DIY fish smoker. Do-it-yourself functional cold-smoked smokehouse for fish and meat: how to build and cook deliciously Do-it-yourself cold-smoked smokehouse

01.11.2023

Having your own smokehouse is good. This is simply wonderful. Freshly caught fish, right there, while still fluttering, gutted and stuffed with ferns, a boar ham from a cleaver, which he himself cut off right under the left shoulder blade, the beast just somersaulted, and the smoked ones... mouth watering... You need to make some kind of smokehouse with your own hands, but purchase prices exorbitant, but everything looks simple.

Indeed, the smokehouse is designed very simply, and making it yourself couldn’t be easier. If you have a kitchen with gas and a hood, you don’t need to do anything at all - bring it and smoke it. But behind the apparent simplicity lies a rather complex process. Remember the old Soviet Riga sprats - plump, bright golden, with dense but tender meat? Where can you find these now? And the Balts, by the way, don’t spray their fish with liquid smoke, they smoke them honestly.

However, gastronomic advantages are only the tip of the iceberg. That's right, traditionally smoked products are completely devoid of harmful properties. But in the age of consumption, in the pursuit of profitability, many smoking secrets are either lost or ignored.

Therefore, in this article, we will first of all tell you what you need to know and understand in order to make a smokehouse, the product from which will receive a delicate taste with an exquisite aroma, which are simply unknown to today’s smoked meat lovers. And at the same time, it will be completely devoid of carcinogens, oxidants, toxins and other things that frighten smoked connoisseurs. And then we’ll move on to describing some structures.

Similarly. Not long ago, a good friend of his wanted to visit the author. And he just got hold of some real Frankfurt sausages, so he decided to please. Cooked it as expected, with green peas. She tried it, and... didn’t eat it. She seriously thinks that sausages are what they put on a hot dog at the market.

Three smoked whales

The whales are not smoked whole; The title is a figurative expression. What does it mean - three pillars, on which the whole process of smoking, correct, ancient, primordial, stands. By the way, it is quite feasible in an ordinary city kitchen. How exactly and what to smoke – we will also touch on this, but towards the end of the article.

The first is the uniformity of heating and fumigation. Both heat and smoke should evenly cover the semi-finished product from all sides. Otherwise, even along the length of a medium-sized roach or pig's ear, internal fractionation of the product components will occur, which will spoil the taste and make it harmful.
The second is a light smoke. Heavy smoke fractions must condense and precipitate before reaching the product with any smoking method, see below. The presence of pyrolysis gases is completely unacceptable; it is they that give what doctors are justifiably afraid of. So “light smoke” means not only white and aromatic, without fumes, but also highly diluted with oxygen in the air, it neutralizes pyrolysis gases.
The third is gradual penetration. Proper smoking of a stash of food requires not only time, but also a slight haze of light lingering near it. In this case, all smoke components will evenly penetrate the product, which gives the required quality. The smoking scheme is as follows: the “working” smoke fumigates the stowage until it fizzles out, then it must go away and be replaced by fresh smoke. It is not difficult to provide such a cycle, because the smoke generated is lighter at the same temperature and tends to go upward. You just need to hold it near the product.

What's not important

But what has almost no significance for the smokehouse is its size. All that needs to be observed during design is a gap of at least 1-2 cm between the product and the walls and between pieces of products. The exception is small fish smoked in bulk on the grill: sprat, sprat, rudd, smelt, smelt, golden crucian carp - “pyatak”.

Also, the material doesn't matter much. But here, too, there is an exception: when cold smoking bear meat and other types of game with a specific flavor, it is better to use an old oak wine barrel, or, in extreme cases, a pickle barrel, in the smoking chamber (see below). In combination with the right wood for smoke, a smokehouse from a barrel will make even a skua, coot or martin gull quite edible.

Types of smoking

The most subtle, exquisite bouquets of taste and aroma combined with the long shelf life of the finished product gives cold smoking, at a temperature of 30-50 degrees. A cold-smoked ham of a domestic pig hangs in a cool, dry cellar for a year or more, completely retaining its taste and aroma, only gradually drying out. And in the refrigerator it will soften or freeze within a month at most.

But cold smoking lasts a long time - from 6 hours for small fish in bulk on a grill to 3 days for the thigh of a well-fed boar. And it also requires careful preparation of the product, see at the end. It will take from 1 to 5 days, with the same range depending on the product. Despite this, the “cold” smokehouse is the simplest to set up, but it requires a small plot of land, approximately 2x3.5 m.

Note: smoked meats should be stored suspended on a steel wire, and a safety circle should be put on the hook shaft, like those that sailors put on mooring lines. Rats, they really respect smoked food. And they smell it from afar.

Hot smoking is carried out at a temperature of 70-120 degrees. Recommendations to raise the temperature to 350 degrees (?) come from nowhere; this will not result in smoked meat, but in a casserole. Hot smoking occurs quickly, from 15 minutes. up to 4 hours; The fork for the product is the same - sprat/ham. No preliminary preparation of the semi-finished product is required.

However, in taste, smell and appetizing appearance, hot smoked meats are noticeably inferior to cold ones, and are stored at room temperature in the open air, as a rule, for no more than 36 hours. They easily freeze in the refrigerator, which completely destroys their gastronomic benefits. In a closed container they easily “suffocate” and go rotten, which is something you need to keep in mind when taking them with you on the road.

Semi-hot smoking is carried out at a temperature of 60-70 degrees in the simplest smokehouses for cold smoking. In appearance and smell, only a connoisseur can distinguish a semi-hot product from a cold-smoked one, but the taste and keeping quality are the same as hot smoked ones.

Without semi-hot preparation, you can smoke only completely fresh semi-finished products: freshly caught fish, fresh meat. Therefore, semi-hot smoking is used mainly by individual hunters and fishermen, who, after 2-3 days of fishing, carry the catch directly to the market for preservation and giving it a marketable appearance.

There is another application: the home smokehouse described below from nothing, in the literal sense of the word, without quotes, works precisely in a semi-hot way. If you need to quickly prepare smoked delicacies for a holiday, and store-bought ones are pricey, it can be a great help. Especially if the celebration includes vodka and cognac libations: the alcohol stuns the taste buds, and after the first one no one will be able to discern the real taste, even if Lucullus himself is invited to the feast.

Cold home smoker

The cold smoked smokehouse, as already said, is simply simple. Its device is shown in the figure. To prevent the smoking chamber from moving on soil that is soggy from condensation, it is placed on bricks or wooden logs dug up into the ground.

The principle of operation is as follows: by the time the smoke reaches the smoking chamber, it will cool down, all the harmful substances from it will precipitate and go into the ground. At the same time, there is also water condensation, from which the smoked product can become sour and rotten while it is being smoked. However, you need to use it competently.

Firstly, the sheet of slate farthest from the barrel - the smoking chamber (or galvanized sheet, if it’s hot, you can get burned) is intended to regulate smoke distribution. In the picture it is highlighted in grayish-green. Before laying the semi-finished product on the grate or hanging it on a hanger, it is moved until gray or bluish stinking smoke comes out of the chamber, and aromatic light smoke enters it.

Secondly, smoke circulation and retention of light smoke in the chamber are regulated by placing a slightly damp burlap over the mouth of the smokehouse. With proper smoking, smoke should not be visible above the chamber - its spent residues settle in the burlap, which becomes heavier and becomes dirty. To prevent it from falling down and spoiling the product, metal rods are welded into the mouth, or wooden rods are simply placed on it, and a loading and unloading door is made in the chamber.

