Hi There!
New guy from Alberta! Not new to the whole smoked meat thing but new to building my own smoker. Hence I figured a better register and introduce myself if I expect to get a little info and add what I can to the community.
A bit of background info. Grew up on a good size mixed farm in Saskatchewan. We always made our own sausage, bacons and hams. Old school wood smoke house from the 1950s, with a wood stove inside on the dirt floor. Sit's about 10' X 6" by about 7' inside. I'll post some pics at some point. It's since been insulted inside about 10 years ago, and we can get it up now over 200 to do a brisket. But she's 100% serious old school. Sausage recipes are old German recipes passed down. Family typically would do Brauts, Ring Bologna, Summer Sausage, Landjaeger and always some bacons and hams. Big family and extended family so batches were typically 300 lbs plus. Most I've been apart of was when one extended weekend we did 1200 lbs in a shot. (a couple pigs from a neighbour and brought in a dry cow or something as I recall, way too much work!)
Will also do any game during this time if some family member happens to have shot a deer or moose or elk during hunting season...........
Now fast forward to today, I'm a mid 40s Mechanical Engineering living in the big city (Calgary) with a family that likes their meat! Folks are now in the their mid 70's but still living on the farm and still making sausage & bacons each year with the family that's still out there. But being 8 hrs away, I no longer typically head out for it, so I have setup with some good kit to do it on my own. Last batch I did about a year ago was about 120 lbs.
But this is where I hope to get some help and advice. For smoking I use my pitboss grill and pitboss upright smoker (don't have both models info off hand, but will dig that up) They get the job done but just barely. So I'd like to build a smoker (3' X 4' X 7') to take over the smoking duties........... have some ideas, but not a full design, but starting the build this weekend! .......... so that's where it's at. I'll post a new thread in the build section as I get rolling.........
Thanks & looking forward to being part of the community!
New guy from Alberta! Not new to the whole smoked meat thing but new to building my own smoker. Hence I figured a better register and introduce myself if I expect to get a little info and add what I can to the community.
A bit of background info. Grew up on a good size mixed farm in Saskatchewan. We always made our own sausage, bacons and hams. Old school wood smoke house from the 1950s, with a wood stove inside on the dirt floor. Sit's about 10' X 6" by about 7' inside. I'll post some pics at some point. It's since been insulted inside about 10 years ago, and we can get it up now over 200 to do a brisket. But she's 100% serious old school. Sausage recipes are old German recipes passed down. Family typically would do Brauts, Ring Bologna, Summer Sausage, Landjaeger and always some bacons and hams. Big family and extended family so batches were typically 300 lbs plus. Most I've been apart of was when one extended weekend we did 1200 lbs in a shot. (a couple pigs from a neighbour and brought in a dry cow or something as I recall, way too much work!)
Will also do any game during this time if some family member happens to have shot a deer or moose or elk during hunting season...........
Now fast forward to today, I'm a mid 40s Mechanical Engineering living in the big city (Calgary) with a family that likes their meat! Folks are now in the their mid 70's but still living on the farm and still making sausage & bacons each year with the family that's still out there. But being 8 hrs away, I no longer typically head out for it, so I have setup with some good kit to do it on my own. Last batch I did about a year ago was about 120 lbs.
But this is where I hope to get some help and advice. For smoking I use my pitboss grill and pitboss upright smoker (don't have both models info off hand, but will dig that up) They get the job done but just barely. So I'd like to build a smoker (3' X 4' X 7') to take over the smoking duties........... have some ideas, but not a full design, but starting the build this weekend! .......... so that's where it's at. I'll post a new thread in the build section as I get rolling.........
Thanks & looking forward to being part of the community!
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