New cold smoke generator designed in the UK

[Mike D]

I have had my CSG for a while now and have never given credit where it is due

Great bit of kit... innovative, easy to use and great results!

Just did some more bacon, cheddar and India Rubber overnight - I use applewood from HotSmoked, (which I had to put in the spice grinder first). As I lit it and then went to bed it probably smoked for 8-10 hours.

I do it in a cast iron chiminea. The chiminea has a swivelling griddle in it and I just place all the stuff on there, swing back into the chiminea, with the CSG below it and close the main door.

I should be doing some salmon in the week which I suspect I'll have to hang it down the chimney. The rate of flow of the smoke is controlled by moving the lid a bit on the chimney top.

[wallie]

India Rubber!!
Or is that how the cheese came out.
I know the last time I done some cheese it came out o/k for smokiness but very hard on the outside, that was after 16 hours in the CSG.

wallie

[Mike D]

Hi Wallie,

The India Rubber comment is a reference to what Wheels was calling Edam from one of his earlier posts on this thread. The smoke turns a block of "India Rubber" into something edible!

[bigJ]

ruralidle, i'd definately leave the skin on the ham when smoking- i always have for both cooked and dried hams. Don't worry about losing flavour on cooking either, i'm sure some will come out but i've never had a problem with the finished product, and it gives the stock a nice smokey note for making pea and ham soup.
As for the heather, any thoughts on just collecting the flowers and drying/ crushing them?
i too have a good supply of trout- my brother fly fishes for england! it would be great to perfect the smoking of them. Any thoughts as to the best wood for that?

[Ruralidle]

bigJ

Thanks for the advice on the ham, I will be looking for some cooler weather in a week or two's time to smoke one of the pieces of ham and I will let you know what it turns out like.

I have bought a Char griller bbq/hot smoker from Ian at ProBBQ and I spoke to him yesterday to tell him how well our first bbq party using it had gone (the unit produced great food and the party went well) and I mentioned your question. His suggestion was to treat the dried heather like any other dried herb and sprinkle a little along the top of the dust when it is in the "maze" track of the CSG - but don't overdo it until you know what the results are like!

I have not tried using apple wood dust to smoke salmon and trout, I have just used standard whiskey oak and plain oak with good results. I have also used cherry wood dust and the results were good BUT the ProBBQ cherry wood dust does not smoulder reliably in my setup and stopped at the end of each side of the CSG, meaning that it was a real pain to use. ProBBQ are aware of the problem but it seems that it can only be rectified by sourcing other cherry wood dust but this is - apparently - proving difficult/impossible. I would stick with either of the types of the oak (although I could not taste much/any whiskey flavour with the whiskey oak).

[jasonmolinari]

Steelhead trout just went on the smoker.
I put it in a 10% brine for about 10 hours (with some brown sugar in it).
Rinsed and soaked in clean water for 20 minutes, put back in fridge to form pellicle for about 2 hours.
Cut the fillet in 1/2, brushed half with maple syrup, and left other one plain.
Back in fridge for 1 hour.
Now in smoker with the oak dust that came with the proq. Will leave it for at least 5 or 6 hours....

[jasonmolinari]

I can't even begin to describe the awesomeness of this product.

Steelhead trout smoked for 5 hours


On bagels.

[saucisson]

Praise indeed that trout looks good...

[Jaunty]

I used my CSG for the first time today. Sat it in the bottom of my Weber Kettle. Super easy and a good consistent burn with the MacsBBQ Oak. I did 3 small sides of salmon that I had cured for 12 hours per Mark Hix 80/20 salt brown sugar. Rinsed and left in the fridge for a pellicle to set. One taken off after 4 hours smoke the others after 7 hours. A kilo of cheddar smoked for the full burn as well.

Salmon only done today so is now setting in the fridge but had a quick nibble and is tasting good.

The other great thing is that it frees up the Bradley smoker so I could do hot smoked ribs for dinner as well.

[wheels]

Isn't the CSG great - I think it's my favourite piece of kit.

Phil

[Jaunty]

Well we demolished a (very small) side of the the CSG smoked salmon last night. Can't be faffed inserting the images but take a quick look here:

http://seantrent.smugmug.com/Food/Smoke ... 4079_FJQ6i

Smoked salmon is so easy to do with the CSG and so delicious. I think I may need to get a vacuum packer and give these out for Christmas presents.

I forgot about the 4 lamb chops I cold smoked as well with the salmon and the cheese on Sunday, just for about 3 hours to keep it delicate. We had those tonight and damn they were good too.

[Ruralidle]

Your smoked salmon looks good. I have done several sides of salmon and rainbow trout and I agree, it is easy to do.

I would post pictures of the ham I smoked using my CSG but........ we ate it! Darned good it was too, even though I say so myself. Well, it must have been good, I sliced it - and my finger - a week ago last Sunday and what started out as a 3kg piece of pork was divided between us and the producer of the pig (perhaps 1kg of smoked cooked ham each). We now have about 50 grammes of it left!

The CSG is a great piece of kit and I am really enjoying this home food production lark!

Richard

[wheels]

Jaunty

Tell me more about the lamb chops!

Phil

[Richierich]

Jaunty

Tell me more about the lamb chops!

Phil

Ditto!

[Jaunty]

Not much to say really. The CSG was smoking away in the Weber and there was some space between the salmon and the cheese. I had a look in the fridge and there were 4 saltmarsh lamb chops sat there. I shoved them on for about 3 hours, naked. The smoke was oak. We just cooked them on a hot griddle on the bbq.

I have done a bone in leg of lamb in the Bradley Smoker before (hot smoke, low and slow) with oak and that came out well too.