As you can see, making a cold smokehouse may only require digging a hole for a fire with a chimney - if the safety grill at the mouth is made of sticks, then a door in the chamber is not needed. However, firstly, firewood for a fire must be chosen especially carefully, but more on that at the end.

Secondly, such a smokehouse requires constant supervision: as soon as the burlap dries and streams of smoke begin to seep through it, it must be sprayed immediately. Otherwise, the smoke will flow through and some of the substances necessary for taste, smell and benefits will fly out of it into the chimney.

Thirdly, the ground under a cold smokehouse becomes limp due to condensation from the smoke, even in dry weather under a canopy. Before the next stowage, the smokehouse must be allowed to dry. If we neglect this circumstance, then the earth, instead of absorbing what is unnecessary from the smoke, on the contrary, will give it back. The product will turn sour, acquire a vile taste, and become stinky, i.e. - will disappear.

That is why in ordinary stores there are no delicacies smoked in a real cold way. And in which ones there are, it’s better not to go there for those living on a salary for the sake of peace of mind. At any size.

Video: homemade “cold” smokehouse

Originally

And now a little about forgotten secrets. The most important thing: you can build a cold-smoked smokehouse, the products from which were eaten by the old princes and boyars, growling and licking their lips. And you won’t even need to look for a fuel barrel.

The first secret: the smoking chamber is a round or square shell made of two wattles with a gap of two palms between them. The gap is filled with earth.
The second secret: the smoke circulation of light haze is regulated not by burlap, but by branches of trees or shrubs with small, frequent leaves thrown on top, but not evaporating essential oils. It’s easy to determine: if the leaves themselves do not smell noticeably, and the flowers do not have a strong aroma, then it will do. Lilac, for example, will not work, but raspberries, currants, and hazel will do just fine.
Also not suitable are trees that produce gum, sweet sap or contain a lot of tar: birch, maple. The exception is cherries. All conifers are definitely not suitable. For game with a taste for tires, you need willow, broom, willow, common willow and red willow. The salicylic release inside will, of course, coarse the taste, but it will also take away the taste.
The third secret: the thickness of the lining of the tire branches - from the palm of your hand with 12-hour smoking to 3/4 elbow (about 30 cm) with 3 days. The secret is that the degree of readiness of the product is judged by the top leaves without opening the chamber. As soon as the top leaves are dry and shriveled, you’re done! At least you can open it without risking disrupting the process and check the degree of readiness. Of course, the branches must be fresh, just cut.
Secret four: under the chimney, cover it with a half-palm-sized layer of fresh blackcurrant leaves. Yes, yes, the same ones that are used for home canning. And for the same purpose. If the meat being smoked is a bit harsh (old beef, for example), give the currants in half with horseradish leaves.

Pokhodnaya

A camp cold smoked smokehouse made from nothing is shown in the figure. It allows you to get a product that is not inferior to that of the previous one. She has her own secrets.

The first is to dig an adit with a trunk in clay or loam. The total length of the entire shaft is 2.5-4 m. The adit is pierced with a shovel, to the handle of which a long “drain” of dead wood is tied.

Note: the secret is a secret - it’s convenient, so as not to dig too much and too hard, to arrange one in a cliff with burrows of shore swallows.

Secondly, you don’t need to carry a bucket without a bottom or a barrel with you on a hike. It is also not necessary to knit wattles for the smoking chamber. If you make the shaft of the mine deeper, then its mouth can simply be widened for a fill, a couple of fallen trees can be placed on top (they will also be hangers), and covered with branches on top, as described above.

Third, smoke generation is regulated not by a damper, but by fresh leaves of wild currants, raspberries, strawberries, and hazels placed on the fire. For a tart taste - oak, ash, elm, willow, willow. For soft ones - linden. If consumers are not from the category of Roman patricians, then simply meadow grass. But God forbid - birch, sage, St. John's wort, celandine and other medicinal herbs! And the requirements for firewood are the same, which are discussed below.

hot

A hot smoked smokehouse is more complicated. Because smoke circulation and the whole process occur much faster; the requirements for the “three smoked whales” indicated at the beginning must be fully observed. The structure of hot smokehouses is shown in the figure. What do they have in common?

First, the smoking chamber is placed in a smoke casing. It tapers towards the top. This is necessary so that as the smoke supplied to the chamber is consumed, it penetrates into it through the holes in the walls evenly.

The second is a smoking chamber with a solid bottom. The fact is that the fat dripping down during hot smoking will end up either on the fuel filler or on the bottom of the smoke casing. Which, by the way, unlike a cold smoking chamber, must have sealed seams and joints.

In the first case, the fat will burn, and combustion products will penetrate into the smoked material. Inexperienced gourmets may not be able to determine this by the taste of the product, but chemical analysis will show exactly what competent doctors shy away from with widened eyes.

In the second, in the presence of moisture vapor, at a temperature of incoming smoke of approximately 150 degrees, the fat will instantly go rancid and then evaporate. In terms of harmfulness, the result is the previous one, and a nasty, cloying aftertaste may appear.

If the fat remains in the smoking chamber, then there will be no excess moisture there, and even that will quickly evaporate, because exit from the cell is virtually free. The fat will then have to be scraped off from the bottom, unless there is a drain for it, but the product will not spoil. The smoked fat will have to be thrown away: all the smoking “muck” has accumulated in it.

Third - a thermometer with a scale of up to 250 degrees. It controls the smoking temperature. Going beyond 70-120 Celsius is fraught not only with damage to the taste, but also with the accumulation of harmful substances in the finished product.

Now about the differences. The left smokehouse in Fig. - on self-smoldering. Fuel is exclusively special wood chips for smoking. It is on sale, and the consumption is small: two handfuls per ham. Sprinkling sawdust, as most RuNet sources recommend, is a grave mistake. In a dense mass of sawdust, pyrolysis will inevitably occur, and from it - pyrolysis gases, the “benefits” of which have been repeatedly mentioned above. It is useless to create a boost; it will not blow right through a pile of sawdust. Unless you supply pure oxygen, but this is for lovers of expensive and dangerous techno-exotics.

Air access to the fuel is provided by a blower, and the overall smoke circulation is regulated by moistened burlap thrown over the mouth, as described above. But, alas, you will have to give up the twig secrets of cold smoking: at this temperature they will have the opposite effect.

Under no circumstances should fuel be ignited using kindling, even modern gel “ecological” kindling. The fuel is heated until smoldering begins from the outside through the bottom of the casing. There are different methods: installing a smokehouse on a household gas stove, a blowtorch, a propane torch, an electric stove with a heating element and a thyristor regulator. Heating is provided continuously throughout the smoking period; its degree is regulated by the temperature in the casing.

A self-smoldering smokehouse has a serious drawback: moisture from the fuel inevitably gets into the smoking chamber. There is no point in drying wood chips “to powder” - moisture is formed as a result of chemical combustion reactions. Therefore, the above mention of ham for self-smoldering smokehouse is purely symbolic: it will become soggy before it is smoked. The maximum that can be smoked in this is pieces the size of a herring 30+.

On the right is a hot smokehouse powered by a smoke generator. Special for smoking, and not for car diagnostics. If you provide a cooling coil or radiator and a condensate collector with a drain on the chimney from the generator, then it can operate in cold weather. More precisely, pseudo in a cold way, because... no smoking masterpieces obtained from a real earthen cold smokehouse will come out of it. But the ham will still be smoked.

The highlight of this smokehouse is the lid with a jagged, bent edge lowered into the water seal. This ensures a constant slight excess pressure in the chamber and rapid, uniform penetration of the filling. The mouth can be covered with burlap, as in the previous case, but the taste will be harsh, and the meat, especially fish, will be flabby.

