Smokin on the river....Calumet Fisheries

Stopped by Calumet Fisheries this afternoon.What a treat this place is.A classic Chicago shrimp house with a twist,Calumet has their own smoke house.



Arrived just in time this afternoon to catch the salmon steaks and heads coming out of the smoker. Chatted up the pit master who was good enough to turn me on to a freshly smoked salmon head. Really fine eating, right up their with the yellow tail jaw at Katsu.

The real stars at Calumet however are the smoked shrimp. Jumbo hickory smoked,peel and eat beautys,availiable weekends only.
Dip one in a little hot sauce and you've got a sea going spare rib.

John

Calumet Fisheries
East 95th St. at the Calumet River
Chicago

JSM,

I've had smoked shrimp from Calumet Fisheries on several occasions, and found them very delicious. I'd like to try to smoke shrimp on my WSM, but I'm a little vague on the details.

Hammond

Hi,

I have talked to those guys. They do use a brine, which they described and I posted it somewhere. I will try to find it. Calumet Fisheries, correct me if I am wrong, I believe uses a cooler smoke than we do on our WSM. They had their shrimps smoking for far longer than I believe we would ever do. Calumet also does good smoked fish rolled in cracked pepper.

Cook's Illustrated had an article on brining shrimp, which was maybe 1-2 hours maximum. What I am unclear of is how long to smoke on the WSM, also.

At $20 per pound for smoked shrimp at Calumet Fisheries, I won't mind doing it myself.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: Calumet Fisheries, correct me if I am wrong, I believe uses a cooler smoke than we do on our WSM. They had their shrimps smoking for far longer than I believe we would ever do. Calumet also does good smoked fish rolled in cracked pepper.

C2,

We could dial the heat way down on the WSM, right? Use less charcoal, close down the vents? I'm sure we don't have the heat control that Calumet has, but we could smoke at much lower temps that we usually do, don't you think?

Hammond

HI,

We will have to wait for you-know-who (Gary) to comment, because I don't really know.

I have seen WSM modified for cool smoking necessary for smoking bacon. Though I believe we can just use our Weber kettles for that. I will find the link and send it directly to you.

P.S. I have my bug reservation!

Nice picture, John! Calumet Fisheries is a great place, in business for over 55 years and among the last of Chicago's once plentiful riverside fish shacks. I have also shared a few salmon heads, warm from the smoke house, with Mundo who took over smoking duties a few years ago from the owner Mark. Mark says his father was the first to do smoked shrimp in Chicago and, you're right, they are a treat. I'm pretty sure I remember Mundo saying they use oak exclusively, not hickory. The shrimp are a bit pricey at $20/pound but they're big fellas and taste awfully good. The smoked salmon and trout (pepper-crusted or plain) are both well under $10/pound, not a bad price. I wish they still did smoked eel but I'm afraid that's a thing of the past.

Calumet Fisheries
3259 E 95th St
Chicago
773-933-9855
Open 7 days a week

David Hammond wrote:JSM,

I've had smoked shrimp from Calumet Fisheries on several occasions, and found them very delicious. I'd like to try to smoke shrimp on my WSM, but I'm a little vague on the details.

Hammond

After completing your indoctrination to the world of the WSM via the Professor Wiviott 5 Step WSM in 5 easy dinners course. I would suggest visiting Virtual Weber Bullet site This is a very good site to use once you have mastered the 5 Step course. There is even a tutorial on cooking whole squid.

Smoking shrimp can be be done on the WSM. I have a friend who makes jerky on his. The primary issue is keeping the temperatures cool enough. Of course the season to do this is coming upon us

During the course of my conversation with Mondo yesterday we talked about smoking ribs and he claimed that at 150 deg. their smoker was much to cool for the job.

As for doing swimps at home I think I'd probably start with some big raw ones,smoke em at 150 and take em off when they turn pink.

I'll stay tuned on the brining issue,but I thought that shrimp come pre brined.

Rene, right you are on the oak.I dug into a piece of the pepper and garlic salmon after posting last nite.Definetly oak!

John

JSM wrote:Chatted up the pit master who was good enough to turn me on to a freshly smoked salmon head. Really fine eating, right up their with the yellow tail jaw at Katsu.

John,

High praise indeed! I've never been to the actual physical location, which, from your picture, looks cool as hell, but have had Calumet's shrimp and fish on a couple of occasions, delicious.

