Need more information about smoking meats, fish, ect?

[~gd]

Wow what a great post! Having lived as a teen on a fruit farm with a old fashoned Brick smokehouse I can verify what you said about all the fruit woods except citrus. Our wood supply came from the orchards and these were the bad old days where the trees were sprayed with all kinds of toxics...Triming and tree removal were done in the off season ie Winter. Anything of useable size (everything but twigs) were moved to the 'woodlot' where they were exposed to the weather for at least a year. Then they were Buzzed up (22"circular cross cut saw powered by a belt from a old JD tractor) stacked covered to season for two years. Sorry geting side tracked.
What is reverse flow? Our smokehouse was all cold smoked. No cooking. From the exterior fire box the smoke entered the smokehouse (=SH from now on) near the bottom of the SM and exited at the top. there were adjustable baffels to route the smoke around so it wasn't just a straight shot, but powered by heat. Does Reverse Flow use a fan?
I have to run but I may have more questions later. Thanks for the info!

 

[SKR8PN]

No fans in this smoker! I'll try to describe how it works:

If you look at the picture of my smoker, you'll notice the stack is on the same end as the firebox. The heat and smoke start out in the fire box, and enters the cooking chamber. There is a steel plate the runs from the fire box to the other end of the cooking chamber. It is welded solid to the front and the back of the chamber, as well as the firebox end, but is left open on the end farthest from the fire. The smoke/heat is forced to travel all the way to the other end of the chamber where is "reverses direction" and drafts back across the top of the plate(and the food) to the smoke stack. The smoke/heat warms that plate from the bottom, the plate then radiates that heat to cook the meat,while the smoke/heat also is carried across the surface of the cooking grids on it's way to the stack and out of the smoker. This setup also lets any ash that may escape the firebox, to settle out in the chamber,underneath that plate, before it ever reaches the cooking surface. This smoker will maintain the cooking temps within 10-15 degrees from end to end after it is warmed up.

Here is a story about how to modify a Char-Broil smoker into a reverse flow setup. It explains it pretty well with pictures and gives you a good idea what I am talking about.
http://users.wbsnet.org/n0yk/charbroil silver.htm

 

[Jaxom]

SKR8PN,

Doh! I'm doing a "V-8" slap to the head. Of course charcoal is for heat. As a side note I had once researched hobby blacksmithing and read all about how it requires charcoal or coal for getting the fire hot enough to work the metal with. Same could be said about cooking, you need heat, not just smoke. Perhaps it was because I was thinking of an instance while out camping with my scout troop. By then I'd made into the leadership corps. My duties were to cook for the leaders and fathers. Made a pork roast in a dutch oven using apple wood.

I have to say I like your idea of a reverse flow, have to keep that in mind when I got to build one myself. My design question is this. Because I have an interest in both methods of smoking... I do understand you cand do both in yours. What would you do with items you wanted to hang, like say cheese or a ham or such?

Now I have seen many simlar grill/griddle/smokers as yours, although probably not as well thought out as you have done, at Basspro. One of the larger ones added a vertical box at the opposite end of the grill from the firebox, and this was used as a place to put racks of jerky, hang hams, sausages, and cheese for cold smoking. What's your thoughts of adding something like that, using some dampeners and two chimines so as to control the flow of smoke either through the grill as you do, or through a cold box instead? (I think that came out right...)

It's not uber important, but if you have a spare mintue or three to snap a few more pics, I'd love to see them! I actually copy/pasted your last comment into wordpad to save it for my growing electronic cook book and refrence files. That was an EXCELLENT post! Thanks a heap!

 

[SKR8PN]

When I do cheese, hams, or sausages, I have a second stainless steel grate that I set on top of the regular grates. That keeps the food up higher off of the heat plate. Instead of using a lot of charcoal and little wood(like when cooking)I use a couple of larger pieces of wood set in the fire box, and then I light about a 1/2 dozen briquettes and simply lay them on top of the wood chucks. I then shut down the air vents to nil, to strangle any fire that might erupt. This gives me a cold smoke and not very much heat. THIS TAKES A LOT OF PRACTICE!!!
When you smoke cheese..........you have to be VERY mindful of outside temps. It doesn't take much heat on a 70 degree day, to end up with a cheese puddle. DAMHIK.
Also.....when you do cheese, you have to let it age in the 'fridge for a week or so before you taste it. If you try it right out of the smoker, it will taste like you just licked an ashtray.
You will be AMAZED at what a week in the 'fridge can do for the taste!

You won't need a vertical "warmer" box at the end of your smoker to do what you want to do. Those are mainly for "holding" food after it has been finished.
If you get, or build a smoker, you will learn what you can, or cannot do with it, and with a little practice and some ingenuity, you'll figure out a way around any "less than optimal" results.
After all.....it ain't rocket science....it's just cookin' !!



PS.......I just noticed one more thing I will add..........In the picture that I posted of my smoker BEFORE it was put in the shelter, you'll notice there is only ONE temp gauge installed, but in the shelter pic, there are three........
In that first photo, I had removed the two end gauges, and was using TWO digital temp gauges with probes, to check the temp difference from end to end of the smoker. I stuck the probes from those digital gauges in a couple of potatoes to keep them off the grates. It is also a nifty way to BAKE a potato or two when your smoking.