Let's compare: everyone knows that when preparing liqueurs or homemade wine, it is wrong to put a condom or an inflatable balloon on the neck of a jar of sourdough. You need to smear a rubber tube and put its end into a smaller jar of water so that it gurgles. Then you will get a drink, not a “badyaga”.

Smoke generators

A smoke generator is absolutely necessary for successful hot smoking of meat. The design of a simple smoke generator for smoking is shown in Fig. The heater is shown conditionally; it, as stated above, can be anything. If there is a fire or a stove, then there is any fuel for it. But for generating smoke smoke it is special. About which, again, further.

But the boost is not conditional. A natural draft smoke generator (for this you need to place the smokehouse 2-3 m above it) is only suitable for pseudo-cold smoking. For real hot food, excess pressure in the chamber is necessary, and draft, as is known, produces a vacuum.

An interesting diagram of a smoke generator is shown in the figure below. The principle is this: a wooden block, pressed by a spring with an adjusting screw, rubs against a steel pulley until it begins to smolder and smoke. Right there, on the motor shaft, is a fan that drives smoke into the chamber. It would seem like pure pyrolysis with all the attendant harmfulness, but!

The other end of the engine shaft rotates a low-power magneto (even from an old Soviet “hole” moped), producing a voltage of 2-4 kV. Its plus is fed to a mesh through which the smoke is driven, and its minus is fed to the smoked products. The author of the article does not know whether the author of the design knows that all the harmfulness of smoke is concentrated in negative ions (anions), and all the benefits are in positive cations.

In this case, the former immediately settle on the mesh (which will have to be cleaned frequently), and the latter are forcefully driven into the smoke. Without any hassle of monitoring and maintaining smoke circulation.

The wiring diagram shows a brushed AC motor, and that's correct. In this case, you will need its power of 200-300 W, because... The external characteristic of series-excited commutator motors is soft: when the power take-off shaft is braked, the torque increases. If you install an asynchronous engine with capacitor start (their external characteristics are quite rigid), then to turn the shaft before the wood begins to smolder, you will need 1.5-2 kW.

Note: because Since the magneto, practically at idle speed, produces large surges of voltage pulses, then the operating voltage of the capacitors should not be 2 kV, as the author recommends, but 6.8-10 kV. Such capacitors are used in horizontal scanning circuits of televisions with kinescopes.

About fish

What about a smokehouse for fish? It is smoked the most. Are there any “fishy” nuances here? For cold smoking – not the slightest. A cold smokehouse doesn’t care what they put in it, even cucumbers.

But in hot and semi-hot (see next) fish, it is necessary to provide for the outflow of draining fat outside the smoke casing or its immediate removal in another way. Low-melting fish oil is endowed with all the harmful properties of dripping smoke oil to a double or even fivefold degree.

About materials

Before moving on to household homemade crafts from just about anything, we should talk about something else.

Many country restaurants, clubs, recreation centers, commercial fishing and hunting farms acquire their own stationary unit for preparing meat and fish delicacies. Usually this is combined with a smokehouse. A solid building immediately gives prestige to the establishment, but is it worth building such a complex entirely out of brick? Certainly not.

The point is not so much that the brickwork of an actual multifunctional oven is complex and expensive. Moreover, the brick is porous. When smoking, smoke emanations are introduced into the masonry, and different semi-finished products are added, and the taste of the finished product turns out to be unstable, but this is not so bad.

And trouble often comes with downtime in the off-season. The masonry absorbs atmospheric moisture, and the previously penetrated organic matter begins to rot. It comes to the point that a brand new smokehouse, built at the beginning of the autumn season, begins to reek of rotten meat by next summer. What kind of prestige is there...

In earthen cold smokehouses, a similar effect is not observed. Apparently, the microscopic soil microfauna, nimble, nimble and ubiquitous, manages to clean the soil passages in the intervals between two production cycles. But this is not suitable for country recreational establishments - the preparations simply do not have time to smoke before the guests leave after the weekend

Therefore, in such cases, it is better to weld the smokehouse from sheet iron with a thickness of 4 mm, so that it does not burn out quickly. And for appearance and respect, cover it with decorative brick - it is cheaper than fireproof brick and the work is easier. This design has another advantage: the solid metal structure can be transported to another location. The cladding will have to be sacrificed, but it is incomparably cheaper than a solid brick smoking and cooking unit.

Semi-hot

The vast majority of homemade household smokehouses are of the semi-hot type. They produce a fairly high-quality and appetizing product, and making them yourself is elementary. Therefore, let’s touch on some structures in more detail.

From nothing without nothing

For the simplest home smokehouse, you don’t need to do anything extra. All that is required is a gas stove with a hood and a steel bowl or a wide tin can cut to a height of 5-6 cm, for example. from under tomato paste. A bowl from a can is better because... its bottom is very thin, and the smoker immediately reacts to changes in heating. And an enameled bowl is the worst: it warms up more slowly and is spoiled forever by smoldering wood chips.

The technological procedure is also elementary: the smoked product is suspended in the hood. Place any vessel under the workpiece; fat will drip into it. Place a handful of smoking chips in a bowl, turn on the farthest, lowest-power burner to the lowest heat, and place the bowl on it. They increase the fire until there is smoke, and then reduce it so that there is no escaping smoke, and all the light goes into the hood. Smoked until done, its degree is immediately visible.

The trick is that the smoke has time to cool down enough and become lighter before it reaches the hood. Fat dripping past the smoker immediately freezes, without having time to harm anywhere. The disadvantage is that you can’t accumulate much in such a device.

From an old household item

Refrigerator smokers are popular, see fig. They are quite capacious, and it is not difficult to make one: remove the compressor with pipelines, the freezer, and peel off the internal plastic lining with thermal insulation. The steel case remains of the appropriate shape and size. You only have to make the smoking chamber yourself from galvanized steel (pos. 3 in the figure), and the chimney at the top, pos. 4.

The wood chips in the smoke generator 2 on the site of the former vegetable department are heated with a household electric stove 1. Air enters it through holes from the pipelines.

There are two disadvantages to such a smokehouse. The first is high energy consumption. A tile with a pancake through a rather thick special steel does not heat the wood chips well, and its power needs at least 1.5 kW. The fact is that the housings of household refrigerators are made of steel with poor thermal conductivity.

The second drawback is due to the same circumstance; it is the long inertia of heating control. The light smoke does not come and does not come, the irritated inexperienced owner turns the heating to maximum. Suddenly, gray acrid smoke began to pour out. The tile is pulled out by the cord, the wood chips are quickly removed with a spatula, but the product has already become bitter.

For small volumes of bookmarks, an almost ideal smokehouse is obtained from an old round washing machine. The motor with activator and time relay are removed. The smoking chamber is a former tank. The hole into which the motor shaft passes is expanded to the diameter of the activator, smoke will flow into it, and grease will flow into the drain.

If the top cover is made of metal, I regulate the smoke circulation with it. The plastic is removed completely, and the smoke is kept in the chamber with moistened burlap, as described above.

A smoke generator can be used either from outside, or installed in the engine niche, at least a fireplace made of two bricks. A miniature wood chip stove made from two tin cans will also fit in the same niche. In order for it to produce the correct smoking smoke, its combustion chamber is removed from the casing, filled, without filling it tightly, with smoking chips, lit from underneath with a torch, and only then inserted back into the casing. Smoke generation is regulated with fresh leaves using the methods described above.

The smokehouse from the washing machine has two more pluses. The first is the wheels on which it is easy to roll. And let’s remember the second one when we talk about barbecues with smokehouses.