I might have to trek out there one of these days if, for nothing else, a smoked salmon head.

Great picture!

Enjoy,
Gary

Bruce wrote:After completing your indoctrination to the world of the WSM via the Professor Wiviott 5 Step WSM in 5 easy dinners course.

Steps, not dinners, the purpose of the 5-Step is to learn to basic technique, most notably fire control, not smoking up a Stouffer's 3-course BBQ dinner.

As far as cold smoking, meaning cooking grate temperatures of 80-100 degrees, that's not something I do often. I'm simply not comfortable with cures (tenderquick/prague powder etc) which are necessary for food that will be in the Food Safety Danger Zone of 40-140 degrees for any length of time.

My version of cold smoking is to brine fin or shell fish in a simple salt and/or salt/brown sugar mix and hot smoke in the low range, around 200 degrees or slightly below, until done. Frankly, I rarely do that either, preferring to Hot Smoke lightly brined fish or shell fish in the 250 degrees range.

I make fresh, but not cured sausage, buy uncooked corned beef, as opposed to cure my own, and hot smoke, but not cold smoke seafood. I'm just not comfortable using cures and/or allowing foods to linger in that 40-140 degrees range.

On the order of being helpful, as Bruce said, with the weather cooling up it's not difficult to keep a WSM in the 100 degrees range, with just a few coals. Some even put ice in the waterpan to keep the temp down. Virtual Weber Bullet has an interesting, though to me not practical, smoker box jury-rig setup for the WSM and some even go so far as to use a hot place or electric stove element with a cast iron pan and sawdust to cold smoke.

Speaking of cold smoking, my neighbors son cut to size Apple wood Cathy kindly brought me from an apple orchard she visited last week. There was a tremendous amount of absolutely perfect for cold smoking apple wood sawdust, which I considered saving, but did not. Retrospectively, I should have saved it and given it to someone who cold smokes.

Enjoy,
Gary

HI,

Today I stopped in to Calumet Fisheries with a friend who has long wanted to revisit to try their fried oysters. When we walked in the place had a heavy scent of smoke because they had just emptied their smoker. While normally the smoke might cause me to shift my ideas for lunch, we decided to stick to the original plan.



These oysters from Calumet Fisheries are coated with fine breading and fried to order.

After we placed our order, I scanned the board to see if we might want anything more. I saw they had onion rings. I inquired if the onion rings were made on the premises or fresh from the plastic bag in the freezer. The guy admitted they are factory made minced onions formed into rings. If I wanted freshly made on the premises, then I might want to consider their mushrooms. The mushrooms are fresh and breaded on the premises, though he couldn't guaranteed it was himself who did the breading. I agreed if they were fresh and they were breaded on the premises, then I would order them. He then reached into the meat refrigerator case to grab a take-out box of mushrooms weighed and breaded earlier. Looking into the meat case was like looking at ghostly spirits of the future: pre-portioned and pre-breaded mushrooms, frog legs, smelts and more!



While the mushrooms had the same breading as the oysters, which has very fine crumbs, we did enjoy the rarity of breaded fresh mushrooms:



According to their take-out menu Calument Fisheries has been open since 1948 by brothers-in-law Sid Kotlick and Len Toll.

Today there are only a few smokehouses left in Illinois. Believe it or not, most fish is smoked in giant, stainless steel containers, using (yuck!) artificial flavorings. Not ours!

Smoking fish our way is a disapeering art. We marinate the fish in brine overnight, then use only special oak logs to stoke our fire. We carefully tend the fish for hours ... all to bring out its naturally delicious flavors.

Calumet Fisheries Inc.
95th Street at the Bridge
3259 East 9th Street
Chicago, IL 60617
Tel: 773/933-9855

I almost stopped at Calumet Fisheries on my way to the Purple Asparagus event at LTH yesterday. The primary reasons I didn't were that I wasn't sure they were open and I was in the far left lane.

HI,

Monday-Saturday they open at 9 AM, on Sunday it is 10 AM. I don't know when they close.

That would have been quite a trick to get quickly from the left lane to the right on the Dan Ryan.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,
That would have been quite a trick to get quickly from the left lane to the right on the Dan Ryan.

