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?).
Thank you for your advices
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