Video: semi-hot smokehouse from a barrel

Mobile mini

A mobile mini-smokehouse, which you can carry with you in the trunk, carry in a backpack or bag, will be very useful when traveling. Especially for creating exclusive cold-smoked tops. Here the first condition is not like the first, zero freshness of the product. Which can be small loose, and not only of animal origin, which will be discussed later.

A drawing of a smoking chamber, which can be placed above any suitable source of smoke, is shown in Fig. You can lay mesh or, for cold smoking, loose fabric on the grates. Have you ever tried cold smoked seeds or nuts? I'm not kidding. Digging a hearth with a chimney takes half an hour to an hour, but loose fines smoke quickly. And at the same time, the size and volume of the box allows you to accumulate up to 15-20 kg of medium-sized fish in a cold way and the same amount in semi-hot meat or lard over the weekend.

Brazier-smoker

Fire, as you know, is the enemy of barbecue, and its best friend is the very light smoke necessary for smoking. And any barbecuer has probably had the thought more than once: good smoke is wasted!

It’s not at all difficult to make sure it doesn’t go to waste. The simplest method is quite similar to that described above for a smokehouse from nothing, see fig. There is only one difference - the smoking chamber must have a bottom and, highly preferably, a drain for fat behind the grill. Other people's fat is also the enemy of kebab. Especially if it is fish oil.

If there is a tank from an old washing machine lying in the pantry that has not yet been adapted for a shower, then this is an almost ready-made grill-smokehouse. All that remains is to widen the hole for the activator shaft to the diameter of the barbecue chimney, put the tank on the chimney - and the smokehouse is ready. There are no problems with fat, it flows down the drain. Hanging for workpieces - from any wires or rods, smoke adjustment - with burlap.

Note: The “meat” smoke rising from the barbecue grill will not be spoiled by any product for any type of smoking. It will only add some spice. Old-time smokers kept it a secret that the best smoked fish or vegetables were obtained by simultaneously smoking them over meat.

Stationary

Here for comparison in Fig. A diagram of a stationary smokehouse combined with a barbecue is shown. The highlight, and even then a very relative one, is that the free space under the grill is used for the smokehouse. Thermal radiation from its hearth allows you not to worry about the uniform heating of the filling. You can place any camera in the smoking compartment, even the box described above. That's probably all.

How to smoke?

And now it’s time for a few more, but very important, smoking secrets. In general, there are only two of them: the choice with the preparation of firewood and the preparation of semi-finished products for cold smoking. No preparation is needed for hot, but for semi-hot, the salting and drying time is reduced by three to four times. If the product is consumed within 24 hours after semi-hot smoking, then no preparation is required.

Firewood

Coniferous wood is completely unsuitable for smoking. The product will not only taste disgusting, but simply poisonous. Procurement of suitable firewood (below) is carried out with minimal sap flow in the trees, but before freezing, i.e. in the fall during leaf fall or in the summer, in the very heat and dryness, but this will be second grade. It is strictly forbidden to prepare smoking wood during the spring riot of greenery. Firewood should be used for wood chips after at least a month of air drying in clear weather.

The queen of smoking wood is the cherry, her closest nobles are fruit trees from the rose order: apple, pear, plum, apricot. Also – dogwood and medlar. Trees used for smoking wood chips are old, have borne fruit, but are still strong and healthy. Cherries and others that exude gum are debarked to pure sapwood.

Note: It's best to buy wood chips. The trees that are put into use are already unprofitable, but not yet decrepit, i.e. just the way you need it. And thinning of gardens is carried out according to the results of harvesting, just at the right time.

Forest trees will be light, low-ash and non-tar (non-smoking): alder, aspen, poplar, linden. For tough or naturally flavored meat – oak, beech, walnut, elm. For fish from very muddy waters - willow, willow, willow. But the taste and aroma of the product will be of the second category.

Within a radius of 30-50 m from the harvesting site there should be no trees affected by tinder fungi. A tree that is still quite healthy in appearance may already be riddled with their hyphae, and its wood will give off harmful smoke. An indicator of the excellent smoking suitability of a tree is an anthill of red forest ants nearby, and for coastal trees - red earthen ants. They are small, do not form heaps on the surface, are entirely bright red and bite unbearably painfully.

Special mention should be made about birch. In fact, according to the ancient rules, bear meat, elk meat, and wading birds are smoked with birch chips, i.e. especially harsh or naturally flavored products. It is necessary to debark birch logs especially carefully: not only remove the birch bark to clean sapwood, but also plan its top smooth layer. This is not as tedious as it might seem, because... A little wood chips are required for smoking.

Preparation

Cold smoking preparations are first salted in brine - a saturated solution of table salt. By weight it is 37.5 g per liter of water, but practically the brine is “beaten” by adding salt until it stops dissolving.

Salting lasts from 4 hours for sprat and smelt to 3 (domestic pig ham) or even 5 (bear, wild boar, beef ham) days. After salting, the workpiece is soaked from an hour to a day, respectively. Homemade pork ham - 12 hours, medium-sized fish - 4-6 hours. The degree of soaking is controlled by touch: as soon as the top layer of meat/fish begins to be easily pressed with your finger, it’s ready, soaked.

Then the workpiece is blotted with a waffle or paper towel and dried until the top layer is completely dry and somewhat rigid. Dry in diffused light at room temperature, in a wire cage covered with gauze or fine window netting without cracks or holes. One fly that gets inside and has managed to lay eggs spoils the entire batch: at cold smoking temperatures, maggots develop well. This is where the preparation ends, you can smoke.

What else are they smoking?

Prunes and smoked cheese are familiar to everyone. But cold smoked cherries are a very real delicacy. Especially if it is smoked over cherry wood. Eastern rulers once considered slices of bas-olda melon (oblong, with green stripes), dried and smoked, a delicacy worthy of no less than emirs and viziers. In Rus' - smoked white apples.

Vegetables that are suitable for cold smoking include boiled new potatoes, and for hot and semi-hot smoking - zucchini, eggplant, squash, and green peas. Seeds and hazelnuts have already been mentioned. There is no information about smoking walnuts and pine nuts.

Finally

Finally, there is no need to bring any highly wise conclusions: everything is said in the text. But some advice can be given: set up a real old-fashioned earthen cold smokehouse at your dacha and start a highly profitable individual business with zero investments and minimal labor costs.

A grandmother or a schoolchild can easily watch the smoking while the adults are busy with the gardening. And the taste and aroma, compared even to super-elite store-bought products, are simply amazing. If you manage to meet the manager or chef of an expensive restaurant and offer to taste it, then it is very possible that they will take you under their license, and then you will be a quite wealthy person.

Many people are interested in how to make a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands, because everyone loves to enjoy delicious smoked meats from time to time, because these products have a unique taste and aroma.

Previously, smoking was used to extend the shelf life of meat and fish, due to the property of smoke to prevent food spoilage.

Now, meat and fish, smelling pleasantly and smoky, have become a real delicacy and appear in our homes, both on holidays and ordinary days, and are also indispensable in the country.

If you are the happy owner of a summer house or a private home, then you can buy a smokehouse or make a homemade one for hot or cold smoking with your own hands (from a refrigerator, barrel or brick) to enjoy tasty and aromatic products as often as possible.

Important points during production

To build it yourself correctly, you just need to carefully study the design drawings.

You can smoke products using hot and cold smoking. You can smoke various types of meat, lard, fish, vegetables and even cheese.

Hot and cold smoked smokehouses are very similar. They consist of a hearth, an area for prepared foods, a tray for accumulating fat, and hooks for future delicacies.

