Bradley Smoker

[Gill]

My home-made cold smoker is now complete. I tested it out with a "Dr Dave's micro incinerator" (or whatever it's called ) and the chippings from my planer/thicknesser lasted about 2 minutes! There was lots of smoke though .

The next test run will use larger chippings.

Gill

[tristar]

Hi Gill,

Sound's as if a rather large bean can would be needed to cold smoke for 12 hrs. I doubt after eating that quantity of beans that I would want any thing to eat at all for some time.

[Wohoki]

You would, however, be able to power your barbie without a gas cylinder.

[Paul Kribs]

Gill

Your planer chippings ought to last a lot longer than 2 mins. I use american white oak planer chippings and after spraying them with water to damp them they last about 45 minutes for a hot smoke. I normally lay about 3/4" thickness and damp them very well prior to smoking.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Gill]

Hi Paul

I think I'll try your way next time. I've just had rather an unfortunate incident during which my cold smoker became a very hot smoker! Fortunately, I was looking at the thermometer at the time and had a bucket of water handy, so the smoker only suffered a bit of scorching on the baffles. Adding the water didn't half produce a lot of smoke, though !

By the way, Trend respirators (which are very popular amongst woodworkers) might be superb at filtering out airborne sawdust particles, but they're no good in a smoke-filled environment. I'm sure you can imagine how I discovered this.

Oh, what fun I've had today; I've really enjoyed myself . The only problem is that if I tell my other half about it when he gets in from work, he'll insist that a Bradley is cheaper than a new house and buy me one on safety grounds. I'd miss the excitement.

Gill

[saucisson]

Had a long weekend a t a family wedding so only just read this. Oops! sorry to hear that, sounds like too much air got in too quickly. I think my smoker will have limited appeal if it only works on a certain size, shape and breed of woodchip! Next time let me finish testing it properly before demanding details

Glad to hear the house is still standing. What did you make the smoking cabinet out of?

Dave

[Gill]

I made it out of 4mm plywood and 19 x 38mm pine, adding a grill and metal dish I picked up at a local DIY shed. If it cost �20 total, I'd be surprised. It seemed to work very well until the temperature rose unexpectedly.

Gill

[saucisson]

Ok, OK, don't rub it in It would have been a good idea to test with a different fuel source in the open air and I feel somewhat sheepish for not thinking to suggest this first.

The chips I used were about a half to one 1cm squared in area and 1-2 mm thick, as such they naturally packed down quite tightly excluding most of the air. Planer/ thicknesser shavings, I suspect, would not pack down and would have lots of air in amongst them, giving a fast burn.

Dave, back to the secret laboratory to find the definitive answer...

[Paul Kribs]

saucisson

Planer/thicknesser shavings are very adequate for hot smoking, as long as you damp them down with a spray mister. I cannot however, comment on cold smoking as I do not have the facility. Hot smoking always brings compliments from those who try the food. My last excursion being Jamaican jerk seasoned belly pork, hot smoked for 45 minutes.. absolutely superb, tender, succulent, hot, and tastey. BTW, it was Walkers Wood jerk paste, a commercial item that IMHO cannot be beaten. I have tried various recipes for jerk seasoning and none can compare.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[saucisson]

The wood chips I used are designed for hot smoking after soaking in water and placing on hot coals, just as the shavings work as Paul said. These particular chips also seem to cold smoulder as well, so I may need to do more research into my chips than my burner. Keep up the input

Dave

[Gill]

The planer thicknesser chips I used for my first test didn't flame up but they burnt rather quickly. I hadn't damped them with water.

The second test used a mixture of planer thicknesser chips and 1cm cubed blocks of wood. These were dry, too.

Perhaps next time I should use dust, as recommended in Erlandson's book. He doesn't favour damping the wood, though, because the whole point of cold smoking is to eliminate moisture from the product. He finds that damp material both lowers the temperature and slows the curing.

I regard this very much as a learning process so I expected a few mistakes along the way. It's all part of the fun .

Gill

[saucisson]

I didn't damp them down for my experiments, if it were this easy I guess it would have been done before. I think it would be sensible to start a new experimental cold smoking thread and will do so now

Dave