I am looking into making both a hot and cold smoker!
Anyone know any resources on this or how to do it?
Anyone know any resources on this or how to do it?
Hot and cold smoking
- Thread starter Pignut
- Start date
Hi Pignut
Never tried it myself but Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall does it a couple of times on 'A Cook on the Wild Side'. I think its out on DVD off his website www.rivercottage.net
There's a supplier at www.foodsmoker.co.uk Must be fairly straight forward to improvise somthing I would think?
I wonder if horseshoof fungus with hardwood punkwood like beech or oak on top would work?
Love to hear how you get on, fancy having a go myself now
Ta Ed
Never tried it myself but Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall does it a couple of times on 'A Cook on the Wild Side'. I think its out on DVD off his website www.rivercottage.net
There's a supplier at www.foodsmoker.co.uk Must be fairly straight forward to improvise somthing I would think?
I wonder if horseshoof fungus with hardwood punkwood like beech or oak on top would work?
Love to hear how you get on, fancy having a go myself now
Ta Ed
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
You could try this the fridge smoker
The asthetics may be problem of an old fridge sitting backyard, isn't going to win many garden prizes.
The asthetics may be problem of an old fridge sitting backyard, isn't going to win many garden prizes.
We built one out of an early 60's fridge. Worked great. We could cold smoke a whole deer.
After we cold smoked we would dry some. Makes for good trail food and seasoning.
You can definitely make it yourself and do a good job. The important piece is a metal fridge.
http://www.caribooblades.com/aboutus.html
After we cold smoked we would dry some. Makes for good trail food and seasoning.
You can definitely make it yourself and do a good job. The important piece is a metal fridge.
http://www.caribooblades.com/aboutus.html
I got a hot `water` smoker from the states a couple of years ago - A Brinkman. it's like a kettle drum with sections for the charcoal, and water above. this gives a nice moist cook and really works well with meat that can dry out a bit (e.g. chicken). Best bit is you can fill up the water container with different liquids and it gives a different taste. Nothing like beer flavored hot smoked ribs!!
I've smoked a whole chicken before, as well as salmon. Fish took only about 1 hour, the chicken the best part of 4-5 (was about 1.2 - 1.5kg in weight). A really good tip is to get a good meat thermometer to check if the item is actually cooked properly.
Hot smoking is where you actually cook the meat over a long period of time, in the presence of smoke for added flavour. Hot smoked sausages are really good -as well as things like duck brest, chicken. Even turkey, if you've got a big enough smoker - imagine hot smoked turkey for christmas!
Cold smoking is only using the smoke as a preservative agent, the smoke is only about 20-25 degree's. You can cold-smoke anything, but any pork items need to be cooked afterwords before eating - e.g. you can smoke a bacon joint but you'll have to cook it afterwords.
As for tips, the main ones are :
Don't open the door every 20 mins to take a look - it loweres the temperature too much and increases the time taken to cook the food
Get some nice flavor'd wood to smoke with. You are better using sawdust in a cold smoker, but you an also use water-soaked wood chips (waitrose and sainsbury's sell chipped jack daniels barrell's).
Cold smoking you're looking for a long, slow burn. I've seen on the internet metal boxes with sort of channels that you fill up with sawdust, light one end and hopefully it smoulders for hours without needing anything else.
I've smoked a whole chicken before, as well as salmon. Fish took only about 1 hour, the chicken the best part of 4-5 (was about 1.2 - 1.5kg in weight). A really good tip is to get a good meat thermometer to check if the item is actually cooked properly.
Hot smoking is where you actually cook the meat over a long period of time, in the presence of smoke for added flavour. Hot smoked sausages are really good -as well as things like duck brest, chicken. Even turkey, if you've got a big enough smoker - imagine hot smoked turkey for christmas!
Cold smoking is only using the smoke as a preservative agent, the smoke is only about 20-25 degree's. You can cold-smoke anything, but any pork items need to be cooked afterwords before eating - e.g. you can smoke a bacon joint but you'll have to cook it afterwords.
As for tips, the main ones are :
Don't open the door every 20 mins to take a look - it loweres the temperature too much and increases the time taken to cook the food
Get some nice flavor'd wood to smoke with. You are better using sawdust in a cold smoker, but you an also use water-soaked wood chips (waitrose and sainsbury's sell chipped jack daniels barrell's).
Cold smoking you're looking for a long, slow burn. I've seen on the internet metal boxes with sort of channels that you fill up with sawdust, light one end and hopefully it smoulders for hours without needing anything else.
For our fridge smoker we dug a trench on a slow slope going up towards the fridge, 2.5 m long, half a metre deep by 20 cm wide and buried some 17.5 cm stove pipe. At one end we dug a small fire pit at the other the pipe elbowed and goes up into the bottom of the fridge.
We would smolder our apple, cherry and plum wood chips for 5 or 6 days. Slow smoking at a temp between 20 and 30 degrees in the fridge.
Brining is important for preparing meat to be cold smoked and the medium to put in a personal touch to the taste.
The book we refer to is called Putting Food By a Bantam book.
http://www.caribooblades.com
We would smolder our apple, cherry and plum wood chips for 5 or 6 days. Slow smoking at a temp between 20 and 30 degrees in the fridge.
Brining is important for preparing meat to be cold smoked and the medium to put in a personal touch to the taste.
The book we refer to is called Putting Food By a Bantam book.
http://www.caribooblades.com
Got a brinkman from Matalan £50 search for my post its got pics.......I would have made one but the missus didnt like the idea of oil drums on the patio....
Anyway Brinkmans are good cant get cold smoking right getting too much heat.
Dave
Anyway Brinkmans are good cant get cold smoking right getting too much heat.
Dave
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