Home smoking – on a budget!

Latest Articles

Home smoking – on a budget!

Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing

Author

Message

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 5:59 pm Post subject: Home smoking – on a budget!

After sampling some home smoked salmon, which was rather tasty, I decided to have a go for myself. A while back I noticed someone using clay chimney liners but I would have to buy these. We have a steady supply of 2.5kg tomato cans so I decided to have a go with these.

I took 5 old clean cans and cut the remaining end off 4 of them. The one that still had the end on was the base can and the rest joined on top of each other after a few chosen cuts and bends. This gave me a 60cm tube with a base I could place wood chips in (made myself with an oak log and a hatchet).At the top of the tube I drilled two holes so I could place a rail for hanging items to be smoked on.

The smoker was placed on two bricks with enough room for some tea lights underneath. I placed a couple of handfuls of oak chips in the bottom and lit the tea lights.

My first proper attempt was smoking a mackerel, freshly filleted and soaked in brine for a couple of hours. This was then placed in my secret weapon - one of those gadgets for placing fish in on the bbq. This enabled me to suspend the fillet in the tube where it was surrounded by smoke!

After only a couple of hours I have some rather good smoked mackerel from my free smoker. Now there are several 'teething' problems that need sorting but it is certainly worth trying. Firstly the tea lights don't give off enough heat to start but then when they heat up and burn more fiercely they give off too much heat and the result is a hot smoked fish. So, I need to make some form of spirit burner. I also tried a piece of cheese with some sawdust from an ash log but I found that wood didn't give a very good flavour I think there are several other improvements that can be made but I should be able to smoke small items quite successfully - I may even write an article.

(If anyone tries this please take care of the sharp edges, using a good quality can opener gives smoother edges).

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28134
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 6:31 pm Post subject:
Good to see you getting into the smoking game

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:17 pm Post subject:
I could make some comments about taking up smoking, but I won't! Sounds pretty ingenious, I'm itching to have a go, though. I wonder if you could do it in a chimenea, if you took the hood off the top? Might get too hot, if you lit it properly, but it does solve the hardware problem, and tea lights would work OK, I'd have thought.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 05 9:10 pm Post subject:
Well here is a pic of the smoker and the first result:

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 05 9:12 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Sounds pretty ingenious, I'm itching to have a go, though. I wonder if you could do it in a chimenea, if you took the hood off the top? Might get too hot, if you lit it properly, but it does solve the hardware problem, and tea lights would work OK, I'd have thought.

I think you can try most things, especially if you are after a smoked taste rather than long keeping. I was aiming for a cold smoked item but in the end it was hot smoked so I ate it straight away.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 05 11:37 pm Post subject:

I'm quietly delighted by your success in this, all the more so because Jema said it wouldn't work when I suggested it way back

(runs off, does a search, and finds:
https://forum.downsizer.net/about360.html& )

Could you make the chimney a little longer, thus allowing the smoke to cool some more?

I've got an old, old steamer, the kind of pan you might see at a scout camp if you're boiling spuds and steaming veg for fourty people. Got it in a charity shop for a fiver last year. Used the pan part, with a rack in it, for hot smoking; found that the steamer level was too high up for hot smoking. I was using a tuna tin with meths in it underneath for heat (v. hot, and burns out fast). I rekon that if I could fathom a better burner I might manage to use it as a cold smoker, so I have to nick your idea of using tea lights. Or failing that a simple spirit or oil burner.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

View Latest Posts