New old smoke house

[metalmonkey]

We just bought and moved into our new old farm house (built in 1915) and it cam with this awesome old smoke house. I'd like to get it to work but I'm not sure how to. What do I need for a firebox? How do I hook it to the smoke shack? How do I size things? What should I use as racks or hangers?

 

[flatbroke]

Hard to say without seeing what you are talking about

 

[Matt_P]

I’d love to see more pics

 

[metalmonkey]

Sorry I have a bad habit of forgetting to attach the pictures. Should be there now.

 

[brent b]

Looks really old might have built a small fire directly on the floor unless there was a fire box located down hill somewhere

 

[JckDanls 07]

Looks really old might have built a small fire directly on the floor unless there was a fire box located down hill somewhere

That's what I was thinking... or is there a pipe/hole in the floor anywhere as to where a downhill firebox may have fired it ??

 

[flatbroke]

Can we see photos of the inside

 

[metalmonkey]

I will get some more pics when I get home

 

[metalmonkey]

Finally got to it. It's kind of a mess but should work again with some clean up. Just need to figure out how.

 

[daveomak]

Back in the day, smoke houses like yours were usually fired by a pile of saw dust smoldering on the floor.... I've seen fires started in a 5 gallon bucket with a tin sheet on top, with it slid to the side, so there was a partial opening to keep the fire choked down to a smolder... They were designed as a cold smoker for hams and bacon type things.. After the smoke treatment, the meat could be cooked in the kitchen oven...

 

[mike243]

It will need to be bug and mouse proofed,yep cold smoke for large cuts of meats that's been salted ect.. lot of good info needed to properly cold smoke stuff and keep it from spoiling,my grandfather had 1 in the 60's when they still had 8-9 kids living at home but by the early 70's it wasn't used any,never got to learn any do's or dont's about it.We have lost a lot of info about keeping food without refrigeration that was passed down thru the years and was common knowledge to most 50-75 years ago.

 

[metalmonkey]

Wow interesting stuff. I have lots of Amish in my area maybe I could ask around and find someone who knows some things about the use of one. I have several Amish friends who do their own meat processing so maybe I'll start there.

 

[nanuk]

.... We have lost a lot of info about keeping food without refrigeration that was passed down thru the years and was common knowledge to most 50-75 years ago.

Yup
and not just food preservation, but growing food, and living healthy

 

[Jabiru]

That is very cool, would love to have that in my backyard. You have heaps of options with that.
Spend sometime researching and you will end up with a great smokehouse.