Smoking fish is a great way to prepare the catch for the table and there are many ways to do this.

There are the simple ‘15-minute hot smokers’, made famous in New Zealand by Kilwell, through to the latest electronically controlled smokers, gas-fired options and others that automatically feed wood pellets into the system, producing a colder smoke.

Regardless of how the smoker operates, there is one common denominator and that is the wood burnt in various forms – pellets, bisquettes, shavings and good old sawdust.

For a quick, inexpensive result that is mobile as well, it is hard to go past the ‘hot smoker’ system. This is where a couple of dishes of methylated spirits are set alight under a metal smoke box, the bottom of which is covered in a layer of sawdust with the product to be smoked arranged above on trays. The lid is added and 15 minutes or so later, the product is ready for the table.

It is not just fish that can be smoked this way, but shellfish, meat, poultry, sausages, cheese and vegetables. Different varieties of wood produce a different flavour. More or less heat can be added by changing the amount of methylated spirits poured into the burner bowls.

Kilwell have produced a Premium Selection Pack containing a choice of five different smoking saw dusts – beech, tawa, apple, hickory and pohutukawa. I have recently been experimenting with the various saw dusts in the hot smoker, working my way through the selection.

So far I have used a couple when smoking snapper – apple and pohutukawa, which are at the opposite ends of the taste scale.

As expected, the apple produces quite a mild, sweet smoke which is light in its intensity. This contrasts with the pohutukawa which, like the more traditional manuka (not included) sawdust, produces a darker, more intense flavour. Kilwell describe the pohutukawa taste as ‘slightly sweet and almost peppery’ which works well not only on fish but poultry, rabbit, veal, lamb and pork.

The smoking notes on the apple sawdust suggests these flavours offer a more mellow flavour, which takes longer to permeate the meat so needs more time in the smoker. It’s recommended as ideal for poultry, chicken, pork, lamb, seafood, venison and vegetables.

While I have yet to try the other three flavours, the smoking notes on the labels of beech, hickory and tawa make for interesting reading.

Beech, they suggest, is a good all-round wood for smoking and very popular in Europe, delivering a mellow smoke for fish, poultry and pork.

Hickory smoke is described as a hearty wood producing a sweet, savoury smoke that has a hint of bacon. It comes with a warning – ‘too much hickory flavour will cause your meat to have a more bitter flavour’ and is recommended for beef, pork, poultry, venison and cheese.

The final choice is tawa which is suitable for a range of produce including fish, bacon, ham, pastrami, poultry, meats, olives, cheese, mushrooms and the like.