Firebox on inside of smokehouse?

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smokeybo

Fire Starter
Original poster
Apr 10, 2018
51
16
Hi,

I'm new here and just signed up because I am wanting to build a smokehouse on East Texas land but I really want to have the old fashioned kettle/drum fire box sitting on the ground inside of the smokehouse.

This will mainly be to cold smoke hams, sausages and to make bacon (all done in the cold winter months under 45 degrees.

I see many here have the fire boxes on the outside and connected via a tube/pipe, do I have wishful thinking?
 
i had something simple like one of these in mind:

5679169_f1024.jpg


then sit this inside on the floor and keep feeding it chips

51aFNPAlGoL.jpg
 
if you combine those two pics you get exactly what i'm looking for.
this:

6bVovOVl.jpg



Any cons against doing bacon this way?
 
Hi Bo, Welcome to SMF!

The only con I can think of is to be sure you move the outhouse away from pit before you start.
Other wise you might get some co-mingled scents you do not want mixed...:confused:o_O LOL! :p:D

I've never had a wooden smoke house myself. Never had the room, nor stayed in one place long enough. But until this year, I never ever bought a smoker, I always built, or adapticated something. And I used some form of electric for heating the chips to smoke, I never fussed with the temperature. I'd just smoke until what I was smoking was as smoked as I wanted it. Then ate the evidence to hide it. ;)

From what I've gathered, cold smoking is below 100°; then warm goes 100° up to around 160°; and hot goes up from there.
Having your fire pit, or smoke source, outside let's you tend the smoke source without opening the entire smoker and loosing the temperature and smoke inside, or causing a flare up due to the sudden rush of air and oxygen.
Now, of course having two doors can also solve that. A fire pan that trolleys out for adding wood, coals, or chunks/chips will hold the chamber smoke and temperature.

Lot's of ways to skin a cat... Mine are generally more akin to small fires and willow branches, than a bar-B-que called a smoker. To me a smoke house is the purest form of true smoke curing/smoking.
I like smoking, then if it needs more temperature, finish cooking it, like bacon is.

But I've always been a small batch smoker.:)
 
Cold smoking is usually smoke for 6-24 hours then no smoke for 24-36 hours...
You may have a problem controlling the temperature, but you can experiment before you put the meat in...
If you have an external firebox, you will need an air supply to cool the smoke and dilute it....
Below is a drawing of several ways to control temperature and smoke dilution...
click on pic to enlarge..

SMOKEHOUSE SMOKE PIPE TEE 2.jpg


Marianski:
Cold Smoking
Cold smoking at 52-71° F (12-22° C), from 1-14 days
Warm Smoking
Continuous smoking at 73-104° F (23-40° C), from 4-48 hours depending on the diameter of the meat, humidity 80%, and medium smoke.
Hot Smoking
Hot smoking is the most common method of smoking. Continuous smoking at 105-140° F (41-60° C), 0.5-2 hours
 
I'll only be smoking when ambient temps are 30 to 50 degrees.

Your dampening system is interesting and I need to look more into something like that.

Cold smoking is usually smoke for 6-24 hours then no smoke for 24-36 hours...
You may have a problem controlling the temperature, but you can experiment before you put the meat in...
If you have an external firebox, you will need an air supply to cool the smoke and dilute it....
Below is a drawing of several ways to control temperature and smoke dilution...
click on pic to enlarge..

View attachment 360197


Marianski:
Cold Smoking
Cold smoking at 52-71° F (12-22° C), from 1-14 days
Warm Smoking
Continuous smoking at 73-104° F (23-40° C), from 4-48 hours depending on the diameter of the meat, humidity 80%, and medium smoke.
Hot Smoking
Hot smoking is the most common method of smoking. Continuous smoking at 105-140° F (41-60° C), 0.5-2 hours
 
What Dave said...
If you want to cold smoke in your outhouse style smokehouse, just get an Amazen pellet smoker and nix the BBQ...

I like the thought of that amazn system but I wanted to keep this simple as possible and use the real wood I already have stacked.
 
I've read that I can use my own sawdust or wood chips in the amazn pellet smoke tube so I think the tube might be the way for me to go as long as it can provide an adequate amount of smoke to smoke bacon at 50 degrees ambient temp in a 3x3 square, 6ft tall box.
 
I've decided to scale down as an intro project (and I doubt I'll start off smoking 150lbs of meat all at once) so I'll do 2ft x 2ft and 3ft tall.

This will sit on top of a couple rows of cinder blocks that will mainly serve as a bbq / fire pitt.

I'm using cedar fence pickets


f1mzSeql.jpg
 
Oh.
And at Marshall's one day I saw a 12 inch pellet tube in the checkout line for $5 so I grabbed it.
Haven't used it yet.
But plan on doing the mailbox mod and stuffing Chore Boys inside the dryer hose
 
your cedar smoker with the 12 inch pellet tube looks like it will work for cold smoking, don't for get to season it first, at least 2-3 times to get rid of that cedar smell and get some seasoning in the wood.yoo could also use a smoker box usually made of cast iron with chips and a couple pieces of charcoal adding charcoal and chips every half hour.
 
your cedar smoker with the 12 inch pellet tube looks like it will work for cold smoking, don't for get to season it first, at least 2-3 times to get rid of that cedar smell and get some seasoning in the wood.yoo could also use a smoker box usually made of cast iron with chips and a couple pieces of charcoal adding charcoal and chips every half hour.

This is only for cold smoking.
Only bacon and cheese.
It'll never see above 60 degrees ambient
The "mailbox mod" is my poormans version of a smoker box and has a lot less heat that id need to deal with.
And since it is remote it cuts down on the creosote.
At least that's what I've read on here.
 
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