Is a long smoke pipe worth it?

[innarion]

Hi, I have a "European" style smokehouse at the moment. The smokehouse is made of wood, on a metal stand, with a small metal firebox and a metal pipe (1 m / 3 feet long, 15 cm / 6 inches diameter) between the firebox and the smokehouse. I use it for hot smoking, as the current firebox setup allows for maintaining approx 80 °C / 170 °F inside the smokehouse.

I am planning to build a permanent spot for it in the garden. It will be positioned in a sloped terrain (approx. 7 ° inclination between the firebox and the smokehouse). I will build the firebox out of bricks and make it larger, and I will replace the metal pipe with a trench in the ground lined with bricks from all sides (resulting in approx. 15x15 cm / 6x6 inches cross section).

My question: The place where the setup will be built allows for up to 7 m / 23 feet smoke trench length. Would it be worth making it that long?

Such a long trench/pipe may not allow for hot smoking so my idea was that in such case I could build two fireboxes and two trenches -- one would be 1-2 m / 4-7 feet away from the smokehouse (for hot smoking) and the other as described above (for cold or warm smoking?).

• Do you have a similar setup? Is it worth the extra effort and material cost?
• Would the 7 m / 23 feet trench be long enough to cool the smoke down to a cold smoking (20-30 °C / 68-86 °F) or at least warm smoking (25-40 °C / 77-104 °F) temperature?
  • My concern is that the smoke will not cool down enough and I'll land the just a few degrees below the shorter smoke trench. That would have no real benefit for me
  • The smokehouse will be wood fueled only. Given that cold smoking takes much longer than hot smoking, I would like the fire in the firebox to last for at least a few hours before refueling -- i.e., I don't want a tiny firebox with a tiny fire which needs to be attended every 20 minutes to throw in a small piece of wood otherwise it will extinguish
  • I am only interested in properties of the long trench -- electric appliances such as smoke generators or smoke coolers are not the focus of this topic
  • I live in central European climate zone with winter temperatures below the freezing point in case it matters
• Are there any other benefits of such a long smoke pipe / trench?
• Are there any downsides of such a long smoke pipe / trench?

Thank you for your advices

 

[slavikborisov]

i cant speak to this as i do not have the set up you have. if i was you i would experiment externally first before digging a long trench with the distance you stated.

 

[innarion]

i cant speak to this as i do not have the set up you have. if i was you i would experiment externally first before digging a long trench with the distance you stated.

I already thought of this -- extending the metal pipe I currently have would be fairly cheap and easy to do. However, I fear that the trench will have different heat insulating properties than the thin-walled metal tubing I am currently using. So I don't know how much the experiment would reflect reality

 

[paulgeorge]

Hi, I have a "European" style smokehouse at the moment. The smokehouse is made of wood, on a metal stand, with a small metal firebox and a metal pipe (1 m / 3 feet long, 15 cm / 6 inches diameter) between the firebox and the smokehouse. I use it for hot smoking, as the current firebox setup allows for maintaining approx 80 °C / 170 °F inside the smokehouse.

I am planning to build a permanent spot for it in the garden. It will be positioned in a sloped terrain (approx. 7 ° inclination between the firebox and the smokehouse). I will build the firebox out of bricks and make it larger, and I will replace the metal pipe with a trench in the ground lined with bricks from all sides (resulting in approx. 15x15 cm / 6x6 inches cross section).

My question: The place where the setup will be built allows for up to 7 m / 23 feet smoke trench length. Would it be worth making it that long?

Such a long trench/pipe may not allow for hot smoking so my idea was that in such case I could build two fireboxes and two trenches -- one would be 1-2 m / 4-7 feet away from the smokehouse (for hot smoking) and the other as described above (for cold or warm smoking?).

• Do you have a similar setup? Is it worth the extra effort and material cost?
• Would the 7 m / 23 feet trench be long enough to cool the smoke down to a cold smoking (20-30 °C / 68-86 °F) or at least warm smoking (25-40 °C / 77-104 °F) temperature?
  • My concern is that the smoke will not cool down enough and I'll land the just a few degrees below the shorter smoke trench. That would have no real benefit for me
  • The smokehouse will be wood fueled only. Given that cold smoking takes much longer than hot smoking, I would like the fire in the firebox to last for at least a few hours before refueling -- i.e., I don't want a tiny firebox with a tiny fire which needs to be attended every 20 minutes to throw in a small piece of wood otherwise it will extinguish
  • I am only interested in properties of the long trench -- electric appliances such as smoke generators or smoke coolers are not the focus of this topic CamMatch
  • I live in central European climate zone with winter temperatures below the freezing point in case it matters
• Are there any other benefits of such a long smoke pipe / trench?
• Are there any downsides of such a long smoke pipe / trench?

Thank you for your advices

A 7m (23 feet) smoke trench could be effective for cold smoking, as it allows the smoke more time to cool. However, it may not be long enough if the fire is too hot or the cooling process isn't efficient. You could try a 4-5m trench first to test the cooling effect before committing to the full 7m.

Building two fireboxes is a good idea for temperature control—one for hot smoking and the other for cold or warm smoking. Ensure your firebox is large enough to maintain a steady burn for long smoking sessions without frequent refueling.

 

[innarion]

A 7m (23 feet) smoke trench could be effective for cold smoking, as it allows the smoke more time to cool. However, it may not be long enough if the fire is too hot or the cooling process isn't efficient. You could try a 4-5m trench first to test the cooling effect before committing to the full 7m.

Building two fireboxes is a good idea for temperature control—one for hot smoking and the other for cold or warm smoking. Ensure your firebox is large enough to maintain a steady burn for long smoking sessions without frequent refueling.

That's exactly my concern - that when the firebox is big enough to keep the fire burning for some time, the smoke will not be cool enough.

Also, when I spoke to other people about this, they suggested that with this length of smoke trench, the trench and the smokehouse itself will be very cold and hard to bring to a temperature. The problem here would be that the smoke in a very cold smokehouse may start to condense and cause what we call "tar" on the meat - a layer of black dirt on the surface of the meat which may cause it to taste bitter or sour.

I guess I'll need to study cold smoking for a while since currently I'm a bit lost about the "taring" of the meat and required temperatures. If anyone has any advices or hints about how it works and how to avoid it, they will be appreciated.

 

[frankie007]

Trench and a long pipe is definitely a cold smoking device. A very small fire is made at the end of it and a single piece of wood is placed on it to generate smoke. I heve seen those when I was living in Yugoslavia. Its all cold smoking in the Balkans.

 

[innarion]

Trench and a long pipe is definitely a cold smoking device. A very small fire is made at the end of it and a single piece of wood is placed on it to generate smoke. I heve seen those when I was living in Yugoslavia. Its all cold smoking in the Balkans.

Thanks for directing me to the Balkans. Being Czech I partially understand Balkan languages and I just searched for "pušnica" or "sušnica" plans and images. I must say that I found some very interesting resources

 

[texomakid]

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread laughing at the title? I have a warped sense of humor I guess.....

 

[JIMSMOKES]

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread laughing at the title? I have a warped sense of humor I guess.....

Nope you're not alone.

 

[fxsales1959]

My old hippie mind had completely different thoughts. was good to learn though