I am on a mission.. A very important mission, and it could be dangerous..
Coz we're going hunting.. for Bacon!!
I have been living in China for about 4 years now, and one thing I have always missed is good Bacon. You can get something like it here, full of water, kind of pinkish in color, and not very nice. so decided I would have to try it myself and see if i can do it better.
My first attempt was about 6 months ago when I bought some belly from the market and did a dry salt/sugar/bay leave rub for 5 days, and then ate it. Not bad, but not quite there yet, and so started the smoker project!
I did some research, about the differences of hot & cold smoking, fire boxes, grills, different kinds of wood etc, and not being in a place where you can go to the nearest hardware store and pickup a smoker, decided to make one myself!
So, from my father-in-law I got a little charcoal fired pot-stove, and off I went to figure out how to get a smoke box. My conclusion was to buy an electrical fuse box, here they make them from a beige painted mild steel, with front doors and metal fittings. They are weather proof and reasonably priced, but they tend to be quite narrow.. But walking down the street I found a better solution. There was a Tin Smith making up kettles, and HVAC Ducting. I went into his shop, made a simple sketch, and asked him if he could do it, and he said come back in a week!
Here is the result:
Attachment 2723
Taking you through it step by step. The 'firebox' is an old cast iron pot stove that burns round charcoal pellets that seem only to be made in China. They are actually processed coal dust that is glued together to form a commonly used fuel. Because of the potential for all sorts of unnatural things in there I vent all that smoke up the chimney behind the pot stove.
Attachment 2724
For getting the smoke I am using two stainless steel bowls sat on top of eachother. I had my tinsmith cut a hole and stick a pipe into the top one so that I could channel the smoke into the smoke box.
Attachment 2725
The ducting between the wood box and the smoke box is probably around 3 or 4 metres long when extended, but so far i have found that even the around 1 m distance between the wood smoking and the smoke box, it seems to cool down a lot! Hopefully enough to do some good cold smoking!
For temperature indication I found an old meat thermometer from Ikea. It has a magnet on the back so it attaches nicely to the front of the smoke box.
Attachment 2726
I managed to find some Hickory wood chips last weekend when I happened to be in Singapore for a business trip, otherwise I would be stuck right here.. (Next trip to the country we will be stopping by an apple orchard to see if they have any last season windfall trees lying around!) Yesterday was the seasoning of the smoker. Had it going nicely for about 6 hours empty to season the metal, and even now the metal still smells nicely of smoke!
So onto the next chapter.. The first attempt at actual Bacon!
I will attempt a wet/dry cure, of Honey & Mustard with some salt & Sugar, in the fridge for 4 days, followed by a 6 hour low temperature Hickory Smoke..
Will follow up with the results, would appreciate any comments that could make this even better than it sounds already!!
Cheers
Herr Tulpe
Coz we're going hunting.. for Bacon!!
I have been living in China for about 4 years now, and one thing I have always missed is good Bacon. You can get something like it here, full of water, kind of pinkish in color, and not very nice. so decided I would have to try it myself and see if i can do it better.
My first attempt was about 6 months ago when I bought some belly from the market and did a dry salt/sugar/bay leave rub for 5 days, and then ate it. Not bad, but not quite there yet, and so started the smoker project!
I did some research, about the differences of hot & cold smoking, fire boxes, grills, different kinds of wood etc, and not being in a place where you can go to the nearest hardware store and pickup a smoker, decided to make one myself!
So, from my father-in-law I got a little charcoal fired pot-stove, and off I went to figure out how to get a smoke box. My conclusion was to buy an electrical fuse box, here they make them from a beige painted mild steel, with front doors and metal fittings. They are weather proof and reasonably priced, but they tend to be quite narrow.. But walking down the street I found a better solution. There was a Tin Smith making up kettles, and HVAC Ducting. I went into his shop, made a simple sketch, and asked him if he could do it, and he said come back in a week!
Here is the result:
Attachment 2723
Taking you through it step by step. The 'firebox' is an old cast iron pot stove that burns round charcoal pellets that seem only to be made in China. They are actually processed coal dust that is glued together to form a commonly used fuel. Because of the potential for all sorts of unnatural things in there I vent all that smoke up the chimney behind the pot stove.
Attachment 2724
For getting the smoke I am using two stainless steel bowls sat on top of eachother. I had my tinsmith cut a hole and stick a pipe into the top one so that I could channel the smoke into the smoke box.
Attachment 2725
The ducting between the wood box and the smoke box is probably around 3 or 4 metres long when extended, but so far i have found that even the around 1 m distance between the wood smoking and the smoke box, it seems to cool down a lot! Hopefully enough to do some good cold smoking!
For temperature indication I found an old meat thermometer from Ikea. It has a magnet on the back so it attaches nicely to the front of the smoke box.
Attachment 2726
I managed to find some Hickory wood chips last weekend when I happened to be in Singapore for a business trip, otherwise I would be stuck right here.. (Next trip to the country we will be stopping by an apple orchard to see if they have any last season windfall trees lying around!) Yesterday was the seasoning of the smoker. Had it going nicely for about 6 hours empty to season the metal, and even now the metal still smells nicely of smoke!
So onto the next chapter.. The first attempt at actual Bacon!
I will attempt a wet/dry cure, of Honey & Mustard with some salt & Sugar, in the fridge for 4 days, followed by a 6 hour low temperature Hickory Smoke..
Will follow up with the results, would appreciate any comments that could make this even better than it sounds already!!
Cheers
Herr Tulpe
