West Country cold smoker instructions?

[realcoolchris]

I bought a WCCS on ebay recently.

Sadly it came with no instructions. Can anyone send me a pdf of the instructions or give me a brief synopsis on the forum.

I'm particularly interested in smoking bacon & salmon; so that's what I need info on.

Why does the firebox have those partitions? Do you set fire to one end and allow it to burn through?

Does it have to use dust or will it work with chips?

What do you use to light it?

Is the waterbath essential or optional?

Thanks in anticipation

Chris

[saucisson]

We have a couple of members with them, hopefully they'll be along shortly

DAVE

[Kuma]

You fill the firebox with dust and light one end with a blow torch.

You need dust - the best place is Ashwood in Kettering. They sell a broad range of kiln dried dusts - imported and home produced. A light load will give you an overnight burn. You can load it up in winter and with the right dust it will burn up to 24 hrs. The kiln dried dust lights easily and burns very slow and cool.

The water bath will help to keep things cool. Not strictly necessary in the winter, but I always use it.

I can't find my instructions.

Bacon - cure, dry to form a pellicle and smoke. I tend to do 36hrs with oak
Salmon - cure, dry and smoke. I do overnight with beech.

Watch the lid of the smoker, a lot of condensation will build up and you can get drips on your product. If you keep it in good order it shouldn't be a problem or line with foil.

[realcoolchris]

Thanks Kuma - I can figure it out now

I need to get some bacon underway - up till now I've used the cure with smoke powder added but it doesn't compare to the real thing.

I can't wait to try it out

[wheels]

Let us know how you get on and what you think of the WCCS.

Phil

[realcoolchris]

I followed Kuma's advice and got a mate to go to Kettering for me to collect 2 x 15 Kg sacks of dust - oak & beech. Total cost £21.50.

I'd had some loin & belly curing for about 10 days, so I rushed in to Costco to get some salmon on Friday evening.

When I got it home, I realised it was skinless but I cured it anyway with salt & brown sugar rub. My other mistake was to buy enough salt & sugar to cure around 300 Kg of salmon...oh well

Because there was no skin, I couldn't hang the salmon but I was able to lay it over the hanging bars in the smoker and put the bacon in as well. I used oak dust and gave the salmon 12 hours: I rescued it from the smoker at midnight in the pouring rain.

I guess the bacon got around 30 hours smoking: hard to be precise since I left it overnight and there was still a trickle of smoke 24 hours after I'd lit the fire; then I gave it about another 10 hours with a topped-up firebox.

I've had to give samples of both products to just about everyone I know and the response has been very good - especially for the smoked salmon.

Looking at the prices of good oak-smoked salmon in Waitrose @ around £35-40 Kg, I reckon I did pretty well with 1.25Kg for fourteen quid and it was really good eating.

Next time I'll get a fillet of sockeye salmon from Costco & do some scottish salmon as well for comparison. I've got some alder wood-dust which I think will give it an excellent flavour although Ashwoods in Kettering don't stock European Alder - something about heavy metal content: not my choice of music either.

The smoker is very easy to use and I'm really pleased with it: I paid £100 on eBay for a second-hand one.