Cold Smoker Gizmo

[TeeDee]

I want to do some Cold smoking and am looking at this gizmo





Now online they seem to be around £30-£40 which seems a little steep for what it is.

And as I'm (trying) to do my best to upcycle stuff and stop buying expensive Tat ( Please ignore the last 4x4 purchase.... ) I wonder if any of the lateral thinking hivemind can suggest something inexpensive that would do the same job to hold the sawdust but still allow a reliant slow burn rate?


Ideas please peeps.

 

[British Red]

The ProQ that you illustrate is the absolute Rolls Royce of cold smoke generators. There are "no name" knock offs on eBay. I have one & it's a pain to use. Embers jump the spiral if you fill it fully. To make one, buy a fine stainless mesh sheet, roll it round a broom handle for a mandrel. Block one end with a coin. Light the other end? It will be longer but should work.

 

[TeeDee]

The ProQ that you illustrate is the absolute Rolls Royce of cold smoke generators. There are "no name" knock offs on eBay. I have one & it's a pain to use. Embers jump the spiral if you fill it fully. To make one, buy a fine stainless mesh sheet, roll it round a broom handle for a mandrel. Block one end with a coin. Light the other end? It will be longer but should work.

Cheers Red - Any tips/advice if I'm going down the Cold Smoke route?

 

[gra_farmer]

I want to do some Cold smoking and am looking at this gizmo

View attachment 70772



Now online they seem to be around £30-£40 which seems a little steep for what it is.

And as I'm (trying) to do my best to upcycle stuff and stop buying expensive Tat ( Please ignore the last 4x4 purchase.... ) I wonder if any of the lateral thinking hivemind can suggest something inexpensive that would do the same job to hold the sawdust but still allow a reliant slow burn rate?


Ideas please peeps.

This has given me a brilliant idea to make a flexible / packable version out of kelvar cord that I have to hand....if I get a moment, I'll make a prototype and take pictures.

@TeeDee if it works, I'll send it your way to give it a full on test

 

[TeeDee]

Cheers Red - Any tips/advice if I'm going down the Cold Smoke route?

Belay the last!! I found your excellent Youtube Tutorial.

 

[Jared]

There is such a thing as an all edge pan. For lasagnas and brownies.
Famously also was in The Expanse TV series, Alex cooked lasangas in one.
But the pricing seems roughly the same.

A spiral rolled out of some stainless sheet seems the easiest. But nothing preformed is coming to mind.

 

[Robson Valley]

How much smoke do you need? How fatty is the meat? Smoking temp? Wood species? Home cured and smoked pork products are always so much better than in the store.

I have several old propane grills which have been modified for smoker BBQ duty. Any fruit wood will do, not saw dusts, they go too fast. Normally, those are meant to prepare food for nearly immediate consumption. Just a cast iron fry pan with a lid. Half a dozen fist-sized chunks of wet apple wood works for me.

Big cold smokers is the entire garage with 100-200 salmon hanging in the rafters and a week of alder fire smoke in the middle of the garage floor. Once the females have set eggs, the meat isn't so oily and takes the smoke better.

 

[Jared]

Corrugated metal sheet? though would have to figure out 180 turns at the ends.

 

[bobnewboy]

Corrugated metal sheet? though would have to figure out 180 turns at the ends.

What about a long narrow strip of corrugated (or plain) steel, loosely rolled on the axis of the corrugations (I.e the shorter side), placed with the corrugations vertical in a deep baking tray of an appropriate size? The corrugated metal forms a spiral in the tray, while the tray holds it in that shape and holds the wood chips in the spiral? That would produce a working analogue of the expensive unit you originally showed.

 

[TeeDee]

What about a long narrow strip of corrugated (or plain) steel, loosely rolled on the axis of the corrugations (I.e the shorter side), placed with the corrugations vertical in a deep baking tray of an appropriate size? The corrugated metal forms a spiral in the tray, while the tray holds it in that shape and holds the wood chips in the spiral? That would produce a working analogue of the expensive unit you originally showed.

Well done - that may well work.