The structural structure of the smokehouse ensures the movement of smoke, resulting in smoking. The longer the chimney, the colder the smoke will be.

The difference between hot and cold smoked smokehouses lies precisely in the length of the chimney.

The hot smoking process occurs at temperatures from 80° to 150° (for fish) and 35-50° (for meat), so the products are cooked very quickly.

Usually after a few hours you can get a smoked delicacy. These products will have a rich taste and smell.

The temperature of cold smoking, unlike hot smoking, usually does not exceed 40°, so smoking lasts several days.

After cold smoking, products retain their density and texture and are stored for a long time.

Smoking occurs due to the smoldering of wood chips, which produces a lot of smoke.

It is very important that the wood does not ignite or become charred, since in this case carcinogens will begin to be released from the sawdust and, as a result of smoking, we will get harmful charred products.

To prevent this from happening, you need to create a reliable design. The chamber lid must be tightly sealed so that air does not enter the chamber and the wood chips do not ignite.

After repeated combustion, the metal of the chamber may bend, so it is better to press the lid on top with something heavy, for example, a piece of brick.

It is also important to choose the right firewood for the fireplace.

If there are too many wood chips and sawdust in the composition, then smoke smoke will form very slowly due to lack of air. And components that are too large can catch fire, which also should not be allowed.

Therefore, approximately half should be firewood, the rest should be wood chips and shavings for smoking. This composition will provide the right amount of heat.

You cannot use pine sawdust, as this will prevent the production of smoked meats. Tasteless products are obtained when smoking over aspen wood.

The best choice is cuttings and chips from various fruit trees - apple, cherry, apricot, sea buckthorn, which you will probably find at your dacha.

Bird cherry, birch and alder firewood will add a delicious aroma to the product, but you should get rid of the bark, as it can impart bitterness.

How does cold smoking occur?

Cold smoking occurs when heated from 20° to 40° (for fish) and 18-22° (for meat).

When cold smoking, you need to carefully monitor the heating of the smoke.

Unlike hot smoking, cold smoking lasts quite a long time and requires our utmost attention.

It is ideal for very fatty foods. Products need to be pre-processed at home before the process. First you need to sprinkle the meat or fish with salt and leave it for 4-5 days.

After this, to get rid of excess salt, the product needs to be soaked in cold water for several hours.

After this, you should blot the product with a clean towel and hang it to dry in a dry room in your home until the meat or fish is slightly wilted.

Protect the product from insects.

As already mentioned, when cold smoking it is important to maintain a stable temperature. The composition of the firewood plays an important role here.

In this case, you need to use a lot of chips and sawdust, and no more than 20% of the total mass is firewood.

Firewood is placed in the middle of the hearth, and sawdust and wood chips are sprinkled on top. The wood chips should be placed in a pile, and not spread all over the bottom, this way you will get more heat and less fire.

Such a mixture will smolder well and will not ignite, which is very important for successful smoking at home.

After cold smoking, the products acquire a very pleasant aroma and elastic texture.
Such products can be stored at home for a long time without worrying about their freshness.

Let's start making a cold smoked smokehouse

Do-it-yourself cold smoking is not a fiction, but a tool accessible to everyone.

First of all, you need to choose a location for the smokehouse. It should be comfortable so that you can sit down or place food freely.

In addition, the structure is quite flammable, so choose a place so that in the event of a fire the flames will not cause serious damage.

You should also consider where the underground chimney will be located, the length of which should be 3 meters, width 30-50 cm, and height 25-27 cm.

When organizing a smokehouse, you should ensure that there is good draft between the chamber and the hearth.

This is not always possible to achieve, since the draft is affected by the temperature difference between the ambient air and hot smoke.

Sometimes, smoke exhausters (fans) are used for good draft, and collectors are used to cool the smoke. Not everyone can make such a device.

From a barrel - the first option

There is also a simpler scheme for a cold smokehouse. To smoke a small amount of food, ordinary barrels made of wood or metal are useful.

A trench 2-3 meters long should be dug in the ground, which will serve as a chimney.

Its walls need to be reinforced with slate, iron or built of brick, and sprinkled with earth on top.

It is better to make the end of the trench where the fire is located deeper - this way you will provide better traction.

It can also be made from brick. At the bottom of the barrel you need to put a sheet of metal with holes for smoke, and on top of the barrel you need to put a sheet of metal or burlap.

A metal grate should be installed inside the barrel on which the products will be attached.

From a barrel - the second option

There is another option for a cold barrel smoker. At the top of the barrel they make fastenings for products.

Holes for the pipe should also be made in the bottom of the barrel. A stove is placed at a distance of 2-3 meters from the barrel and connected with a pipe.

During smoking, the barrel is covered with burlap.

Made of brick

If you plan to constantly smoke food in the country or at home, then you can make a similar structure from clay refractory bricks.

A structure made from this type of brick will serve you for many years.

The layout of such a smokehouse is not much different from the previous ones. The main thing is to decide on the place where the brick device will be located, since it will no longer be possible to move it.

The firebox and chimney are lined with brick from the inside; the food chamber can also be built from brick or made of wood.

Fastenings for products should be installed inside the chamber, and a door should be made on the top or side of the chamber.

Such a smokehouse will delight you with its proper operation for many years, and it looks much more aesthetically pleasing.

From the refrigerator

Many craftsmen make a smokehouse in the country and at home from the refrigerator. To do this, the body of the old refrigerator is freed from all the insides, and the holes are sealed with adhesive tape.

A hole is made at the top of the refrigerator body to allow smoke to escape, and a fan is installed (if desired).

The schematic drawings presented in the article provide a clear description of the process.

At the top of the refrigerator chamber, grates for food are attached. A potbelly stove or some suitable closed container for the fireplace is connected to the refrigerator with a galvanized pipe 3-4 meters long.

An electric hotplate is placed in the container and sawdust is placed on it. The electric stove turns on, and when the sawdust starts to smoke, it turns off.

As you can see, the design of a refrigerator smokehouse is very simple and straightforward. A similar device from an old refrigerator can be created by any home craftsman with his own hands.

A distinctive feature of homemade smokehouses is their low cost.

Such a smokehouse can be built from scrap materials that are available at any dacha - old barrels, leftover bricks, galvanized sheets.

However, on a homemade smokehouse, even if you did everything correctly, the smoking result is different every time and the products always turn out different.

In addition, it is impossible to cook a barbecue or grill on it.

Often in homemade smokehouses, the bottoms in the chambers or fireboxes burn out from hot air and fire, and changing them is not always easy or convenient, and homemade smokehouses do not look very aesthetically pleasing.

If there is not enough space in your area near your house or in your country house and it is not possible to make a chimney of the required length, then you can make it curved, or install a smoke cooler on the chimney.

To do this, you need to wrap the chimney with a brass tube and run running water through it.

During smoking, fat will be released from meat and fish, so a shallow tray should be placed under the grate so that there are gaps between the edges of the tray and the walls of the box.

Wet burlap can be stretched over the firebox, which will allow smoke to pass through but retain ash and other pollutants.

To check the smoking temperature, you can drop water on the lid of the barrel. If the water sizzles strongly, it means the temperature is high; if it evaporates without hissing, it means the smoking temperature is normal.

At first, to check the readiness of the product, you can slightly open the lid and quickly return it to its place.

Over time, you will already know how much time you need to cook different foods.

