Hello All,
Several years ago my mother-in-law moved from the ranch to a smaller place and regrettably the old smokehouse that was used for generations was no longer accessible so we built a new one (see attached pics). At the ranch, my Father-in-Law used to tend the fire when we made sausage every fall where the stove you see was actually inside a much larger smokehouse. Some years we the fire would burn too hot and fat would render out, other years we only got a light smoke, but most years the finished product was just right. A nice cold smoke (85 to 100 degrees F) is what we were after, but the process was very dependent on the weather, the number of new holes in the old smokehouse, the wind and how often Ray checked the fire.
Ray passed away several years ago and unfortunately he took the art of coaxing a good product out of a well ventilated (OLD) smokehouse with him. When Joan moved into a smaller place in town, she still wanted to keep the generations old sausage making tradition alive so we built this small smokehouse so the next generation could help keep this annual tradition alive. The old stove was brought into town and I am now trying to learn how to keep the fire under control with a firebox separated from the smokehouse so as to keep the temp in the smokehouse from getting too high.
I've been lucky the past couple of years, but I'm afraid that at some point our cold smoke intent might end up with a whole lot of rendered fat on the floor of the smokehouse because the fire got too hot. I'd like to master this, but without Ray's guidance, I feel I'm at a disadvantage.
Can anyone offer some suggestions on how I can keep a consistent temp that produces a good smoke without getting too hot?
Regards,
John
Several years ago my mother-in-law moved from the ranch to a smaller place and regrettably the old smokehouse that was used for generations was no longer accessible so we built a new one (see attached pics). At the ranch, my Father-in-Law used to tend the fire when we made sausage every fall where the stove you see was actually inside a much larger smokehouse. Some years we the fire would burn too hot and fat would render out, other years we only got a light smoke, but most years the finished product was just right. A nice cold smoke (85 to 100 degrees F) is what we were after, but the process was very dependent on the weather, the number of new holes in the old smokehouse, the wind and how often Ray checked the fire.
Ray passed away several years ago and unfortunately he took the art of coaxing a good product out of a well ventilated (OLD) smokehouse with him. When Joan moved into a smaller place in town, she still wanted to keep the generations old sausage making tradition alive so we built this small smokehouse so the next generation could help keep this annual tradition alive. The old stove was brought into town and I am now trying to learn how to keep the fire under control with a firebox separated from the smokehouse so as to keep the temp in the smokehouse from getting too high.
I've been lucky the past couple of years, but I'm afraid that at some point our cold smoke intent might end up with a whole lot of rendered fat on the floor of the smokehouse because the fire got too hot. I'd like to master this, but without Ray's guidance, I feel I'm at a disadvantage.
Can anyone offer some suggestions on how I can keep a consistent temp that produces a good smoke without getting too hot?
Regards,
John
