Looking for help/advice with wood smoke house

[upland1]

3x.5x3.5x7 made out of 4x4 posts.

I aquired and old outhouse tyoe smokehouse.

Trying to get the smoke right. I’ve been smoking meats since I was a kid (first helping a butcher) I can’t for life of me remember how he did it…’And using electric smokers for myself.

I have an emergency water boiler. I need to figure our height. I have tired chips and chunks. Sitting on base it was definitely too close. Now apparently I’m just a little too high.

Starting to wonder if I should find a secondary source (free or cheap) to smoke my wood chips or chunks from . If so what I should I look for and best way to set it up. Is a convection fan necessary and if so where would be best to mount it. I get not near the burner or might only run with the wood stove or an e burner. I welcome any and all ideas.

Long term I would love to find a tent stove and pipe in, set up for a sauna e burner and of course propane so I could run regardless of power outage etc. maybe a controller etc if I’m running electric. Just no money for that now.


I need to get by for this year and hopefully next year I can perfect it.



Thank you.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Welcome to the forum from Colorado.

I have a smokehouse of roughly same dimensions as yours. I run a propane burner much like the one you have with a 12” CI skillet directly on top, I smolder wood chunks in the skillet. Works fine as long as outside temps don’t get to hot or to cold (I warm/hot smoke most all of my cured meats) the trick is flame control. I see you have a needle valve so you should be able to make it work, although mine has a red knob to control the regulator pressure as well as the needle valve.

All of that said, I finally bought a Smokin’ It Bella cold smoke generator and like that set up very well, now I don’t have to fuss so much about the flame and skillet temps.

 

[Winterrider]

I have just about identical setup as what you have in pic. 1/4" steel plate over burner, I just dampen dust and put that right on the plate.

 

[upland1]

I have just about identical setup as what you have in pic. 1/4" steel plate over burner, I just dampen dust and put that right on the plate.

I have just about identical setup as what you have in pic. 1/4" steel plate over burner, I just dampen dust and put that right on the plate.

Thanks.
I tired the steel plate directly on first. Thicker steel might have been the ticket. But working with what have. It still got way too hot for the pan. That would had that burnt smell and not in a good way. I can hit temp in under 3 minutes (I’d probably be able to push over 200 if I wasn’t careful in same or less time). I have tired playing with a slow climb but I need to be in same spot flame wise to keep and hold 175.

I’m watching market place for a cheap turkey fryer. I had one it was so horrible at frying a turkey. It took over an hour to get the oil ro temp (called or hope and prayers because some days I wasn’t sure it would). Why I bought the emergency water boiler. I gave the other one away years ago. Uggg. But let me see that old cabeals fryer on market place for $5-10 and I’ll gladly snatch one right now. ;)

I’m going to cut a 1/2 inch off my raised platform and test again. Repeat if necessary…

I am also watching for a piece of cast or an old black stone I could hack up.

 

[mike243]

My Smokey Mountain gas smoker uses a cast iron box right over the burner with a cover with holes in it, its a waste of time wetting any wood imo, I used chunks in it when I ran it a lot, it worked well but had to mess with the burner too much as the outside temps go up or down, chips worked well also but got longer smoke from the chunks.