Traffic wasn't that bad, but a little more forethought would have been nice. I will try to remember on my way to Fat Tuesday

Calumet Fisheries Hours:

thur 9 am- 9:30pm
fri-sat: 9 am- 9:45
sun-wed 10 am- 9:45pm

Cathy2 wrote:Calumet Fisheries Hours:

thur 9 am- 9:30pm
fri-sat: 9 am- 9:45
sun-wed 10 am- 9:45pm

This past Monday, I just barely made it before closing on my way back to the NW burbs from Cincinnati.

Haven't had the smoked shrimp in awhile. Wife gave a big knowing smile when I showed up with 1/2 the box eaten. Darn those are delicious.
oh, the 1/2 lb of fried oysters were not bad either.

--

yum!! i love calumet fisheries. the fish chips are soooo good, esp w/that hot sauce

Just went to Calumet Fisheries. I got amazing smelts and smoked shrimp, and way too many chubs and pieces of salmon. I really have nothing else to add about how amazing this spot is.

I noticed that there are few images of the counter that I could find on LTH. Here is a poor one, but with salmon heads.

Someone must have wanted some shrimp...really bad!!!
Sign on door says they will be open ASAP.

Some of the kids who work there were cleaning out the place on Saturday. The glass counters they were wheeling out had been there for over 80 years. They said that they hope to be back in business with a new interior by the end of June. I guess we shall see...

This is too funny/sad. I grew up on the east side with calumet once in a while as a 'treat'. Came across this post and remembered how good the shrimp was . Have enjoyed fried shrimp for years but I was going to stop tonight on the way home from downtown to Lansing to 'relive ' part of my childhood. Oh well , I guess I will have to wait a week or two. Thanks for the heads up! Oh ya , speaking of fish , rest in peace Phil Schmidt and son. I miss ya .

As of yesterday- still "closed for repairs". The building did not look in the state of disrepair as documented above. Kind of a bummer, since I pass that way often this time of year. Will try again next weekend. A detour led me to Wings Around the World yesterday, which was fun and a few weeks back I made my maiden voyage to Uncle John's- which was a more than worthy second choice to Calumet. Gotta say, though, I've been jonesin for some smoked shrimp these days!

I just called and Calumet Fisheries is open today - hours are still the same with closing at 945.

Excellent ! I will be stopping tonight . Oh boy , a fried shrimp dinner to enjoy at Cal park and smoked shrimp for later. I honestly have not been there for about 16 years.Talk about overdue!

I just called trying to get some Chubs for Christmas Eve (family tradition) but they said that they haven't been getting any in and might not get any in the next week.

Anyone know another good place I could pick some up?

I like the smoked chub at Ashkenaz. Might want to call and see what they can do:

12 E Cedar St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 944-5006

Not sure if its the same style however

Llama wrote:I just called trying to get some Chubs for Christmas Eve (family tradition) but they said that they haven't been getting any in and might not get any in the next week.

Anyone know another good place I could pick some up?

I was at Hagen's a couple weeks ago and they said that there's a significant chub shortage and they don't expect to be seeing them for a while. I'd be surprised if you can find them anywhere.

tRY cALUMET FISHERIES 3259 E 95TH ST IN CHICAGO 773-933-9855
I KNOW THEY HAVE SOME BUT THEY ARE SMALL- RIGHT NOW THAT IS ALL THEY HAVE AND THEY HAVE LIMITED AMOUNTS, IF YOU CALL THEM THEY WILL PUT SOME TO THE SIDE FOR YOU! GOOD LUCK!- I GOT MINE! LOL

eatchicago wrote:

Llama wrote:I just called trying to get some Chubs for Christmas Eve (family tradition) but they said that they haven't been getting any in and might not get any in the next week.

Anyone know another good place I could pick some up?

I was at Hagen's a couple weeks ago and they said that there's a significant chub shortage and they don't expect to be seeing them for a while. I'd be surprised if you can find them anywhere.

Wow - amazing fried and smoked shrimp. Gorgeous day to eat fish carside. And wiith a cozy around a can of Tecate - who can tell it is not Coke.
Thanks to LTH for this recommendation!

wendy wrote:Wow - amazing fried and smoked shrimp. Gorgeous day to eat fish carside. And wiith a cozy around a can of Tecate - who can tell it is not Coke.
Thanks to LTH for this recommendation!

wendy-

The Tecate-in-a-cozy trick is my favorite way of having some beer after a long day of volleyball at the beach.