I recently bought a UFO cold smoke generator. They are extremely easy and reliable to use. The only drawback is you need electricity to run the air pump but so what? - this is for home use.
It worked so well in the little rubbish bin that I decided I'd make something bigger, and add heat to it so I could choose between cold and hot smoking and not have too much more stuff cluttering up the garage...
I had a good read through the threads in this forum - so many excellent posts with great ideas. Once I got an idea what was required, I set to it...
First, I scored an oven grill element and mounted it into a 44 gal. drum. I cut up my old BBQ trolley so I could move the whole thing around easily
The total element wattage was 2800W - too much for a 240V 10A supply - so I only connected the centre terminals. That heated up the drum quickly enough
I decided I needed some control over the temperature so I bought a small temperature controller relay. They're great little units at a very fair price, but the English in the instructions is atrocious. At least it was easy to wire up...
Folded up a couple of boxes to cover the electrics, and a stainless one to protect the element from drips and gave it a try. (Little old smoker at bottom-left)
Threw in a brined salmon fillet and turned on the smoke. 2 hours with the controller set-point at 40ºC (104ºF), then 2 hours at 60ºC (140ºF) gave me a beautifully smokey and moist piece of fish with an internal temperature of 60ºC
Next I'll tidy up the wires, put a lid on the controller box and add a couple more racks
A big "thank-you" to all the members who posted information in other threads regarding smoker builds, brines, ideal temperatures etc. This is a fantastic site for information on bacon curing, brining meat; so many more things than just smoking. I visit it almost every day
It worked so well in the little rubbish bin that I decided I'd make something bigger, and add heat to it so I could choose between cold and hot smoking and not have too much more stuff cluttering up the garage...
I had a good read through the threads in this forum - so many excellent posts with great ideas. Once I got an idea what was required, I set to it...
First, I scored an oven grill element and mounted it into a 44 gal. drum. I cut up my old BBQ trolley so I could move the whole thing around easily
The total element wattage was 2800W - too much for a 240V 10A supply - so I only connected the centre terminals. That heated up the drum quickly enough
I decided I needed some control over the temperature so I bought a small temperature controller relay. They're great little units at a very fair price, but the English in the instructions is atrocious. At least it was easy to wire up...
Folded up a couple of boxes to cover the electrics, and a stainless one to protect the element from drips and gave it a try. (Little old smoker at bottom-left)
Threw in a brined salmon fillet and turned on the smoke. 2 hours with the controller set-point at 40ºC (104ºF), then 2 hours at 60ºC (140ºF) gave me a beautifully smokey and moist piece of fish with an internal temperature of 60ºC
Next I'll tidy up the wires, put a lid on the controller box and add a couple more racks
A big "thank-you" to all the members who posted information in other threads regarding smoker builds, brines, ideal temperatures etc. This is a fantastic site for information on bacon curing, brining meat; so many more things than just smoking. I visit it almost every day
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