Hi everybody,
I hope nobody objects to me joining this group but Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been searching the Internet for a good source of help and information about smoking food and this one looks the best. You can probably guess from my accent that Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not a resident of North America, in fact I live in England (about 30 miles South of London). I had to lie on the registration form – I said I lived in British Columbia. It was the name closest to the truth (apart from the Columbia bit that is).
Anyway I got interested in smoking meat when I decided a few months ago that I would love to be able to make my own Pastrami and soon found out that Pastrami needs to be smoked to get a good result so I made a very makeshift smoker out of a pile of house bricks (see attachments) which I stacked to form a square box, placed some mesh half way up and plonked a stainless sheet on the top of the brick pile to keep the heat and smoke in. In the bottom I started a fire using lump wood charcoal upon which I placed some Cherry wood chips in an aluminium foil dish. The net result was quite acceptable but I did have trouble regulating the heat and the quantity of smoke produced.
Anyway I got thinking about how to improve what Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve called “Old Normâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Smokehutchâ€. You have to remember that most gardens in England are quite small and could not accommodate some of monster smokers I have seen on the group's pages. Donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get me wrong I would love a monster smoker but space is at a premium and “She-that-has-to-be-obeyed†would never allow it anyway.
I built the BBQ that Smoker v.1.0 sat on, and as you can see has seen a lot of action. Basically if it isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t cold and windy I will have a BBQ and after the meal we will sit in front of the BBQ and have a log fire with a few beers etc. As I intend to rebuild the BBQ I thought I might be able to convert the enclosure to the left of the grill into a smoker.
I know this going to offend a lot of you but I thought that if I could get my hands on a old electric cooker I could cannibalise it and utilise the heating components and their controls to regulate the quantity of smoke whilst maintaining an appropriate temperature within the enclosure.
So I placed a “Wanted†request in our local “Freecycle†group for an electric cooker and got one in a couple of days. So I guess I became committed at this point.
I stripped it down and made the “Heath Robinson†type of set up shown in attachments.
The control box houses the hotplate controller which has six positions of heat adjustment (which I thought would be OK as the wood chip heat source) as well as the oven thermostat controller which capable of supplying up to 2500Watts of power.
I need some advice:
I apologise for being so long winded but I thought it best to give the whole story so that I might be able to get some good advice from the experts amongst you all.
Cheers,
Old Norm
I hope nobody objects to me joining this group but Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been searching the Internet for a good source of help and information about smoking food and this one looks the best. You can probably guess from my accent that Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not a resident of North America, in fact I live in England (about 30 miles South of London). I had to lie on the registration form – I said I lived in British Columbia. It was the name closest to the truth (apart from the Columbia bit that is).
Anyway I got interested in smoking meat when I decided a few months ago that I would love to be able to make my own Pastrami and soon found out that Pastrami needs to be smoked to get a good result so I made a very makeshift smoker out of a pile of house bricks (see attachments) which I stacked to form a square box, placed some mesh half way up and plonked a stainless sheet on the top of the brick pile to keep the heat and smoke in. In the bottom I started a fire using lump wood charcoal upon which I placed some Cherry wood chips in an aluminium foil dish. The net result was quite acceptable but I did have trouble regulating the heat and the quantity of smoke produced.
Anyway I got thinking about how to improve what Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve called “Old Normâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Smokehutchâ€. You have to remember that most gardens in England are quite small and could not accommodate some of monster smokers I have seen on the group's pages. Donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get me wrong I would love a monster smoker but space is at a premium and “She-that-has-to-be-obeyed†would never allow it anyway.
I built the BBQ that Smoker v.1.0 sat on, and as you can see has seen a lot of action. Basically if it isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t cold and windy I will have a BBQ and after the meal we will sit in front of the BBQ and have a log fire with a few beers etc. As I intend to rebuild the BBQ I thought I might be able to convert the enclosure to the left of the grill into a smoker.
I know this going to offend a lot of you but I thought that if I could get my hands on a old electric cooker I could cannibalise it and utilise the heating components and their controls to regulate the quantity of smoke whilst maintaining an appropriate temperature within the enclosure.
So I placed a “Wanted†request in our local “Freecycle†group for an electric cooker and got one in a couple of days. So I guess I became committed at this point.
I stripped it down and made the “Heath Robinson†type of set up shown in attachments.
The control box houses the hotplate controller which has six positions of heat adjustment (which I thought would be OK as the wood chip heat source) as well as the oven thermostat controller which capable of supplying up to 2500Watts of power.
I need some advice:
- I have hotplates ranging from 700Watts to 1800Watts
- Oven heating elements ranging from 800Watts to 2500Watts
- The oven volume will be about a 3 foot cube which I thought I might internally clad with 1 inch thick pine timber for insulation purposes.
I apologise for being so long winded but I thought it best to give the whole story so that I might be able to get some good advice from the experts amongst you all.
Cheers,
Old Norm