 

[British Red]

Don't forget that whatever it's made of has to be mesh, not solid. For a cold smoke generator you use bone dry dust & set it charring. It needs oxygen on all sides to work. The alternative is to build a very slow fire in another vessel and pipe the smoke in once it's cooled

 

[Stew]

It's hard to get a sense of scale on that - I just found some youtube videos and it's smaller than I pictured. Clever idea with the tea light starter.

 

[Jared]

Maybe an IKEA trivet https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/laemplig-trivet-stainless-steel-30111087/
With a mesh laid over, and forming the wood chip trough.

 

[British Red]

It's hard to get a sense of scale on that - I just found some youtube videos and it's smaller than I pictured. Clever idea with the tea light starter.

It's not, quite, large enough to fill my 55 gallon oil drum smoker ( so I add a second, cheap generator for that). However that's a monstrous smoker. I can easily smoke three complete pork loins, three complete pork bellies and ten pounds of cheese in one go. In a more moderate smoker ( e.g. filing cabinet size) it's ample and will keep it full of smoke for 12 hours continuously.

 

[Stew]

Impressive!

I saw a video with a chap trying it with some cheese as his first try and the continual checking on it had me shaking my head! Keep it full of the smoke!

 

[TeeDee]

It's not, quite, large enough to fill my 55 gallon oil drum smoker ( so I add a second, cheap generator for that). However that's a monstrous smoker. I can easily smoke three complete pork loins, three complete pork bellies and ten pounds of cheese in one go. In a more moderate smoker ( e.g. filing cabinet size) it's ample and will keep it full of smoke for 12 hours continuously.

I was going to ask Red - do you think there is a difference between make a smoker from wood as opposed to the Metal drum?

I have a Metal drum like yours and for some reason it never occurred to me to have utilised it for the purposes of becoming a Smoker. I just had it stuck in my head it 'had' to be wood.

I doubt I will do as much smoking as your good self but I do want to try a host of different things and my culinary interests have definitely blossomed enough to warrant meddling with one.

 

[British Red]

I was going to ask Red - do you think there is a difference between make a smoker from wood as opposed to the Metal drum?

I have a Metal drum like yours and for some reason it never occurred to me to have utilised it for the purposes of becoming a Smoker. I just had it stuck in my head it 'had' to be wood.

I doubt I will do as much smoking as your good self but I do want to try a host of different things and my culinary interests have definitely blossomed enough to warrant meddling with one.

Just use anything mate, drum, filing cabinet (really good as made for hanging), old kitchen cabinet, kettle barbecue or, definitely, cardboard box.

 

[Broch]

A few years ago, one of the surplus stores was selling a canvas 'cupboard' mounted on a metal frame with racks in. It was for cleaning/drying rifles or something (not sure how that worked). Anyway, they were selling them as cold smokers - just feed a pipe coming from a smoky slow burning wood fire into the base ....

Never bought one, wish I had, so no idea how well it would have worked but if your fire is 'remote' the smoker can be made of anything really. When I tried, with a metal cabinet, I got a lot of condensation so I had to make sure the trout were protected from drips from above. The trout was excellent though

 

[TeeDee]

A few years ago, one of the surplus stores was selling a canvas 'cupboard' mounted on a metal frame with racks in. It was for cleaning/drying rifles or something (not sure how that worked). Anyway, they were selling them as cold smokers - just feed a pipe coming from a smoky slow burning wood fire into the base ....

Never bought one, wish I had, so no idea how well it would have worked but if your fire is 'remote' the smoker can be made of anything really. When I tried, with a metal cabinet, I got a lot of condensation so I had to make sure the trout were protected from drips from above. The trout was excellent though

I have an old shot gun cabinet that may make a nice smoker ( as I've lost the keys ) and I've a old small propane bottle I've emptied and trimmed and cut an access door into that would serve well as a primary burn/smoke chamber.

Just need to connect the two with some flexible hosing.

 

[TeeDee]

Cold smoker is ready.

What suggestions for what to COLD smoke?

I'm thinking :-

HOMEMADE BACON
HOMEMADE CHEESE
VEG
FISH
DUCK BREAST.