Has anyone made a smoker?
- Thread starter Deanno
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Hi Deanno,
I was kindly given a hot-smoker by a mate a good many years ago which he had modelled on an ABU smoker. It was made of 8th part stainless steel and weighed a ton. It was quite a complex design with the inner smoker sliding inside the outer casing like a drawer. That was a good number of years ago and I think it was left behind, along with a past girl-friend.
A hot smoker doesn't have to be of Grand Design and I'm sure there's loads of advice on the net on how to make one. The main objective is to try to prevent the smoke escaping and to reduce, as far as possible, air flowing into the smoking compartment. An old biscuit tin should do, with a meat/fish rack or grill of some sort to hold the produce off the floor and clear of the smoking medium. (Although there may be an issue with toxins being released from burning a biscuit tin, so make sure it's well scorched before smoking food in it. I've been doing this for years and am still relatively n-n-normal... blink, blink!)
An important aspect is not to allow too high a temperature inside the smoking compartment, but just enough to keep the wood shavings/saw-dust smouldering. Hot smoking is in effect cooking in a smoky environment, and as they thay, practith makth perfect!
I'm fortunate enough to have a supply of oak barrel shavings from the local whisky distillery but have used shavings and saw-dust collected when out in the wild. Just be aware that some of our woods contain some fairly nasty toxins, like laburnum, yew, rhododendron and a few others. Many advise not to use conifer woods in smoking as it taints the meat, but I visited a smokery in the Schwartzwald (Black Forest) a few years ago and discovered that they used a blend of woods, including green branches of pine and juniper.
Salting fish or meat before smoking removes excess fluids. This is a skill which I seem not quite to have mastered as not too long ago I produced smoked trout which were nigh on inedible due to salt content. My usual way round this is to salt sparingly and eat what I smoke there and then, as storage for more than a day or two would probably be a problem.
I have made cold smokers in the past but they require attention throughout the procedure unless you're well versed and practiced, 12-18 hours or more, as opposed to 20 minutes with a hot smoking process.
Another drawback with a cold smoker is that they tend to be...eh, smoky. I've had farmers and people living a mile away turning up to see what the hell was going on!
I was kindly given a hot-smoker by a mate a good many years ago which he had modelled on an ABU smoker. It was made of 8th part stainless steel and weighed a ton. It was quite a complex design with the inner smoker sliding inside the outer casing like a drawer. That was a good number of years ago and I think it was left behind, along with a past girl-friend.
A hot smoker doesn't have to be of Grand Design and I'm sure there's loads of advice on the net on how to make one. The main objective is to try to prevent the smoke escaping and to reduce, as far as possible, air flowing into the smoking compartment. An old biscuit tin should do, with a meat/fish rack or grill of some sort to hold the produce off the floor and clear of the smoking medium. (Although there may be an issue with toxins being released from burning a biscuit tin, so make sure it's well scorched before smoking food in it. I've been doing this for years and am still relatively n-n-normal... blink, blink!)
An important aspect is not to allow too high a temperature inside the smoking compartment, but just enough to keep the wood shavings/saw-dust smouldering. Hot smoking is in effect cooking in a smoky environment, and as they thay, practith makth perfect!
I'm fortunate enough to have a supply of oak barrel shavings from the local whisky distillery but have used shavings and saw-dust collected when out in the wild. Just be aware that some of our woods contain some fairly nasty toxins, like laburnum, yew, rhododendron and a few others. Many advise not to use conifer woods in smoking as it taints the meat, but I visited a smokery in the Schwartzwald (Black Forest) a few years ago and discovered that they used a blend of woods, including green branches of pine and juniper.
Salting fish or meat before smoking removes excess fluids. This is a skill which I seem not quite to have mastered as not too long ago I produced smoked trout which were nigh on inedible due to salt content. My usual way round this is to salt sparingly and eat what I smoke there and then, as storage for more than a day or two would probably be a problem.
I have made cold smokers in the past but they require attention throughout the procedure unless you're well versed and practiced, 12-18 hours or more, as opposed to 20 minutes with a hot smoking process.
Another drawback with a cold smoker is that they tend to be...eh, smoky. I've had farmers and people living a mile away turning up to see what the hell was going on!
Hot smokers are fun to do & want to have a go at cold smoking, but as stated above you need to live well away from houses to do that more than once. I saw a nice portable smoker at the Wilderness Gathering last year that was made up of a canvas tent affair (2'z2'x5') that looked like a lot of fun
