Thoughts?

[Mohalk]

Over the past few months I've made several types of sausages, boudin, andouille, sweet and hot Italian and a version of brats and all were outstanding. I have even made some pastrami that was fought over. I am happy with what I've done so far but I really want to make my own dry cured products.

Reading through this forum I have seen all sorts of small curing chamber/boxes but nothing say of maybe 10 foot by 10 foot. I want to build this in my small back yard and stud the walls with 2x6's and try to get the R value to around 30. I don't think it will be too hard to control the temp and RH. For the inside walls, would it be best to paint or have bare wood?

I would also like to place a couple of shelves to maybe age some cheese and a crock or 2 to make sauerkraut. Would there be any issues with cross contamination without partitions?

I mentioned this to my wife and she said it would be cheaper to just buy the meat/food already made. Even after eating what I've already made and going WOW she doesn't understand you can't get the great flavors from a supermarket. LOL it will take months but I plan to show her!

Anyway any thought or input will be of great value. If this little project does get off the ground I'll shoot and post pix as I go.

Al

[DiggingDogFarm]

Since the humidity will be fairly high, I would put something on the walls that's moisture tolerant and scrubable.

~Martin

[vagreys]

It's hard to imagine the heat and humidity (and wild molds) of summer in the Keys not being a serious challenge. I'd paint. As for cheese, I'd be concerned about cross-contamination. If you want good cheese and good meat, then they should have separate, dedicated spaces. Mold spores will be everywhere after awhile. You don't want salami molds all over your cheese, and you don't want brie molds all over your sausages.

You definitely don't want bare wood if you are going to do sauerkraut; the odor is pervasive and lasts for years. This means the airborne material that instills the wood with the odor is reasonably concentrated. If you are going to do open (or covered) crock fermentation, then you need to be concerned about cross-contamination with bacteria going airborn and molds getting into the crocks. It's like brewing and baking - if you want really good bread and you brew a lot, you don't brew in that kitchen, and if you want really good beer, wine and mead, and you bake a lot, you don't bake where you brew. I think the same holds true for other ferment.

[Mohalk]

It's hard to imagine the heat and humidity (and wild molds) of summer in the Keys not being a serious challenge. I'd paint. As for cheese, I'd be concerned about cross-contamination. If you want good cheese and good meat, then they should have separate, dedicated spaces. Mold spores will be everywhere after awhile. You don't want salami molds all over your cheese, and you don't want brie molds all over your sausages.

You definitely don't want bare wood if you are going to do sauerkraut; the odor is pervasive and lasts for years. This means the airborne material that instills the wood with the odor is reasonably concentrated. If you are going to do open (or covered) crock fermentation, then you need to be concerned about cross-contamination with bacteria going airborn and molds getting into the crocks. It's like brewing and baking - if you want really good bread and you brew a lot, you don't brew in that kitchen, and if you want really good beer, wine and mead, and you bake a lot, you don't bake where you brew. I think the same holds true for other ferment.

With this information it looks like I will be subdividing this space and adding at least 2 more access doors and adding some sort of micro filtration where needed. This is not going to be an easy project but I do feel it can be done and in the long run work well. I even need to build a small smoke box inside for cold smoking. Something like 2'X2'X4' tall and vent to the outside.

I am not quite in the Florida Keys. The town/city of Largo is in the St. Pete/Clearwater area on the central west coast. Though the conditions here are much the same as we are surrounded by water with Tampa Bay to the east and the Gulf to the west.

Al

[vagreys]

Oops. Obviously, I was thinking Key Largo. I was in Tampa for a national greyhound adoption and rescue convention, a few years ago, in August, and it was very pleasant, much better than the still heat I experienced in the Keys. It's certainly an interesting concept you are going to attempt, and quite the challenge with the different environmental needs of the different ferments you intend, and cold smoking, too! Looking forward to pics of the development. Heck, I'm having enough trouble just dealing with planning a cold smoker. Best of luck!

[Mohalk]

I did build a small smoker about 2 months ago and it does a fine job for sausages like andouille but there is no way to keep it cool enough most of the year for true cold smoking. Cheese would melt and fish would cook. Took me about a day to build and has 1.5 inch of insulation all around including the door. This coming project will need to be planned a little better. This box was built with an idea and no plans.

This took me about a day to build.



And this was the first test run.



Al

[vagreys]

We all love to hear about folks' smokehouses and smokers, and see pics, of course. You could do a whole post with detail pics about your smokehouse build and plans. Nice work!

[Wunderdave]

Cool smokehouse Al. Can I ask approx how much it cost in materials?

[Mohalk]

Cool smokehouse Al. Can I ask approx how much it cost in materials?

Thank you. The cost was just under $70.00 USD with the 1100 watt hotplate used to heat. The hotplate set on med. holds the temp ~130 degrees F and set to high holds ~165 F.

So far I have used it 5 or 6 times but I am happy with it.

Al

[Wunderdave]

You gotta get some cold smoke in there!

I think if I could build one that looked this finished I could get my wife to sign off on me owning a smokehouse.

[Mohalk]

I've been busy the past month and a half. I did go ahead and build my cool room in the back yard but just a tad larger than 10' X 10'. The outside dimensions are 10' X 16'. It's not done yet but maybe about a week and a half I'll be able to start using it! I will post pix when I can. This project is like the other, no plans just cut and nail.

[Mohalk]

Well it's been another 6 + weeks and still not 100% done but I am happy to say that it should be almost usable! I ordered a "CoolBot" this past sat. and it arrived Monday. Today is Wednesday and I just installed it and fired up the AC to give it a test run.

Below are a few pix to show my curing shack. I can't give any plans because there were none. Just the idea. The whole building is 100% inclosed with a radiant barrier and R-19. Framing top to bottom is all 2 x 6 on 16 inch center.









































I still need to install flooring and skirt the bottom on the outside but it is getting close. Right now my next concern is humidity. Maybe another few weeks.

[kimgary]

"I love it when a plan comes together".

Very very nice construction, pictures speak a thousand words, thanks for taking the time to photograph and sharing.

Look forward to following.

Regards Gary.

[crustyo44]

Hi Al,
I am impressed with your cool room build. Great job!!! I am very interested how the COOLBOT works out in regard to electricity useage. My cool room will mainly be used for fermenting salami etc.
At the moment I have 4" insulated panels sitting in my yard to build a smaller set up and a planned COOLBOT as well.
I live in Brisbane Australia and we have a lot of hot humid weather as well here. No doubt I will be picking your brains in the not to distant future if you don't mind.
The only thing that holds my cool room build back is my knee replacement, I was told to take things easy for a while.
Cheers Mate,
Jan.

[Mohalk]

Thank you Gary and Jan. This was really more work than I expected for 1 man but it's almost there.

Yesterday @ noon my time I fired up the AC and installed the CoolBot, set the AC temp to 60F and the CoolBot to 55F. The starting temp in the shack was 92F. At 3:37 the AC shut off and the temp was 55F. Now the AC cycles on and off once about every 15 to 20 minutes and runs 3 to 5 minuted each time. I am very happy so far.

The AC unit is a small unit, 8,000 btu and I thought it wouldn't be enough but it is doing a fine job. Now I need to take a meter reading and another in 3 days to compare with readings I took without the unit running to figure out what the electric will cost.

Al