When smoking you need to follow important rules:

Check the temperature of the smoke that is maintained inside the chamber;
Smoking should be done in good weather, without wind or wet precipitation;
It is better to prepare for smoking fish and meat in the evening, and start the process in the morning;
You don’t need to open the camera often and look inside, as this will take a long time;
If possible, add juniper, grapes, and cherries to the firewood for flavor. This can be done both at the beginning of smoking and at the end;
You cannot use coniferous trees, as the resin from them will spoil the taste and smell of cooked fish and meat;
Firewood must be thoroughly dried before smoking. Wet wood will smolder intermittently and the process will take a long time;
Be sure to install a drip tray, otherwise the fat will drip into the sawdust and spoil the aroma of the finished food. In addition, if pieces of fish or meat accidentally fall, they will end up on the tray.

How to choose a ready-made smokehouse?

If it is difficult for you to independently develop a smokehouse project, and the funds and opportunities allow, then you can purchase a ready-made smokehouse for placement in a country house or on a plot in a private house, which is not so expensive, but looks completely different.

Not many people are able to refuse such dishes as smoked meat, fish or poultry, since this food, as we know, simply by definition cannot be tasteless. However, you don’t always want to purchase ready-made products in stores, since you can never be completely sure of the quality of the product being sold, especially such a unique one. But in order to protect yourself from troubles and forget about shopping for your favorite dishes forever, you should consider in detail how to make a cold smoked smokehouse - a device that can turn any product into a culinary masterpiece in the shortest possible time. Therefore, to begin with, it would be more correct to understand the operating principle of this equipment.

General concept of smoking

The smoking process itself is a kind of heat treatment of food through smoke coming from smoldering wood particles. As a result, the product is imbued with a specific and beloved aroma, partially loses some of its moisture, and the shelf life increases.

There are two types of smoking: cold and hot. In the first case, smoke treatment is performed at a temperature of 20-25 °C for several days. Hot smoking involves the use of a combustion product with a temperature from 45 to 120 °C, and the product will be ready within a few hours.

It is worth noting that food prepared according to the first principle is stored much longer. However, it is more difficult to make a mechanism such as a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands. But first, you should consider the rules according to which you should prepare food directly for processing with smoke.

Preparing products for smoking

This matter must be approached with special responsibility. Meat or fish used for smoking must be rubbed with salt in advance and left in this state for 5 days. If the product is completely defrosted, it will take longer.

The main purpose of salt is to destroy any harmful bacteria. The loss of moisture caused by such treatment will invariably lead to the death of all microorganisms. To get rid of excessive amounts of salt, after the required period has passed, the product should be soaked in water for several hours.

Next, the future smoked dish needs to be properly dried, for which it needs to be blotted with a cloth and left in a dry and well-ventilated room. It is important to ensure that there are no insects, especially flies. And after such processing, you can proceed directly to smoking.

The difference between hot smoking and cold smoking

As mentioned above, these two food processing technologies differ in the temperature at which the process is performed. Moreover, their difference is quite significant: the parameter for cold smoking should not exceed 350 °C, while the hot version allows values reaching 950 °C. Such a large run-up significantly affects the result of the process and is the main criterion when preparing a dish.

As a result, hot and cold smoked smokehouses are similar mechanisms, but the difference is still obvious, which, however, does not in the least prevent them from efficiently performing the tasks assigned to them.

High temperature has a special effect on cooking. With this method of processing, food is not only smoked, but also baked at the same time. Moreover, this option is distinguished by its speed, as it takes only a few hours. However, the shelf life will be significantly shorter compared to food prepared using cold smoking technology - only a few days in a cold place.

Despite the speed of work, more serious attention should be paid to the design using cold technology, since this method of food processing is more common and has more fans than the hot method.

Optimal fuel for smoking

If we talk about what kind of fuel a homemade cold smoked smokehouse should operate on, then it is, of course, wood. Moreover, it would be more correct to use deciduous species (alder, birch, oak, aspen). The smoking process can be improved by using well-dried fruit trees such as cherries, apple trees, etc.

To give the dish a more refined aroma, you can add a small amount of juniper with berries and needles.

It is strictly not recommended to use coniferous wood (pine, spruce), which will not achieve the desired effect, but will only spoil the products, giving them an unpleasant appearance. Wet firewood should also not be used, but it should not be too dry either. If there is not enough water in the material, you should try not to allow a large flame, and the fuel itself should be slightly moistened.

The principle of a cold smoked smokehouse

It is not difficult to purchase a mechanism such as a cold smoked smokehouse, a photo of which can be found from specialists in the manufacture of this equipment. However, it is much more pleasant to make this device yourself. In addition, this will save a significant portion of financial resources and relieve owners from worrying about a potentially low-quality product.

The design of a cold-smoked smokehouse is completely different from a model that operates on a hot principle. The main task of this equipment is to process food with cold smoke, the temperature of which varies around 30°C. If the products are very salted, then this figure should be even less.

The design of the cold smoked smokehouse is based on two chambers. In this case, the smoke is first in the first, and then, losing temperature, it goes through the pipes and enters the second, where the food is located.

A homemade cold smoked smokehouse requires precise control over the temperature difference, since draft, which is the basis of cooking, directly depends on this parameter. The length of the chimney should be approximately 10 m, this is the distance required for the combustion product to cool properly. To ensure smooth cooling, it is also recommended to use special fans or collectors.

Necessary materials for making a cold smoked smokehouse

Many consumers often wonder whether it is possible to make a device such as a cold smoked smokehouse with their own hands. The answer here is clear: it is absolutely possible, but first of all you should stock up on a certain set of tools and materials required for this work. So, their list is as follows:

sheet of tin;
barrel made of metal;
mesh made of the same material;
lattice;
a number of bolts and nuts as fasteners;
a piece of material such as burlap;
shovel.

Getting this rather small set of necessary equipment will not be difficult, and if you have all the above materials, you can begin assembly.

The process of making a cold smoked smokehouse

In order to properly construct this mechanism, you must first familiarize yourself with the installation diagram. Thus, the drawing of a cold smoked smokehouse provides for a clear location of all the component parts of the device and does not allow independent changes in their place, otherwise the entire design may simply not work out.

You need to start work by digging a hole for the firebox with parameters of 50x50 cm and laying a sheet of tin on its bottom. This is done to ensure that the fuel (sawdust, chips and branches) burns more evenly.

Then you need to start installing the chimney for the smokehouse. Externally, it should look like a small trench approximately 25 cm wide and about 2 m long. Next, the resulting recess must be covered with any non-flammable material (for example, slate) and sprinkled with earth on top so that the resulting structure is airtight. In order to completely protect yourself from any loss of smoke, you can line the walls of the trench with brick - this will strengthen the system and prevent heat from escaping.

After installing the chimney, you need to proceed to installing the smoking chamber. The simplest option for its construction would be an ordinary metal barrel. Its bottom needs to be disconnected, and in its place a special strong mesh should be fixed and covered with burlap. A cold-smoked smokehouse, designed with your own hands according to this principle, will filter soot much better. A tight grate that can support the filter must be attached to the bottom of the barrel.

The installation of the smokehouse is completed by securing the metal grate with bolts approximately 20 cm from the edge of the structure. The products intended for cooking will be placed on this element. If you want, instead of a grate, you can use rods with hooks on which you can hang, for example, fish.

Home cold smoked smokehouses created according to this principle will allow you to appreciate all their functionality and will not leave any owner indifferent.

Smoke generator device for cold smoked smokehouse

As it becomes clear, it is absolutely possible to make such a device as a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands. However, for this it is important to correctly calculate all the nuances of this work and pay special attention to such an element of the mechanism as a smoke generator. For a cold smoked smokehouse, its design is not so simple compared to models operating on a hot principle, but the main advantage of this part is ensuring a long shelf life of products and high quality of their preparation.

