Smoking - A couple of first timer questions

[Richierich]

Sounds great, however, I am away until Tuesday next week, maybe next time.....

[saucisson]

Ok, I'll let you know how I get on.

Dave

Edit, they are closed Midday Friday until Monday every week, so much for that idea...

[Richierich]

Here's a website that might be helpful to peruse -

http://www.randyq.addr.com/ecb/ecbmods.html

ECB - "El Cheapo Brinkman" (affectionate moniker for the Brinkman Smoke 'n Grill)

Decided it was time to bite the bullet and start the mods, gonna flip the legs to allow me to get to the charcoal pan easier, might add bottom vents too, just got to hope the wife doesn't notice the cake tins have reduced in number!

[Richierich]

Stage one complete, the bolts are fastened to the charcoal pan, used 1/2" threaded bar, would have put a washer on both sides of the pan if some tea leaf hadn't had the washers out of the packets, only had 6 washers for 10 nuts.

Doesn't look the sturdiest of things, but I guess once its loaded up all forces are straight down, I might brace the legs yet.

Will probably drill some small holes in the underside of the pan tomorrow, got some steel mesh to fit into the pan to lift the charcoal up a little, the holes should let some air in.

[saucisson]

Congratulations on taking the plunge, keep us informed,

Dave

[Vernon Smith]

Since my postings with pics last year on the subject of smoking I have cut back considerably on the methods I use and the results are even better. I still use the old chest freezer as the smoke-house but I have done away with the subterranean remote smoke source and the 10 ft of subterranean ducting between the two components. There is a lot of hype about "cold" smoking time and keeping the temperature down but frankly after 12 months of field trials I find it all unnecessary.

I have an old iron bucket that I fill with dry sawdust, get it smoking nicely with small pieces of kindling and put it in the smoke house under the cured meat hanging above. The sawdust provides a moderately dense smoke for a couple of hours without much heat by which time the meat is straw-coloured. To obtain a chestnut colour I repeat the process a second time. The secret is having the meat dry with a nice pellicle to absorb the smoke. I put the meat in the smoker straight from the fridge at about 8 deg but in cooler climes this is probably unnecessary. After one smoking it reaches about 30 deg and 45 deg after the second. The results are excellent. Put the meat straight back into the fridge for 24 hours to absorb and equilibriate the smoke flavours before cooking. If anyone logs on to my recent postings on Cordon Bleu Ham you will see the results for yourself.

There are a lot of expensive DIY smokers on the market from hardware stores and garden centres. Save your money my friends. There is no rocket science involved in good quality smoking. It just needs innovation and patience. If anyone wants any further hints on my methodology I will be pleased to help. I have experimented extensively over the past 18 months and although I am not conceited enough to suggest that I have all the answers I am confident that I have accumulated a fair number of them.

All the best,
Vernon

[Richierich]

Interesting reading Vernon, I think you can get too caught up in trying to do things "by the book" when in reality people were preserving and flavoring food in this way well before the book was written.

I have made further modifications to the Brinkmann, a couple of phots below.

I used a palette knife from the kitchen as the cover for the new air holes. I need to get hold of a good high temp paint I think now just to cover up the areas where the paint has cracked away during drilling. I could have been a bit neater with the holes, but figured it was underneath, so who was going to see it, and now I am posting picsof them!