All you need to cold smoke is...?

[SherryT]

I'm new, but I'm learning, so...

If I'm understanding this right, a cold smoker is, in its most basic configuration, a box vented in such a way that a draft is produced and some way to introduce cold/cool smoke into the box.

So, for a small cold smoker (perhaps the size of a mini fridge), I could get the A-Maze-N tray and place it directly IN the vented box (not in contact with the wood, of course) and I've got a simple cold smoker?

For a larger version, it seems to me an external smoke source would be needed (more volume=more smoke?), so if I have a LARGER version of this box (perhaps the size of full-size fridge), an external smoke source (an old Aussie-type grill into which I've cut a hole in the lid to accept a pipe) and run that pipe from the grill to the box, I've got what amounts to the same simple cold smoker, just on a bigger scale?

Am I on the right track?

 

[SonnyE]

Hi SherryT, Welcome!
You are certainly on the right track, you're here, and you're asking questions. Great start!

I wouldn't call it a draft, more of a drift as it were. You want the smoke to linger and drift around the product being smoked. But to avid stale smoke, yes an upper vent so the smoke being generated can drift out.
The heat made by the fuel (Pellets, pucks, chips or sawdust) will create the flow. Dampers top and bottom help to control the flow and temperature.
The box of the smoker can be pretty much anything. I've had refrigerators, large electrical equipment cabinets, wooden crates... and used a heat source as simple as a hotplate to heat and combust my wood in something as simple as a 1 gallon can, or an old sauce pan.
But I've come to learn I'm mostly a cold, or low temperature, type smoker. It's only been lately I came to even wonder about temperatures.
Smoking, to me, is for flavor and preservation of meat. Along with making Jerky, but that's probably a different subject.
Now days, most of the guesswork has been removed, recipes, electronic controls, fuel feeds, it's grown into a set-it and forget-it world.
A long, long way from meat and fish hanging on sticks over small smoldering fires. It's a science now.
But that science is still a function of cooking.
Now, I use a Bradley Smoke Generator which feeds a puck of hardwood (I prefer Hickory) at 20 minute intervals to an electric hot spot that heats the puck to a smoldering temperature. They found 20 minutes was the right time to push the puck off into a pan of water to extinguish it.
But me being me, I have the catch pan, minus the water. If there's a nickels worth of smoke left, I want it. ;)
But, if you can get hold of an old fashioned enameled steel fridge, they make a great smoker chamber. Two of mine were dump finds I merely added a 120 volt hot plate to, with a can for the wood. And built in an adjustable vent near the top to let the smoke out. (It does not have to be a stack.)

 

[gmc2003]

SherryT, yes an AmazN tray will work fine in either size box you describe. You just need to be able to keep the temps down below 90*, and the smoke moving. I use the tray in my WSM, but wouldn't hesitate to use it something larger - say an old refrigerator. When your ready to get started post a description of what your planning on using and someone will walk you through the steps. Keep us informed.

Chris

 

[SmokinAl]

I've seen cold smoking done in an old cardboard refrigerator box with an AMAZEN pellet smoker for the smoke.
You can cold smoke in just about any box, and any of the Amazen products will work for the smoke.
http://www.amazenproducts.com/
Al

 

[SherryT]

Looks like I've been WAY over-thinking this for since I started looking for info on making sausage and curing/smoking meat (which is how I found this forum, BTW).

What we want to do is grow out a couple of hogs each year...if we do it, I'm going to need sufficient space in which to smoke, so I've been thinking about a smaller version of a smokehouse, perhaps the size of a refrigerator or a bit larger (the one we had on the farm when I was a kid was a walk-in building with a "pit" in the middle).

Gonna order the A-MAZE-N, rig up a box, check in with you guys, and give it a test run with a loin I've got curing in Pop's brine and see how it goes!

Thanks!

To be continued...:)

 

[daveomak]

With pellets, your "smallish" smoker box may get too warm... If you have an old blender of sorts, you can grind up the pellets to a dust like texture.. you light it the same, with a torch, but it burns, smolders a LOT cooler than the pellets....
Soooooo, there's a way to cool off your cold smoker...
BTW, only grind a few pellets at a time.. maybe 2-3 dozen or so... they do NOT like to grind easy... a hammer to break them up a bit might be of help... I've even thought of putting them in water to break up, then dry out the dust... but I haven't done that yet... Well, I'm gonna try that right now... It a cold morning, snowing, and time a plenty...

 

[daveomak]

Pellets to dust....
Well, I put a couple handfuls of pellets in a jar with warm water... in a few minutes they crumbled.... So I put the water and pellets in the blender and let her rip... Spread out in a sheet pan with a paper towel down.. Then into the smoker at 250 ish for a few hours... turned out pretty good..

Pics with and w/o flash...

Wet pellets...... spread out on a paper tower in a sheet pan... My pictures suck...

..

Dry pulverized pellets......

...

 

[Rings Я Us]

Cool

 

[SmokinAl]

I get my own sawdust from cutting up splits into puck sized chunks & saving the dust.

It burns real well & it's free!
Al