Packed house - cold smoking everything but the kitchen sink this week! Pics

[happyhag]

So we have packed the smokehouse with the following:

- Four Picnic hams

- A bunch of lox

- Muslin bags full of cornmeal(think of the cornbread!!), flour, sea salt
- about 50lbs of bellies

- Mozzarella cheese
- a boat load of raw almonds (which were soaked before hand and will be dehydrated after smoking)

- Lamb shanks

- about 15 pounds of duck sausage we made(in muslin casing that we whipped up on the serger)

I think that is everything. We've been smoking on and off since yesterday midday at a solid range in temps from 36-38 degrees the whole time. Everything rested overnight, we're smoking again at 37degrees solid this morning, 77% humidity and the smell of apple wood and hickory driving me into crazy happiness!

Now, for pics....
 

belly up close - muslin bag background.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

both racks up top with bacon, etc etc etc.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

chops to the left ground beef bacon and almonds.jp

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

cool focus of bacon up close with more slabs blurr

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

duck sausage muslin bags and vacon in the backgrou

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

good arrangement of three slabs up close.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

Lox and mozzarella and almonds on racks.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

picnic hams close up.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

sausage hanging.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

shanks up close - good lens action.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

slabs bacon to the left background sausage hanging

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

smoke on meat.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

Hag and her fire.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

 

sausage hanging.jpg

• happyhag
• Jan 30, 2013

The lox and cheese and sausage are about the come out...the bellies will smoke all day again and then come out...the hams will get another couple of days and then we'll be packing the house full of garlic, butter, onions, etc etc and smoking more grains.

Then we'll be making chili out of smoked ground beef...with cornbread made with smoked corn meal on the side!!! Mmmmmmmm

Thanks for looking! Couldn't resist sharing this fun! MAN am I having fun!!

 

[smoking b]

Wow! That is awesome!! 

   Looks like you have plenty of room in your smokehouse too!  That's just great all around! 

 

[fagesbp]

Awesome smoke. That is alot going on. Thumbs Up

 

[woodcutter]

That is true smoking passion!

 

[happyhag]

Thanks, fellas!

I'm smoking as much as I can while the temps are so good for it. Being able to hold my temps under 38 degrees for as long as I want (hours, days whatever!) is so awesome. After the huge batch of garlic, onions and all of that, I'm butchering a bunch of rabbits and will stick those in there. If you haven't had country fried smoked rabbit, put in on your list of things to-do because it is INSANE how good it is. In addition to the rabbits, we're going to be making some rabbit sausage and throwing some venison in there, too. We're going to attempt a big batch of butter and lard and rendered duck fat on the next SUPER cold night that we have...really excited for the butter since it's such a large part of my diet (and passion for life in general!) hahaha! Woohoo

I figure these temperatures will hold in my region for the next month or so...then they will start to rise, but I'll still be able to get good cold smoking done at nighttime so long as the temps at night are under 40 degrees. After May, we'll just start hot smoking everything, but our freezers will be so full of cold-smoked bacon and the like, and our cold rooms will be so full of all of our cold-smoked garlics, etc, we'll be perfectly happy to switch over to enjoying things hot smoked!


 

 

[lu1847]

Nice smoke. Great variety !

 

[kathrynn]

Totally Beautiful!  Yall get number #1 for the pictures.  I can only imagine the smells!

Dream come true there!

Thanks for sharing!

Kat

 

[roller]

Looks good from my side !!!!

 

[sound1]

Great Pics. Take advantage of the cool weather while you can.

I see the snow but would you mind updating your profile with your location. It's nice to know where we are all from.

 

[smokinhusker]

You are certainly going to have an outstanding amount of smoked foods! I absolutely love the smokehouse. Do you have a recipe to share for the duck sausage? 

 

[themule69]