[Womble]

 
We have a wee hot smoker that we use mainly for fish, but I think the time has come to step this up a gear.
 
I'm looking to build or maybe buy the kit do do both hot and cold smoking, so I just wondered if anyone on here could offer any tips or experience?

Cheers!

[bloomer]

can't help, but if you ever need a co-pilot for such idea's please shout!!!


or even just a quality control taste tester 

[Bionic]

Sorry Womble, I can't help either but am interested in finding out more about your wee hot smoker

[Womble]

Hi Bionic,

I've had the wee smoker for twenty years - my Dad bought it for 'my' birthday one year after he discovered how good hot smoked trout tasted  .  It's an ABU one, and they still sell them.
 

 
Basically it's an enamelled steel box. You put a dusting of smoking sawdust in the bottom of the tin and stick your fish on a wire rack inside. Then you put the lid on and fill the wee tin with meths, stick it underneath, and light it. Once the meths burns out, the fish is ready!:
 

 
It's also quite ingeneous in that the whole kit then packs up into the box, so i've found it great for camping, canoe trips etc. The only downside is the washing up!
 
However, if I had my time again, I wouldn't buy one, but would instead make one out of an old enamel bread bin or similar, then use it over a gas stove or BBQ.
 
What I'm planning now is on a bigger scale though, as I want to be able to smoke ham joints, bacon, whole chickens etc etc  . Oh and Bloomer, yes of course you can "help". How good are you at catching fish? 

[Bionic]

Thanks Womble. i like the idea of making one 

[SallyintNorth]

I'm sure there's an article of Dan making (or maybe just using) a large smoker... 

[SallyintNorth]

I once made a boyfriend very seriously ill by smoking a frozen and not-quite-completely-defrosted trout in one of these.  It probably says on them to only use with fresh meat / fish, but we didn't have the instructions... 

[Womble]

Yes Sally, I've noticed it can be a wee bit fiddly to get the fuel loading right, even just for fresh fish. It's quite easy in such a small smoker to overload it so the air can't get round evenly. This can result in frazzled thin bits and still raw thick bits if you're not careful.  That's one reason we want to upscale.

[Greenerlife]

smoked chicken....nom nom. 

[bloomer]

I used to be quite good, bit out of practice! Liking the sound of smoked chicken never had that!

I did see and I can't remember on which site, a cold smoker cabinet built from an old upright fridge, will try and find it when I get home!!!

[bloomer]

And a quick google search suggests an old filing cabinet would be a good starting point. I'm supposed to be working now I'm thinking schmokin!!!! Its all your fault womble!!!

[artscott]

You could build a smoke generator and use it on your existing smoker or any box you have handy.  I messed around with a few ideas over the years and after a bit of looking about I decided to build a venturi powered smoke generator. This works on the idea that if you restrict airflow it needs to speed up past the restriction to pass at the same volume. If you then make an additional inlet at that point it will draw air (smoke) into the stream at a measured amount.  Look up venuri smoke generator online, there are lots of people who make them out of cocktail shakers or paint cans.

My fuel chamber is an old can with a couple of air hole drilled in the bottom to light it, the venturi sits on the top and is connected to an old fish tank pump. Smoke is vented through copper pipe to cool it into the smoking chamber. This setup gives me about 5-6 hours of smoking without having to check up on it all the time.
The last photo is it before shutting it in, you can see some fresh bacon on the bottom, a pigs cheek on the top and the middle two bits are a cured leg of lamb and rolled shoulder of pork for air drying for another 2-4 months after smoking.

The air dried stuff was delicious, especially the lamb

[oor wullie]

I recently got a ProQ smoke generator.  Basically it's a metal tray that you load up with sawdust and it smoulders away for 10hr or so, generating lots of cold smoke.
I then got a suitable cardboard box, put some metal rods through the box and a couple of wire cooling racks on the rods for shelves (I should really go take a picture of it...), the smoker sits in the bottom of the box (on an old slate to discourage it from setting fire to the box (but I don't think it would)).  All in all it was dead easy to set up.

So far I have cold smoked salmon, cheese and bacon.  All turned out well and I am on the hunt for more things to smoke.  I highly recommend giving it a go.

[Womble]

Thanks both. That's a nice setup you've got there Artscott!

oor wullie - I've been looking at the ProQ smoke generator as something I'd perhaps use in the bottom of my hot smoker to change it to cold mode, so it's good to hear good reports of it.

I'm currently reading about Ugly Drum Smokers, which seem to be the most popular home build design of hot smokers (there are hundreds of web pages out there devoted to them). I think the hardest thing's going to be sourcing a clean un-lined open topped drum from somewhere, but If I can do that, the rest looks straightforward....

[cloddopper]

Womble,
I have a brick built smoker for cold smoking  but can insert an elecric ring if I want to take it to hot smoking
 it is about 4 x 2 foot deep 7 wide
 the fire/smoke box is in thebottom half  which is 39 inches tall and ontop of the the two paving slabs above the smoke box there is the acri=ual smoke chamber   of a similar size
 
I've cut aa hole between the two compartments to let smoke up  and also drilled 8 x 10 mm  holes in the mortar joints of the top course of bricks to let the smoke out.

 Made two sets of close fitting double doors one fore top & bottom & racked out the smoke chamber .
 Total cost was under £60 excluding the actual sawdust/wood chip burner .
I've put some pluggable holes in the lower doors to give a variable air inlet as & when needed.

One fill of sawdust smoulders for about 7 hours  and as the bricks sweat moisture the smoke sticks to the cheese, fish , meat , sausages , chickens , nuts etc very well .

If you want some pictures let me know & I'll pop put and take half a dozen or so .

I purchased a 15 kg sack of beech sawdust on line  as that is definitely the cheapest way I could get it . ( Ashwood smoking chips ).