New cold smoke generator designed in the UK

[welsh wizard]

Hi Phil

This place is only a few miles away from me and they are good. They do smoke their salmon for a long period of time and is clasified as slow smoked. The problem for me is that in the Summer or when the weather gets warmer (or IF it gets warmenr) I need to have a quick smoke so as not to leave the salmon out of the fridge too long, thereby reducing the risk of smoking at too high a temprature. One way of keeping the temprature low is to pack the smoker out with freezer blocks and this does work but if smoking for 20 hours they will not stay cold for that period.

I am going to experiment with the little cold smoker today in the Bradley and start by shutting down the air outlet until the cabinet is full of smoke and then only let it out very slowly - I think a 10p piece size hole should be ample looking at the smoke the gizmo generates........

Cheers WW

[wheels]

Let us know how it goes WW. It will be interesting to see whether retaining this (faily low) level of smoke smoke leads to bitterness as we are told that it does?

Phil

[saucisson]

Isn't WW working on the basis his 10p sized hole will give enough through flow that this shouldn't be a problem? It will be interesting to see the result.

Dave

[welsh wizard]

Hi Phil / Dave

Sorry only just got back to the computer. Yep you are correct. as long as you have a smoke in / smoke out situation it should not build up enough to taint the food.

I think the problem is that you have to get a good head of steam first and then try to estimate the amount of smoke coming from the gizmo and think about how large a whole you then need to get a constant through put of smoke whilst retaining enough in the cabinet to smoke the food quicker, if of course that is what you want.


Smoking this evening so should have some results tomorrow which I will try to post.

Cheers WW

[welsh wizard]

Hi

I have now completed my doings and this is what I have found:

I smoked 4 sides of Salmon in the Bradley using the small cold smoker placed in the bottom of the cabinet and smoked with oak.

I let the bradley fill with smoke which took c1 hour and then opened the vent a little and waited around and fiddled with the vent until I was happy with the smoke in / smoke out.

3 hours in (usually a bradley start to finish smoke) the fish was tasting slightly smokey but no where near enough. But that of course is subjective.

5 hours in and the fish had taken on a most distinctive smokey taste but I left it in as it still was not quite there.

7 hours in and I felt it had achieved what the bradley does in the smoking flavour.

Interestinly I took out three of the fish and left the other in for the remainder of the smoke time - a further three hours. This did givethe fish a more smokey taste, but only very slightly I gave both samples to the children who do have good palates and they couldnt tell the difference between - Bradley fish - the 7 hour smoking and the 10 hour smoking. So there you go.

Ref colour on the fish - very little but if you get the taste and want the colour you can cheat and put brown sugar in with your salt cure - this not only adds a sweetness but darkens the fish.

I was going to smoke some duck and pheasant but that will have to wait until next week.

Conclusion for me is, I will use the little smoker right through tthe cold weather but when the weather warms up I will have to use the expensive bradley pucks.............trust me at c£30 this gizmo is well worth the money!

Cheers WW

[Richierich]

Do you think smoking in a fridge is acceptable, I have modified mine with a wider range thermostat, was thinking it would be a good way of fixing temperature on a warm day. Is there an issue with plastic absorbing smoke and then leaching out nasties?

[wheels]

What warm days?

[probbq]

What warm days?

Second that!

[Richierich]

Maybe I mean the less cold days..

[saucisson]

So long as you don't get any heat in there Rich (ie don't hot smoke) I don't think it will be a problem at all, although your fridge may work overtime to cope with the necessary (albeit slow) airflow. The plastic will absorb the smoke I have no doubt, so you could only use it for storing smoked goods in once you smoke in it. Or airtight containers.

Dave

[coastie]

Hi Guys on the strength of this thread I talked the wife into buying me a smoker for Crimbo (ordered today). As anybody smoked a whole Gammon on or off the bone yet and if yes how long does it take if not how long would I leave it in the smoker for.
I`m on my 6th batch of bacon/Gammon (kids) and I`ve just being given some supracure so I`m wanting to have a bash at smoking now.
Geoff

[saucisson]

I will most likely be doing one, I will probably do the 10 hours and see how it comes out, I won't know until Christmas though...

Dave

[wheels]

10 hours for a whole gammon? I'd have thought 4 or 5 days?

Phil

[saucisson]

Well, maybe not a whole leg...

Dave

[saucisson]

OK a whole leg I picked up an 8.5kg bone in one for £27 from our local butcher