Mini spice cold smoker

[Hoggy]

Hello all, after 5 months of absence trying to make some money, Hoggy is finally back.

I read a topic about cold smoking garlic and spices, and the fact that spices had to be spread out, to be able to take some smoke. At the time I was reading this topic, my girlfriend was doing pop corn. That pop corn maker has a round plate at the bottom, with an agitator to evenly spread the corn.
This gave me the idea to something like that.....my spice cold smoker ( SCM )

Before to start, I did a test with spices for 10 hours on a normal plate ( no agitator ) in my cold smoker, see image below. These are, from left to right: kosher salt, ground mustard powder, dried onion flakes and Madras curry powder. All tasted pretty strong after 10 hours of cold smoking, this will be my reference for future trials.



Below you see two images of the end-result until now, basically it is a baking plate, a small gear motor and the ProQ all together in a cheap plastic box.
Although you can place only the baking plate in your cold smoker while you are smoking, for me the idea was to keep the volume very low, so the smoke concentration is high, and the idea was also to get the same result of my reference test within 2 - 3 hours.




Results until now: technically it is all perfect, but my ProQ or probably airflow ( vents ) need adjustment, as I do not have much smoke inside.

Here is a small video and some pics of how I built it.
http://www.infento.com/smoking_forum/spice_smoker/first_run/

[DanMcG]

Very nice idea. and welcome back

[wheels]

Wow, that's clever. Thanks.

Phil

[Hoggy]

Thanks Phil,

Actually, as a first test, I am going to use the smoked spices on your Pauline's Ham. I am busy getting some smoked stock on salt and sugar. Once I have that, I will smoke a small batch of sugar and salt together with the Jupiter Berries and Coriander seeds, and make the brine with all smoked ingredients. I am curious if the smoke flavour comes back in the ham after injecting the brine with the smoked salt and sugar.

Probably it won't be much, but I am just looking for that small " extra " smoke flavour INSIDE the ham.
Fortunately the meat is still on special for 2 days.....99 cents/lb

Marcel.

[wheels]

It'll be interesting to see whether the flavour is different from a tradtional smoked ham.

Phil

[saucisson]

Nice idea Hoggy

[Hoggy]

This will be the ultimate test, I have prepared two of the same brines, one ( on the left ) with salt and sugar smoked in my spice smoker, on the right with non-smoked salt and sugar. This brine is the brine of Phil's Pauline's Ham, with one difference, I have added one clove of garlic with I boiled the brines. You can see that the brine on the left with the smoked salt and sugar is more dark.