To much or to little smoke with Homemade cold smoke generator

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wibigfish

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2020
29
9
Quick question. Made a homemade cold smoke generator, used to use a amazen tray, but wanted to go a different route.

Wondering if the more seasoned pros think I’m getting too much or too little smoke with this. It is a Venturi style so I can adjust but am looking more for a baseline to start.

It doesn’t bellow smoke out like some smoke daddy etc.

any thoughts?
 

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I’m no pro but from the pic it kinda looks like a lot coming through. Might be a lot once the door is closed over a long smoke. Have you tried to rub it with it closed up? Pretty cool setup btw
 
I’m no pro but from the pic it kinda looks like a lot coming through. Might be a lot once the door is closed over a long smoke. Have you tried to rub it with it closed up? Pretty cool setup btw
Thanks for your input. The cabinet definitely fills with smoke but it seems to be less than I’ve experienced with the pellet tray. Wish I could post vid. When it comes out the top vent, the smoke is barely noticeable so I was thinking I maybe wasn’t getting enough. I know thin blue smoke is ideal.
 
Nice smoke but may be a bit heavy for longer smokes.
How do you compare it to a tray?
Seems to be less than the tray for sure and cleaner. It’s barely noticeable from the top vent.

I have to do some summer for a buddy I usually went 5 hours with tray for a cold smoke then into a sous vide bath for recommended time.

Maybe I’ll do this batch at 3 hours of smoke and see what we get.
 
I've built external smoke generators like that and it doesn't seem like too much smoke to me but I like smoke. Some folks have complained they don't like food with too much smoke. I can barely even fathom what that would be. I do know when adding liquid smoke to baked beans or whatever you reach a point where the taste profile totally changes so maybe something like that could happen and it starts tasting dirty instead of smokey...it's just never happened for me using real smoke.

If you're afraid of ruining a batch of meat, you can always slowly increase the TIME you run your generator. You may find you only want added smoke the first couple hours or something. But if it was me, I'd go buy a batch of cheap chicken thighs, run your generator full bore for the entire cook (I like staying over 250F for chicken) and see if you don't think it's a delicious amount of smoke.
 
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This is a thread Dave posted on it


Ryan
 
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This is a thread Dave posted on it


Ryan
I pretty much make my dust the same way.
 
The more I look at that thing the more I like it but haven a clue what it is or how it works.

Can you dicsribe please?

Thanks,
Jack
 
The more I look at that thing the more I like it but haven a clue what it is or how it works.

Can you dicsribe please?

Thanks,
Jack
Its just a cold smoke generator that I had a buddy build for me. I wanted a bit more flexibility that what the standard off the shelf ones offered. Smoke Daddy and others sell them on Amazon.

I found the pellet smoker doesn't put out enough smoke for my liking, and I mostly cold smoke so this fit the bill. I've used the amazen pellet tray and it works but this seems to give me a bit more flexibility. I'm still playing around with it to get it where I want it.
 
Jack, if you're talking about the original poster's setup, it's based on the Bernoulli effect. The smaller-diameter air supply line from the right blows, with a slight spacing, into the larger diameter outlet on the right. That causes a vacuum (yeah it's a little counter-intuitive) in the output line which sucks the smoke from the fire burning in the bottom of the large metal cylinder. (Note it's closed at the top, although the vehicle bumper somewhat obstructs it.) The intermediate glass jar before the smoker is just functioning as a cold trap so that heavy condensates drop there instead of onto your meat.
The later post is of ground pellets in a labyrinth maze. You light one end and it takes 2-4 h to work its way to the end.
 
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You can add a small 1/4'' barbed fitting to the bottom of the burn tube, then run some 1/4'' soft copper tubing to a 1/4'' needle valve. Then from the other end of the needle valve run 1/4'' clear rubber fish tank bubbler tubing to a small fish tank air pump, either plug in or battery operated. By adding air that you can dial in with the needle valve to the burn pot, you can adjust the amount of smoke produced. Search YouTube, there are more videos.

 
I quite prefer Forktender's approach myself of feeding air from the bottom up instead of trying to master the Bernoulli effect for a vaccuum that sucks from the top. In an analogous way, I prefer a vacuum cleaner that pulls through a filter bag you periodically empty/replace than one based on "cyclonic" action and a canister in-line you empty.
But my spouse seems to like the hype so we pay more to get less.
 
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It looks like a good starting point to me. It will depend to some extent how large your cabinet is and how much air flow you have through the cabinet there is. It will probably take some experimentation. Keep good notes. I think when you get it dialed in it will work well.
 
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