new to Smoking, I built a smoker and wondering if its going to work.

[rick@ornamentalgate-fence]

I had some concrete 5' diameter x 3' tall risers setting around. I stacked two up and put a plate on the top and cut a 5' x 2' door on the side of the risers. Down the hill a few feet I buried a couple concrete ground vaults that I used for a fire box then buried a 5" sq tube that ran into the risers. I buried the risers except for the door area so it's mostly underground. It's pretty much a 6'tall concrete tube with a top on it and a fire box down the hill a couple feet. I would like to learn about smoking and how to use it. Did I shoot myself in the foot making it out of concrete and burying it?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Welcome to SMF.
As to your concrete smoker, as long as you are good at tinkering I think it should work fine, probably better for cold to cool smoking. If trying to warm to hot smoke you may have trouble getting the meat to an IT of say 150 or 160*. This is because concrete is a heat sink. It will absorb heat, which can be fine but will take much longer to get up to temp and then can easily over shoot temp once it starts to radiate that heat back.

So depending on what you want to do in the smoker I think you have a heck of a build there. I once thought of building a whole hog cooker out of man hole rings (much like what you have) this would be buried in the ground and the hog lowered into it to hang and smoke/cook. I just never got around to that project.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Here is a book that I highly recommend you buy and read. Can be easily found on Amazon.

 

[mike243]

I bet it will work great, probably take a little more wood to get to temp but should hold heat for a long time, concrete is pretty dense so wicking will be slow, fire it up and try it, it won't loose heat like thin metal will so fire will have to be turned down as the cook progresses I bet.

 

[babydocsmoker]

Through the ground method!! We love pics so if you have any now or in the future post them!

 

[rick@ornamentalgate-fence]

Thanks for the input. I think I screwed up on the fire box, using old hand vaults. LOL I kind of needed to come up with something for a guy to do and this was my choice. I burned some wood in it today and smoke rolled out of the chimney so I guess thats kind of a good start. I had cold smoking in mind but I think the easy part is done. I need to learn how to do it. I think the book will be a good start. The door is insulated but I forgot to insulate the top!!!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks for the input. I think I screwed up on the fire box, using old hand vaults. LOL I kind of needed to come up with something for a guy to do and this was my choice. I burned some wood in it today and smoke rolled out of the chimney so I guess thats kind of a good start. I had cold smoking in mind but I think the easy part is done. I need to learn how to do it. I think the book will be a good start. The door is insulated but I forgot to insulate the top!!!

Looks good. How much distance and how much incline on that 5” square smoke chimney between the firebox and smoke chamber?