The complexity of installing this element is due to the fact that the smoke produced during operation must be well cooled. That is why all samples must have a special system for reducing the temperature of the combustion product obtained during operation.

It is also impossible not to mention that such a food processing process can sometimes take a long time (up to several weeks). And since it is very problematic to control the intensity of the fire all this time, you can use electric heating elements specially designed for this, which are regularly used in such a design as an automatic cold-smoked smokehouse. They greatly simplify the entire process and allow you to save yourself from the need to constantly monitor the operation of the equipment.

Semi-hot smoking as an alternative to cold smoking

When deciding how to make a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands, you can try your hand at an alternative option. The semi-hot processing method is almost identical, but the requirements for the equipment design are less stringent.

Thus, the maximum smoke temperature should not exceed 60 °C. If the pipe is not too long, then the draft will be much better, and the food will need to be kept in salt not for several days, but only for a day.

In addition, the smoking period using this principle is also reduced (about 24 hours).

This type of equipment has gained great popularity among fishermen and hunters, since all provisions can be stored for a very long time. At the same time, it is not at all prohibited to experiment with the temperature of the smoke in order to achieve the most pleasant taste.

Rules for storing smoked products

Not only the preparation, but also the storage of products processed in this way should be approached with special attention. Thus, hot smoking allows you to keep food exclusively in the refrigerator for no more than 4 days, since such food is intended for quick consumption. To increase storage time, the product can be wrapped in a cloth pre-soaked in a saline solution, and then also in a sheet of thick parchment paper, which will better preserve the pleasant smell of the dish.

With cold smoking, the situation is different: food can be stored for six months, and if well treated with salt, even longer. The equipment used in production helps to process products with smoke efficiently and evenly, which further increases their shelf life.

Food prepared in a self-assembled smokehouse must be cooled, and then placed in a dark and dry room with good ventilation, for example, in an attic. In such conditions (under a roof), the shelf life of products can reach from 2 to 3 years.

It is strictly not recommended to keep food processed by smoking in rooms with high humidity, since such a microclimate is a favorable environment for the formation of mold. The main sign of food spoilage is the appearance of a white coating with an unpleasant odor. If such mold is detected, the food must be thoroughly washed with brine, cleaned of any fungus that has appeared and smoked again. But it is important to remember here: each subsequent treatment of the product with smoke dries it out even more, making it tougher.

It is strictly forbidden to eat smoked food with a musty and extremely unpleasant odor. Often, spoilage of such products begins in the middle, so in order to ensure the quality of the finished dish, you should pierce it with a knife or a wooden stick and smell it.

If you follow all the installation and storage rules described above, the cold smoked smokehouse, a photo of which you could see in the article, will last a long time and reliably and will allow its owners to regularly enjoy real culinary masterpieces.

In our country, cold smoking is very popular. It allows you to make your diet more varied. The shelf life of such delicacies is much longer than when using the hot method.

Manufacturers offer a variety of smoking equipment, but only a portion of the consumer audience shows interest in it. For use at home, many are interested in a design that is not purchased, but made with their own hands according to individual requirements (among which volume and ease of operation are the leaders).

Before developing blueprints for a cold smoked smokehouse, you need to understand the essence.

The cold smoking apparatus must provide a smoke temperature ranging from 15-18 to 35-40 degrees;
one cycle of cold smoking lasts from 2-3 days (and sometimes several days).

Keep in mind that the design of the device directly affects the final result. If everything is done correctly, the delicacies will turn out slightly dried and will be stored for a long time. This fully applies to fruits and vegetables and protein products (lard, fish, meat).

Basic elements of a cold smoked smokehouse

have quality materials at your disposal;
understand the laws of physics and the whole principle of cold smoking, its features;
possess basic engineering design skills.

A smoke generator (in other words, a combustion chamber) is a container where sawdust is heated to produce smoke during the smoldering process. Ideally, it consists of a firebox with a smoke exhaust pipe and a compartment with smoldering sawdust. A simplified version is a single container where smoke from sawdust and smoke from fuel combustion are mixed.
A smoking chamber is a device within which cold smoking of products occurs.
A chimney is a closed, elongated channel through which smoke from smoldering fuel moves into the smoking chamber.

Home stationary and mobile structures are more thorough, and the camping option involves constructing a smokehouse without complex design solutions.

Types of smokehouses

Such a DIY product means that cold cooking is carried out regularly, without fuss or moving around the area. That's why:

each element is created based on the longest possible service life;
both cameras are of a capital nature;

Smoke generator can be made from old metal cylinders, barrels, scraps of a metal electrical cabinet, etc. An option made from brick or rubble stone with a fastening mortar of clay, cement and sand is also suitable. Often this element is dug into the ground below the level at which the remote smokehouse will be located. Average dimensions 30x40 cm, height 35-50 cm;

Options smoking chamber depend on your appetites and family needs. If you want to make a small smoking apparatus with your own hands, use a barrel or metal tank with a capacity of 200-250 liters (or even less). For large workpieces, build a permanent house with a full-height sealed door. Materials - brick, natural stone, edged boards, old wooden boxes. A very successful experiment - the body of a used refrigerator;

Chimney it is firmly fixed in an immovable state, firmly connected to two chambers, and is not afraid of external influences and seasonal temperature changes (as a rule, a ready-made metal pipe is used or a smoke-conducting hose made of tin or galvanized sheet is welded with one’s own hands).

Before making a tin or pipe chimney, make sure the metal is safe. Some sheet materials have a highly volatile chemical coating. Even at low temperatures, aggressive substances will get onto the prepared food.

Mobile design

The name speaks for itself:

The smokehouse is light in weight;
prefabricated product;
easy to transport from place to place

Smoke generator made of metal by welding (either ready-made containers are taken, or welding work is done with your own hands using sheet iron);

Smoking chamber can be either metal or in the form of a wooden box (this natural material is not afraid of cold smoke);

Chimney, like the stationary model, it consists of a pipe or metal sheet.

Do-it-yourself hiking option

The function of a smoke generator can easily be accomplished by an ordinary earthen pit into which a metal sheet with sawdust is installed. From below it is heated by burning wood;
the role of the chimney is played by a trench dug directly in the ground and covered with some available material (for example, a metal sheet or a fairly wide board);
The smoking chamber can be easily made from polyethylene, stretched in the form of a dome on wooden stakes driven into the ground.

A DIY “camping” smokehouse must be hermetically sealed at the top so that wood smoke does not escape through the hole. Simply pull the top edge of the plastic film into a bun and secure with a rope. The vent slot is optional - relax the cord any time you see fit.

Important little things

ensured the correct temperature conditions for heat treatment;
corresponded to the planned procurement volumes;
was quite functional and convenient.

Let's look at the most common mistakes. Knowledge will help you make an effective product with your own hands with minimal time and money.

Firebox
For flavored heat treatment, it is recommended to use sawdust with a pleasant smell (apple, cherry, aspen, birch, alder or oak, with the addition of juniper branches and other delights).

This begs the question: what to do with the combustion smoke to heat this aromatic material?

The sawdust is on a fine mesh or thin iron sheet. They are heated to the point where smoldering begins (smoke appears without fire);
heating is carried out by any type of fuel - wood, gas, coal;
smoke from the fuel should be diverted into a separate pipe located below the smoking sawdust.

The absence of a smoke exhaust pipe is acceptable and simplifies the design task. But your culinary masterpieces will absorb smoke from the fuel, which will reduce the gastronomic properties of smoked meats.

