This is a simple, usually very cheap, and easy to make smoker.
Your main piece of equipment..... just an old, simple refrigerator. It doesn't need to work, or still have the compressor. It just needs to have a door that still closes pretty tightly, (but if the door doesn't close tightly, you can still smoke meats or fish, you just need to improvise some kind of closure, such as a piece of tin and some duct tape if that's all that is available.)
Here's what needs to be done:
1. Cut a hole, about the size of your fist on one side of the refrigerator, close to the floor of the inside of the frig as possible. You can use a coping saw to start, or even a chisel. It doesn't have to be any certain shape, whatever is easiest. This will be for the draw of the smoke.
2. Cut a hole in the top of the frig, a little bit bigger than your fist. This will be the flue. (This is assuming this frig is the old style, that doesn't have a separate door freezer at the top or bottom. If it does, just make another hole in the freezer compartment floor, if it's a top freezer type, so that the smoke can flow up and out the floor. You can even take the freezer floor out completely if you want.)
3. Next, the best way to set up this smoker is if you can get a hotplate, one like you cook with on a counter top. This way you have a constant source of heat (to help "cook" the meat and to provide heat for the wood to smoke).
If you don't have access to a hot plate, then you will need to make some sort of firebox out of some type of metal. You might be able to find a small metal barrel of some type that you can fit in the bottom of the frig. Just make sure you set this firebox on some bricks or rocks, so the heat from the firebox doesn't melt the bottom of the refrigerator.
4. That's the basic setup. To use it, set a large metal pan or box on top of the hotplate or firebox, add
Hickory Sawdust to the metal pan or box, and sprinkle a little water on the Hickory Sawdust (Don't fill the pan up with water and then add the Hickory Sawdust).
( The smaller the pieces of wood, the better smoke you will get. We always use
Hickory Sawdust in our smokehouses, because it produces more smoke than wood chips.)
Next, make some sort of damper for draw (hole) in the bottom and the flue (hole) at the top of the frig. A piece of tin or wood would work for this. When you first start smoking, leave the draw opening and flue completely open. After 2 or 3 hours like this, close the draw to about one third open and the flue to one third open.
Now you are ready to start smokin'!! .
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Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design Book
Most books on the subject of smoking include a drawing or two, a few pages on generating smoke, and the rest of the pages are filled with recipes. While those recipes usually get the spotlight, the technical know-how behind preparing and smoking meats is far more important. When writing about cold or hot smoke the authors don't end on just giving the temperature range for a particular method. They also explain why one way is better for making certain products than the other. The second part of the book "The Smokehouse Design" contains all that is known about smoker design and is supported with over 100 drawings and 50 photographs. Many of them are detailed technical drawings with all dimensions for building fully functional units. Some of them can almost be made without any costs involved and when ready will allow for making products of the highest quality.
[Excerpt from book below]
Smoking, barbecuing, and grilling.
A lot of people don't understand the difference between smoking, barbecuing, and grilling. When grilling, you quickly seal in the juices from the piece you are cooking. Grilling takes minutes. Smoking takes hours, sometimes even days.
Don't be fooled by the common misconception that by throwing some wet wood chips over hot coals you can smoke your meat. At best you can only add some flavor on the outside because the moment the outside surface of the meat becomes dry and cooked, a significant barrier exists that prevents smoke penetration.
A properly smoked piece of meat has to be thoroughly smoked, on the outside and everywhere inside. Only prolonged cold smoking will achieve that result. Smoking when grilling is no better than pumping liquid smoke into it and claiming that the product is smoked now.
Let's unravel some of the mystery. All these methods are different from each other, especially smoking and grilling. The main factor separating them is temperature
Smoking - no heat, 52F, 1 hr to 2 weeks
Barbecuing - heat, 200 F, few hours
Grilling - heat, 500F, minutes
The purpose of grilling is to char the surface of meat and seal in the juices by creating a smoky caramelized crust. By the same token a barrier is erected that prevents smoke from flowing inside. The meat may have a somewhat smoky flavor on the outside but it was never smoked internally.
Barbecuing comes much closer, but not close enough. It is a long, slow, indirect, low-heat method that uses charcoal or wood pieces to smoke-cook the meat. The best definition is that barbecuing is cooking with smoke. It is ideally suited for large pieces of meat, like whole pigs. The temperature range of 200? ? F is still too high to smoke meats since the fat that binds meat in sausages will melt away through the casings, and the final product will taste like bread crumbs.
Smoking is what it says: smoking meats with smoke that may or may not be followed by cooking. Some products are only smoked at low temperatures and never cooked, yet are safe to eat. Generally we may say that smoking in most cases consists of two steps:
Smoking
Cooking
After smoking is done we increase the temperature to about 170?F (76? C) to start cooking. We want to cook meats or sausages to 152 F? (67? C) internal temperature and here the quality and insulation of the smoker plays an important role. Nevertheless the main smoking process is performed below 140? F.
There are important differences between smoking and barbecuing. Barbecued or grilled meats are eaten immediately the moment they are done. Smoked meats are usually eaten at a later date. When smoking foods a higher degree of smoke penetration is needed and that can only be achieved at lower temperatures. Furthermore, smoked meats are eaten cold. Many great recipes require that smoked products hang for a designated time to lose more weight to become drier. It is only then that they are ready for consumption.
This book is offered from Ask The Meatman.com
The Sausage Maker Website has this exact book listed for $32.79 with shipping!!
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