Wooden Smokehouse

[saucisson]

WittingHAM Palace without a doubt

Dave

[wittdog]

I can cold smoke no problem...I was playing with the damper on the grill part....cold smoking will not be an issue

[Iamarealbigdog]

I have some killer salmon recipies for ya...

I'm getting all excited at what you are going to be able to produce. I may have to break down and build my own little palace to up with the dogs...

[wittdog]

I have some killer salmon recipies for ya...

I'm getting all excited at what you are going to be able to produce. I may have to break down and build my own little palace to up with the dogs...

Send them on down the line

[wittdog]

I�m getting ready to put that smokehouse to good use�.I picked up a 15lb bottom round roast�and it�s jerky time�

All leaned out


Ready for the marinade

Waste

Ok I�ve got the jerky in the smokehouse�hopefully I�ll be able to get the temp up just using wood�.







Ok I�ve got the smokehouse up to temp�.in my initial trial runs..I�ve had a hard time getting it up past 120* but I really haven�t� had time to experiment�today I built a huge fire in the fire box 3 big logs and a couple of chuncks of wood�.It�s roaring now..and I�m at temp..


I turned the damper down half

[Big Guy]

Hey Whitt Dog that's not waste! freeze it and save, then later grind it with some venison to make great sausages or burgers!

[wittdog]

Some of the jerky is done�




QC guys says it passes�

[Iamarealbigdog]

How long what temp and what did you season with


Looks awsome

[wittdog]

This is the recipe I used http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7394 it needs more salt...
And as far as temps and time...thats kind of up in the air...the stuff on the left side got done early the stuff on the right...took a few hours longer.

[Iamarealbigdog]

Nice recipe. Like the apple base,

We do ours soya brown sugar based, while it is nice it has that distint flavor. Will have to give this a try then tinker with it...

by the way, how is that cement board holding up against the smoke, is it starting to colour...?



Cheers

[wittdog]

Nice recipe. Like the apple base,

We do ours soya brown sugar based, while it is nice it has that distint flavor. Will have to give this a try then tinker with it...

by the way, how is that cement board holding up against the smoke, is it starting to colour...?



Cheers

Care to post or PM me your jerky recipe...

The Apple gives it a touch of sweetness...and a twang...

Yeah I'm starting to get some color on the board..the dowels are taking some on as well
I keep tell ya I'm a short skip and a jump from the Peace Bridge..

[danmerk]

Wittdog,

Great thread. Been reading this all the way through and looked at all the pics. Can you answer some questions as I am building a similar structure yet smaller myself.

1. Was your intention to make a hot smoker for turkeys and pork as in BBQ?

2. Can you make cold smoked products such as smoked cheeses, jerkey (obviously) and salmon (as in lox), smokies?

3. Inside liner. Is that DuraRock/Cement board as in the under-layment used in ceramic tile flooring? How is that working out? Is it safe for the heat and are there any contaminants in that material that may off gas into the food product? I myself was thinking of using it, but then using a coated tile or marble for ease of cleaning on the floor to clean up any nasties from the smoking process. I see you just have a board there.

4. If that structure was 1/2 the height, could you have used electric as in a hot plate for creating temps up to 160F?

Thanks in advance and nice work!

[wittdog]

