uses a piece of salmon from his freezer. “Usually this would be freshly caught; however, I had it there so that’s what we’re using today,” he says.
Forever the pragmatist — but it doesn’t stop Graham from producing a very tasty, and surprisingly moist, salmon steak, ready for cutting and placing on crackers for the Halswell Menzshed Saturday morning smoko. It doesn’t last very long, as you can well imagine.
Pay attention to moisture
Moisture, it turns out, requires a certain amount of attention, as the fish can be too moist with the result that it overflows into the sawdust below, where it burns before sending a burnt flavour back into the salmon flesh.
“The trick is in how you use the sawdust,” says Graham, “as that’s what the design of the smoker is meant to achieve; it is that that both establishes the flavour and prevents burning.”
Graham uses a combination of salt and brown sugar: the salt helps dry the fish while the sugar helps with the flavour. There is clearly more to this than meets the eye. Here’s me thinking all he was going to do was roll the piece of salmon up like a big reefer and just light one end and drag on the other; I couldn’t quite see where the stainless steel bit fit in. Boy did I get that wrong! Keep in mind that this is salmon country, with the hydro canals hosting salmon farms, from which many escape …
1. establishing a pressure that allows for the smoke to permeate the salmon while keeping the fish safe and refreshed
2. the separation of the salmon from the sawdust, and any negative interference from the sawdust while still maintaining an even cooking process
3. maintaining the moisture and juices — it’s all too easy to end up with a very dry and tasteless piece of fish.
We’ll look at each stage separately.
Stage one
The first step was to prepare the sink to prevent any flame from the cooker acting directly on the process, which meant that the plughole at the bottom had to be sealed. Graham achieved this by stitching a ‘patch’ over the hole from underneath with a TIG welder. However, anything bolted in place would be just as effective. It doesn’t need to be watertight, but it does need to stop the flame from the portable propane burner getting in and scorching the sawdust. Graham likes manuka sawdust, although both apple and cherry provide other flavours.
For the lid Graham used a piece of stainless steel, folding the edges to match the corresponding flange around the top of the sink.
“It’s like an envelope, with three sides turned down and one pushed up so you can push it like a drawer,” he says.
If the lid is too tight, it will cause an unrealistic pressure inside. By allowing the movement of smoke through, the process is refreshed and atmospheric pressure is maintained. This prevents the same smoke from becoming increasingly stale, forcing it into the fish and in turn degrading the flavour. So, by cutting back the ends of the fold to 45 degrees against the round corners of the sink, Graham has not only provided a simple method of reducing the pressure but also assisted the flavouring. Ultimately, it also gives a visual way to keep an eye on the whUoPle18p0r°ocess as smoke finds its way through. Simple and effective, as so many solutions often are.
Stage two
At this point Graham addresses the importance of hygiene and cleanliness. While the bottom and sides would be fine, the top will turn very brown from the smoke. Any juices trapped from a previous cooking session that drip back into the current one are of concern. A thorough wash with hot soapy water and a Poli-Pad is all that is required. The whole smoker is self-contained, with the trays and sawdust kept inside and the lid kept on top — easy to put in the car and take down to those canals near Twizel.
Stage three
The salmon steak sits on a piece of tinfoil, simply to keep the stainless steel U-shaped spacer tray clean. This in turn sits on the bottom of the sink over the sawdust and acts as a diffuser, intended to prevent juices from the salmon spilling over into the sawdust and potentially causing a fire. Quite simply, burnt sawdust will produce a burnt flavour. The cooker is placed over the propane burner and the process begins.
“There is no need for the sawdust to get burnt if it’s being done properly; it’s just a matter of taking care as you go,” mentions Graham.
In other words, it’s all about the preparation — the cornerstone of any project or event. It’s not long before wisps of smoke start appearing through the squared-off round corners, against the backdrop of a blue-sky Saturday morning in the beautiful grounds of the St John of God Hospital, where our Menzshed is situated. It really is a great foretaste of summer, the Twizel bach, and the long South Canterbury
and Central Otago evenings. I think my next article needs to be based around a brewery, just to complete the picture. So, if you’re working on one, please let the editor know and we’ll see what can be arranged — although I do have a story about a simple but effective coffee roaster coming up.
The proof of the pudding
The whole process takes about 20 minutes — long enough for Graham to prepare some crackers — but then the moment of truth comes as he turns off the burner and opens the cooker; it was all well worth the wait. The salmon is a good colour,