www.sausagemaking.org

http://www.foroutdoors.co.uk/acatalog/Barbecue_Smoker.html

The first one...

Having had proper smoked mackerel and discovered smoked cheeses I'm very keen to do some smoking!

80 quid would be stretching the budget but it'll be my birthday soon and as DH won't let me have chickens this is my consolation.

I have a smallish surburban garden and a toddler and his naps are too short to enable me to do any serious DIY.

Would this product be suitable for both hot and cold smoking do you think? Perhaps if I use an electric plate warmer thing to cold smoke?

Any advice gratefully recieved!

hot definitely, as it states. so you'd be sorted for your mackerel etc. cold, no. at 90 cm tall you'd be too near the heat source, so your cheese would melt. still a good price for a small hot-smoker mind you

Presumably you could rig up some king of external smoke box and join it up with ducting. An old biccy tin on top of a barbeque and some extractor-fan ducting suggests itself, but I'm sure there are better engineers on the site than me. That way you get both hot and cold smoke for the price of the hot smoker plus a few quids worth of parts.

I've got a little jobby just like that and I've used it for cold smoking. I only place a few coals in the bottom pan and the chips on top. If my heat gets too hot I fill the water pan full of ice (no water). It works fine. It does take a bit to get it but it will work. Also depending on how the fire pan is attached I have even used an electric hot plate. I take out the fire pan and sit the cooker over top and the hot plate on a cinder block and its up far enough to work.

Once I get some extra time I'll see about setting it up and posting some pics.

DarrinG

I'd like to see that. I have an interest in setting up both hot and cold smoking on a budget, so.....

In the States, these are refered to as ECBs (El Cheapo Brinkmans) and can be had for $30-50.

The problems they have are lack of airflow control, the bottom is open with no way to control the airflow to the charcoal bowl; ash build-up, the charcoal bowl has no grate to keep the coals up out of the ash that develops. These problems are more noticeable when trying to BBQ at higher temperatures (225-250F).

These two problems make it hard to control the temperature. This can be overcome by controlling how many briquets are put in the smoker, as DarrinG has suggested. The ash problem can be helped by using lump charcoal rather than briquet charcoal. Lump creates far less ash.

For smoking at lower temps, once you figure out how many pieces of charcoal to put in to achieve the desired temp, it should be okay. The only problem would be adding charcoal on schedule to maintain the temp.

My salmon smoking takes six hours, some smoking takes longer. That's a lot of "baby-sitting" of the smoker.

Short answer: Work the hotplate modification to the above mentioned Brinkman, or find an electric smoker like this one.

I'm SO disappointed!!!


I didn't realise the Luhr Jensen would cold smoke too.

Too late as I've already ordered the Brinkmann and it *should* arrive tomorrow.

I could return it but the p&p would be expensive I bet.

The only problem with the Luhr Jensen is that there is no temperature control. If I'm not mistaken they are set for 160. Last year they came on real cheap and I was going to get one but couldn't find information on the controls so I called their head office and was told the that temp is factory set and thats it.

DarrinG

npsmama wrote:I'm SO disappointed!!!


I didn't realise the Luhr Jensen would cold smoke too.

Too late as I've already ordered the Brinkmann and it *should* arrive tomorrow.

I could return it but the p&p would be expensive I bet.

We are trying to get the Holy Grail of cold smoking in a BBQ going on this forum, so don't despair, but you will have to be patient.

Dave

Don't be disappointed. That Brinkman should be able to do what you're wanting. Especially with a hotplate added to the mix. It'll just take a bit of practice and experimenting to get the results you're looking for.

The Luhr Jensen can cold smoke, BUT (there's always a but) you have to have a top loading model, take the top lid off, save the cardboard box the thing comes in, put a couple of sticks across the top of the smoker, set the grate stand on the sticks (flat sticks help this process) with the grates installed, set the cheese or whatever to be cold smoked on the grates, invert the box and put it down over the grate stand, plug the smoker in and insert the chip pan in the bottom.
(This process used to be described in the instruction booklet, as was leaving the smoker in the cardboard box for better insulation in cold weather, but I don't believe it's in the new instruction booklet for safety/liability reasons. Somebody might burn up the cardboard box.)