Cold smoker from a locker

[danw]

Hi all,

I have secured an old Bisley locker to fashion into a small cold smoker. Is there any need to strip the paint from the inside?

My assumption is that the smoke will just tar up the inside and it'll end up covered and if I can slow the rate of burning, there won't be a huge amount of heat generated anyway.

I am planning to burn the fuel on top of a stone or somesuch so the burning fuel won't come into contact with the locker itself. It'll be used only on cold nights so as to increase heat dissipation. I may have to use ducting and external smoke source - we'll see.

All comments/thoughts welcome.

Thanks, Dan

[onewheeler]

If you use a CSG there won't be any heat worth dissipating. It won't get hot enough to be worth stripping the paint.

Martin/

[saucisson]

As above, with a secure source of cold smoke you should be fine.

[Big Guy]

just be sure to old paint isn't lead based

[Sam Newman]

If it was me, I would throw it on the fire and burn the paint off. Just in case, seen as your going to be cooking food in it. How will you funnel the smoke from your stone into the locker? Good luk! Sam

[saucisson]

He won't be cooking in it Sam, he's cold smoking, normally done at cold ambient temperature.

[danw]

Thanks for the comments all.

I had to give up when all this wet weather arrived. There was just too much condensation. I did get a good 4 or so hours of smoke on an old piece of pancetta I had lying around. So, there is potential.

I have also bought myself a ProQ cold smoke generator that I am very keen to get going.

Even so, I think it is just too damp to try and cold smoke at the moment. Unless I take the locker inside somewhere....

I'm very intrigued by the small size of the CSG. This looks like such a tiny amount of smoke will be generated that I wonder how smoked my bacon will end up.

There is a discussion about rate of burning, amount of smoke generated, length of time said smoke hangs around, container/box size etc. that I am sure has been hammered out online somewhere. Any pointers?

BTW, I spent 4 years as a professional smoker (finishing a couple of years back) but this is the first stuff I have done at home. Reading a lot of the posts on the forum wonder if I learnt anything during those 4 years!

Thanks again, Dan

[saucisson]

To summarise, the ProQ should be fine in a locker, it burns for 10 hours which is enough to give a constant trickle to nicely smoke bacon to many people's tastes, but if you want it heavily smoked you might want to do a second burn. Any questions, fire away.

[danw]

To summarise, the ProQ should be fine in a locker, it burns for 10 hours which is enough to give a constant trickle to nicely smoke bacon to many people's tastes, but if you want it heavily smoked you might want to do a second burn. Any questions, fire away.

well, I have two large trout fillets on the go at the moment. I do wonder whether I am going to get the evaporation that I want and I wonder if they are too high up in the smoker. We'll see what they look like in the morning!

dan

[danw]

Bah, so the initial taste test this morning was not very good. I have undercured the fish, so it is not salty/sweet enough and the smoke flavour is hence not very good either.

Possibly too bitter too as outlined in the thread about airflow. I am wondering that as the locker is very tall (over 5ft?) and the temp is very cold, maybe the smoke is taking a long time to rise up and out of the vents. There is a gap of about 2.5ft between ProQ and fish. Maybe a little more than that even.

I wouldn't mind as I am obviously learning at the moment, but this is someone else's fish and I was really hoping not to ruin it

Maybe it'll taste better later.....

[wheels]

I can't help it Dan; I'm chuckling here 'cos you managed to mess up on the bit that you probably know more about than anyone else here!

As to the smoking, maybe a chimney of some sort to create a flow of air?

Phil

[danw]

But. But. But....

I've been worrying all day. I'm doing it for lovely 90 yr old guy and I really didn't want to fcuk it up.

Awaiting return of my wife as her taste udder are better than mine.

One thing is that it has taken on very little colour. Should I stick it for another overnighter?

My experience is of course relevant but My kilns were large and fan driven.....

[wheels]

I find that I need to smoke for double the length of time that some of the other guys do - I put this down to me using a faster 'throughput' of smoke. I smoke salmon for about 36 hours. A recent beef project has had at least 60 hours - on and off.

I'd put it into the fridge for the night. Taste it tomorrow - and take it from there. If it needs more smoke just put it back on for another run.

I'm sure that your friend will enjoy it.

Phil

[danw]

I find that I need to smoke for double the length of time that some of the other guys do - Iput this down to me using a faster 'throughput' of smoke. I smoke salmon for about 36 hours. A recent beef project has had at least 60 hours - on and off.

I'd put it into the fridge for the night. Taste it tomorrow - and take it from there. If it needs more smoke just put it back on for another run. l

Looks wise I'm tempted to go for longer but I'm worried that the fish would end up too smoky. It has quite an almost bitter/acrid taste and I don't think that more smoking will soften that.

I'm possibly being a little over-concerned...

[wheels]

Hopefully, it'll mellow out.

Bitterness is usually caused by 'old smoke' i.e. smoke hanging around the product for too long. I would imagine that this is rare with the CSG as it produces such a small trickle of smoke. Just out of interest what wood was it?

Phil