Smoke supply

The shorter and wider the pipe or trench, the faster the smoke reaches the raw food and, accordingly, the higher its temperature. The final parameters will be determined after several smoking sessions - monitor the result, analyze, adjust the initial project;
if you decide to make a very long pipe, then a prerequisite is its inclination (literally 10-20 degrees, no more). Otherwise, the cloud of smoke will “stick” for a long time under the upper wall of the chimney. In order for the smoky mass to move towards the smokehouse, you will have to wait longer and also waste sawdust and burning wood;

It's quite difficult to find a middle ground. Focus on what products will be smoked most often - meat/fish or fruits/vegetables. Under equal temperature conditions, protein products require more time to wilt than vegetable products.

the device must be sealed - prevent smoke from escaping through the cracks of the combustion chamber and chimney.

Smoking chamber equipment

hanging raw products - hooks, crossbars, beams (through them you can throw fish carcasses, pieces of meat or lard fastened with twine), rods;
laying out chopped pieces of vegetables, fruit slices, berries (perforated trays, grates, metal mesh);
collecting leaking fat and juice (this can be a tray covering the entire width of the chamber or separate trays in places where liquid from drying flows).

It is advisable to make a window with your own hands, through which you can ventilate the smoking chamber according to the principle of a draft when the door is open. This will prevent the accumulation of odors from different products and avoid mustiness.

Interesting question: is a smoking chamber outlet pipe necessary?

in large structures, a simplified option is periodic opening/closing of the door. But a long process without your participation claims to have a discharge pipe. Remains of smoked smoke will come out into it after enveloping the smoked products;
in models with small dimensions, the top cover is most often removable. They just took it off, ventilated it and installed it back.

In general, a do-it-yourself cold smokehouse is a task whose solution is accessible and low-budget. At the initial stage, consult with those who have experience in such actions. Collect as much information as possible, and then boldly begin to implement your plans.

Many of us love the taste of smoked delicacies, but in stores the cost of such products is high, and the quality is not the best. A homemade cold smoked one that can be built at home can come to the rescue.

With the cold smoking method, the products acquire their own unique aroma. They can be stored and not deteriorate for a long time, maintaining an elastic texture. A cold-smoked smokehouse that you can make yourself is designed to dry food evenly. They are dehydrated, the smoke gradually penetrates deeper and prevents food spoilage.

The principle of this type of smoking is the smoke treatment of food, which occurs due to the smoldering of sawdust and wood chips. The temperature of the smoke in a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands should not be higher than 30-32 °C. Products in the design are processed for at least 5 days. There is no need to rush, as at this temperature bacteria can multiply and you can get poisoned.

For uniform smoking, it is better to use one type of product, sorting the hams by size. In a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands, the products must be prepared in one go, without adding them during the cooking process, otherwise you can ruin everything.

First of all, you need to know how to make a cold smoked smokehouse at home so that the end result is a tasty, aromatic and healthy delicacy.

Operating principle of the smoking device

For fishing or outdoor recreation, a light, simple DIY cold-smoked smokehouse is suitable. It can be constructed from available household materials - old barrels, sheets of iron and leftover bricks. It is better to use non-toxic wood to build the structure. In a securely installed chamber, rods about 1 cm thick are installed on top.

A cold smoker transfers smoke to the food compartment. Cooling of the smoke occurs in a tunnel connecting the smokehouse and the firebox with wood. Their distance should not be less than 2 m from each other, but no more than 7 m, otherwise problems with traction may occur.

Adhering to the scheme of a cold smoked smokehouse, we dig a hole for the firebox 50x50 cm, but it can be lowered to a meter. The bottom can be compacted with fireproof or red brick. A tin sheet is placed at the bottom of the firebox to ensure even smoldering of the wood.

Chimney structure diagram

In the design of a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands, a special place is given to the chimney. A trench is dug under it, and non-combustible material is laid on top, for example, brick, slate or metal sheet. To seal it, earth or soil is poured on top to prevent smoke from leaking out. The second end of the chimney is connected to a cold smoked smokehouse. brick can be made from a chimney. The length of the chimney is about 3 m, the trench is 50 cm wide and 30 cm deep.

You also need to install a filter in a cold smoked smokehouse yourself. For its base, you can take a metal mesh with small cells. A dense mesh material is placed on top to prevent soot from getting on the food. The hearth connected to the chimney should be installed away from the smokehouse, for example, you can dig a hole in the corner of the area.

Note: Due to the fire, the bottom may burn out, so it is necessary to make a cooler. You can wrap a brass pipe around the chimney and run water through it.

To control the intensity of combustion, regulate the air flow and remove excess smoke and combustion products, a metal damper can be made in the upper part. The junction of the cold smoked smokehouse and the chimney must be sealed with a clay solution or improvised means.

A cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands can be made even from an ordinary 100-200 liter iron barrel. Of all the homemade cold smoked smokehouses, the barrel product is the most common. It must be clean and well cleaned before use. We disconnect the bottom from it and mount a metal mesh from below, on top of which you need to lay a filter in the form of burlap or straw. This tandem excels at filtering soot while retaining ash and contaminants.

We cut a hole in the bottom for the chimney and install a tray to collect grease. To install it, pieces of reinforcement are welded crosswise to the walls of the barrel. We fasten another metal grille with bolts, securing it 25 cm from the top edge. Instead, there may be rods with hooks, but for the simplest cold smoked smokehouse at home, a grate is also suitable. During smoking, jute burlap moistened with water can be thrown over the structure.

Note: To check the temperature, you can drop a little water on the lid of the barrel. It shouldn't sizzle as it evaporates.

Smoking compartment from the refrigerator

A do-it-yourself cold-smoked smokehouse made from the body of a refrigerator is also successfully used. It is necessary to remove the freezer and compressor from it. The grates can be used as a stand for delicacies. You need to make holes on the sides for baking sheets.

You need to make a small diameter hole on the ceiling of the chamber for the smoke generator. It can be made from an old can, thermos or metal pipe with a diameter of 10 cm and a length of up to 50 cm. In its lower part there is a hole with a diameter of about 1 cm for supplying oxygen.

At the top of the cold smoker from the refrigerator, also attach hooks for hanging delicacies. A small electric stove should be installed at the very bottom of the structure.

Note: Place a tray or a steel frying pan filled with sawdust on it, since fat, dripping into the shavings, will spoil the aroma of the food.

The door must be tightly closed to prevent the chips from igniting.

If you do not have an electric stove, then this option will do. In the lower part it is necessary to make a hole for an iron pipe with a diameter of 10 cm and a length of 2 m. One end of it should lead to the hole, and the other to the hole in the refrigerator. Place a sheet of sawdust on the coals and cover the pit with a lid after smoke appears. Close the cold smoked smokehouse with suspended products tightly.

It is better to smoke in good weather. Cold weather with rain and wind is not suitable.
The smoking process should not be carried out over an open fire.
Do not open your cold smoker to look inside often, otherwise the process will take longer.
It is better to start the process in the morning, having previously prepared in the evening.

Do not use aspen or softwood shavings as the resin released will spoil the taste of the food. For a home cold smoked smokehouse, the best option would be chips made from juniper, cherry, grape, oak, and birch. This treatment through the smoke of smoldering wood results in a specific aroma. Wood should not burn or char, as carcinogenic substances will begin to be released from the shavings. To prevent sawdust from igniting and air not entering the cold smoker, the compartment lid must be hermetically sealed.

As you can see, you can build a home cold smoked smokehouse yourself. You will feel how tasty and aromatic food can be after smoking!