- Feb 6, 2021
- 244
- 93
I wanted to smoke a Coppa and some Pepperoni a few weeks ago so I patched together a quick and cheap cold smoker for charcuterie, something of a temporary model as I ease into this sport. I've had the Big Chief Smoker for about 25 years, and though it is rarely used anymore, it seemed perfect for a quick solution to satisfy my needs for smoking salumi. It has a rack with removeable shelves that is perfect for hanging meat while in the smoke.
I purchased the cold smoke generator from Amazon and used wood pellets originally intended for my pellet smoker to create the smoke. Placing the smoke tube inside the Big Chief smoke box created more heat than I wanted - up to 100 degrees, even while in 50 degree ambient setting. In order to reduce the heat created by the smoke generator, I used a simple cardboard box with airholes poked into it, combined with a four dollar dryer vent, squished down on one end so that it could be pushed into the smoker box at the wood chip pan door. Placing the lit/smoking smoke generator tube in the cardboard box fitted with a couple scrap pieces of cardboard to better seal the vent hose/smoker box junction - it all seemed a bit too easy. The internal temp. of the smoker box stayed right at 60 degrees during the entire smoking process. I'm wondering if I really need to improve on the design as it seems to work flawlessly. Any thoughts?
I purchased the cold smoke generator from Amazon and used wood pellets originally intended for my pellet smoker to create the smoke. Placing the smoke tube inside the Big Chief smoke box created more heat than I wanted - up to 100 degrees, even while in 50 degree ambient setting. In order to reduce the heat created by the smoke generator, I used a simple cardboard box with airholes poked into it, combined with a four dollar dryer vent, squished down on one end so that it could be pushed into the smoker box at the wood chip pan door. Placing the lit/smoking smoke generator tube in the cardboard box fitted with a couple scrap pieces of cardboard to better seal the vent hose/smoker box junction - it all seemed a bit too easy. The internal temp. of the smoker box stayed right at 60 degrees during the entire smoking process. I'm wondering if I really need to improve on the design as it seems to work flawlessly. Any thoughts?