1. It wasn't my intention to make it a BBQ smokehouse...for as big as it is...I have serious doubts as to if I could get it up to Q temps 225-250. Its well insulated and the concrete board helps once its up to temp but gettting it up to temp takes a while..
2. With the external firebox cold smoking is not an issue I can get temps that low...
3. Yep its 1/2 thick...I called the people at USG that make it...they were very helpfull...they weren't concerned about possible gasses and they said that the fibeglass thats inside the concrete board is rated at 350* for like 12-16 hrs before it will begin to degrade a coated tile is a pretty good idea I wasn't really concerned with clean up I just figured the walls would get sticky...and they are starting to get cured...One thing on the "gasses"...we caulked all the gaps and I did run the smokehouse empty a few times to get any residue from anything "burned out" now when you walk by it all you smell is hickory
4. A small hot plate or two might do the trick...I'm not sure...alot would depend on ambient temps and the amount of meat...
I found this online conversion chart http://www.onlineconversion.com/
This is what It told me how many BTU the elements will put out�
750 watt = 2 559.106 226 3 Btu/hour [I.T.]
1 000 watt = 3 412.141 635 1 Btu/hour [I.T.]
1 500 watt = 5 118.212 452 7 Btu/hour [I.T.]
1 650 watt = 5 630.033 698 Btu/hour [I.T.]
2 100 watt = 7 165.497 433 8 Btu/hour [I.T.]
5 000 watt = 17 060.708 176 Btu/hour [I.T.]
This is what It told me how many BTU the elements will put out�
Now if I could figure out how many BTUs I need to bring the inside (3x3x7) of the smoker with xlbs of meat hanging and x outside air temp�.I could figure out which size element I need�
I used this chart to figure it out�.
http://www.heatershop.com/btu_calculator.htm

Hope all this helps if you have any more questions I'll do my best to answer them....if you are into Q here is a good site I like http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/index.php check it out
Good luck and keep us posted

[danmerk]

Awesome thanks! Getting itchy to make one myself. I def will post my experiences here. I've buit stuff before like this, but it was strictly for making beer. In case you are interested in a short drive over to my site check out my brewery:

http://www.danmerk.com/life/2006/11/28/my-brewery/

And in use:

http://www.danmerk.com/photography/2007 ... ond-stout/

Ok so back to another question for you. What was your intention of making this structure? I guess I am confused on the smoking process. Smoking is a seasoning correct? Its also a cooking method. So if you were not going for hot smoke (over 160deg) and you can cold smoke (under 100deg) is this a large cold smoker?

Curious. I want to make one myself, so I can smoke salmon to make lox, smoke spices like salt and paprika, smoke cheeses like gouda. I already have a smoker its a Charbroil bullet smoker and it does not work well as its hard to keep at 200 deg internally and its always above 150deg so I can not use as a cold smoker. Is there something that I am missing on this concept?

Cured meats are smoked then dried? Correct?

[wittdog]

Smoking is a seasoning, a way of cooking and a way to preserve something.....
Cold smoking is done at temps below 80*
Hot smoking (what I like to call cool smoking is done between 120*-165*)
Smoking or BBQ is done at temps between 225*-275*

My intention of building the smoke house was to be able to both cold smoke and Hot smoke. I had thought that your original ? was in regards to BBQ like ribs or Pulled Pork or Brisket.

Not all meats are cured and smoked then dried.

If you are smoking below 200* you should probably use a cure, some don't but I'm not one for taking any chances.
Above 200* no cure is needed.

The magic number is 180* at somewhere around 180* the fat begins to render when cold smoking or hot smoking 165* you want to end up with a product that has all its fat left in it after the smoking process...
In BBQ you will render out a lot of the fat.

Now you can have a fully cooked end product smoking at 160* it just takes a long time to get there. Polish Sausage is an example of one such product. You don't need to dry it. It is cured, smoked and then ready for consumption if you take it up to 152* internal.

An example of something that is cured, smoked then dried would be slim jims.
Depending on how long you plan on drying something dicates which cure to use #1 or #2 for dry cured products like pepparoni or some types of salami you would use #2 that relases the nitrates over time like a cold pill. For cooked salami or summer sausage cure 1.

The FDA recomends cure 1 for bacon because of the high heat during the frying process

Have you tried a hot plate in your bullet smoker? That might get you to be able to hot smoke in it....I have friends that have hot smoked in there WSMs...they just use a couple of pieces of charcoal and add a small amount of wood....

Just a few things to think about
Hope this helps

I highly recommend this book http://www.sausagemaker.com/index.asp?P ... ProdID=413 it will answer a ton of questions and has some good recipes as well....but I find that the salt content needs to be adjusted down sometimes