Loading...
October 22, 1998 - He's nuts about smoking: fish, that isGA • The Suffolk Times - October 22, 1998 He's nuts about smoking: fish, that is I m sitting here in front of my two smokers — not people smokers but fish smokers. My son, Peter, went fishing and brought home a nice mess of blue- fish and stripers. So after a late telephone call last Focus night asking if I ON wanted to smoke some fish, here I NATURE am. He filleted by Paul them and soaked StOU�1lbUrgh them overnight in brine along with some of his own special ingredients that will give them that taste we've all come to enjoy. This morning promptly at 7 a.m. he arrived, with the brined fish ready for smoking. One of the smokers is the type you see at hardware stores, black and round on top, and stands about three feet tall. The other one is a homemade job I made out of a 52- gallon oil drum. I cut the bottom out and placed it on an old cast -iron furnace bottom. There are two racks salvaged from an old barbecue cooker. They sit on rods that have been poked through the sides of the drum. It works perfectly, that is after I get it stoked up with some cherry or hickory wood. Right now both of them are smok- ing away with the temperature about 180 degrees. I poked a hole in the oil drum and put a meat probe into it, thereby giv- ing me an approximate idea of tempera- ture. Nothing's exact. We place the fillets in a brine solution overnight, build a hot fire and then let it bum down, lay the fil- lets on the racks and wait. How long depends on the fish, and the heat of the fire. Thick stripers and small blues take different amounts of time and heat. My measure of when they are done is to break off a piece and taste it. It's a good excuse to enjoy a little extra. While sitting here, I see the noisy, yet pleasant, mockingbird chasing his rivals out of the garden. These rivals could be the offspring that have hung around learning the ways of survival, but now that winters on its way, things are differ- ent. It's time to drive the youngsters off and force them to go on their own. The autumn olive, multiflora rose, pachysan- dra and the huge holly tree are what's at stake. These bushes and trees are loaded z .� -4 — * — — - - out and replace it with more fillets. As I walk back and forth to the house for paper towels, or a pair of old gloves to take the hot racks of fish out, I stum- ble over the hickory nuts that have fall- en on the ground. We have taken literal- ly wheelbarrows full off the lawn and they still are falling. You can get quite bruised from one, as I can vouch for, and then there are the scars on the hood of my pickup showing where they hit. All night we can hear them drop on the roof they're busy eating above for I can hear the discarded pieces of shell and husks falling through the trees. The hickory tree was a most important tree in the early stages of our history. The wood was considered the best for any purpose that had to take sharp blows or the need for strength and flexibility without splitting. The American ax was known throughout the world not for its steel but for its hickory handle. It's truly an American tree for it grows nowhere else in the world. The wagons that went west had hubs and spokes of hick- ory and the surrey owed its popularity to the strong flex- ible wood of the hickory. Not only that, but in those days they had the patience to crack and pick the sweet meat from the hard -shell nuts to use in cooking. There were special holidays set aside for collecting nuts and many a bushel was collected for cracking and pick- ing during the long winter months. Right alongside my smokers is an- other important nut tree, the black walnut. It's a young tree but it has al- ready put forth a good crop of green husked nuts. Now there's a nut I can handle, but first you have to get the green husk off. The best way I've found to do it is to put them in the driveway and let the tires ride over them, thereby removing the messy husks. Otherwise I just like to lay them out and let them dry and ripen. Then the husks come off real easily. The only problem with that is the squirrels get to know where you've laid them out and will raid your nut supply. Walnuts have to mature so it's best to let them dry out for a few months before you crack them. Look at any good old cake or cookie recipes and you'll find black walnuts often called for. The best way we've found to keep them after opening is in the freezer. Right now the walnut trees are most- ly void of their leaves but their nuts are boldly hanging on. So important were these nut trees to the early settlers that they usually had a walnut tree close to the homestead. A word about the wood itself: It's probably one of the best furni- ture woods to be had. It doesn't warp or shrink and takes a beautiful finish. Sorry to say because of its popularity as a cab- inet wood, few trees are left standing. They've been bought up by speculators. Actually, there are professional spotters who roam the countryside just looking for big old black walnut trees. I remem- ber once looking out the window when I was teaching in Greenport and seeing a big black walnut tree being cut down. The people had sold their tree to a man who bought just the lower bolt of the tree for export to be sliced into veneers. In that way the end product would prob- ably bring $40,000 worth of veneer. That's one thing today's technological world hasn't been able to produce — an instant big tree. LC. g ZD LUUK CIAGK 75 years ago Oct. 19, 1923 Seeing red: Last Saturday morning Everett J. Warner tried to paint the town red. While a truck load of paint was being unloaded in front of his store, a five- gallon drum of red paint fell from the truck and its contents spilled in the road. For some time afterward Everett could be seen on his knees in the road, mopping up paint. He succeeded, however, in saving most of the paint. A husking bee: Be sure and attend the husking bee and old- fashioned dance on Tluesday, evening, Oct. 23, at Mrs. J. Evans Brown, North Road, Greenport. There will be fun for old and young. Even though you do not dance, come and enjoy the fun and watch the husking bee. Admission 50 cents. Straw ride will start from the Rest Room at 7:45 sharp, so everyone be on time. Gentlemen will wear over- alls and ladies bungalow dresses. 50 years ago Oct. 22, 1948 New sport for girls: Greenport High School girls will participate in a new major outdoor sport this fall, accord- ing to plans developed by the board at its regular monthly meeting. Equipment has been purchased for field hockey and goal posts erected on the playing area, which is locat- ed at the north end of the athletic field. We're too fast: A newspaperwoman from Lucknow, Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh s people don't know about the wonderful taste of black wai- he green husks hide the golfball -size nuts that when mature cracked open to reveal the large tasty meat of the nut. and then roll down, only to be caught in the rain gutters. There are many varieties of hickory trees such as the pig nut, shagbark, mockemut and others. Many are not aware that the pecan is part of the hick- ory family. I only wish our hickory nuts had as thin a shell as they do. Yet squir- rels don't seem to have any problem get- ting into the hickory nuts. I've watched them closely and it's a marvel to see them take the outer husk off and then work their way into the nut. I know India, after a month's visit in the United States, says Americans are too fast, too selfish, too nervous and too greedy. Mrs. Rajini Asrani, 34, sub - editor of the English - language Lucknow Pioneer, visiting South Bend, Ind., also charged that Americans lack knowledge of other lands and lack peace of mind. 25 years ago Oct. 18, 1973 Porters win first home game: It was Dome Jackson Day at the Greenport High School athletic field last Saturday afternoon, and justly so, as Dome is rounding out his 25th year at the helm of the Greenport physical educa- tion department and as head coach. Just before the Porters took to the field to do battle with the Hurricanes from Westhampton, the huge crowd in the newly installed stands were given a glowing commentary of Coach Jackson's accomplishments during his tenure at Greenport, one that would make any coach envious. The Porters gave Dome another accolade by winning, 20 to 9. Classified advertisements: Small waterfront plot with three -room cottage, private beach. Fisherman's dream, $27,500. Three- quarter -acre plot ideally located, fronting on Long Island Sound, small cottage, $37,500. Eight - and -a -half acres, lake frontage, wooded, 359 feet on road, good location, $45,000.