Do-it-yourself cold-smoked smokehouse of different designs
Smoking is the processing of food, as a result of which the products are impregnated with substances that make up the smoke and are dehydrated. Products processed in a smokehouse have a specific taste, their shelf life is significantly increased. A self-built cold smoked smokehouse will make it possible to expand the family's diet.
Types of smoking
Two types of smoking have found application - hot and cold. The difference lies in the temperature of the smoke. Accordingly, the cooking time and taste of the products will be different.
Hot smoking
With cold smoking, the smoke temperature is no more than 40 ° C, so the process can take up to several days and it is necessary to pre-prepare the products (salting, pickling).
To speed up the process, the phenomenon of electrification is used when exposed to an electric field. Electrified smoke particles are less scattered and settle on food faster.
To reduce the cost and simplify production, instead of combustion products, smoking can be carried out using smoking liquids (liquid smoke), which are a concentrate of smoke or a mixture of chemicals. The posture or harm associated with the use of the smoke concentrate is controversial and there is still no consensus on this issue.
Cold smoking
Cold smoked meat or fish can withstand long-term storage due to the preservative properties of the substances that make up the smoke.
In order for the products to have the required qualities, several conditions must be met:
- smoke temperature;
- smoke concentration;
- moisture content of combustion products.
Temperature affects both the cooking speed and the properties of the final product. As mentioned above, due to the low temperature, the usual heat treatment is absent, so the cooking time can range from several hours for medium-sized fish, up to several days for large pieces of meat. An increase in temperature has a negative effect on subsequent storage times, and a decrease leads to a significant increase in cooking time.
Time also depends on the concentration (content) of substances in the smoke. A high density will result in the cooked food being too dark in color and bitter in taste due to the high resinous content. If the density is too low, the products will have an unattractive pale color and a mild smoked taste.
The moisture content should not exceed 25%, since its increase gives a bitterness and a dark shade of the surface.
Cold smoked smokehouse device
A cold-smoked smokehouse, assembled at the dacha with your own hands, will allow you to cook a variety of meat and fish dishes in accordance with personal preferences. It can also serve as some help in your personal business.
Any smokehouse consists of three elements:
- firebox (smoke generator);
- refrigerator for cooling the smoke;
- smoking chamber.
The production of smoking smoke can be based on two processes - combustion and smoldering. In the first case, the combustion products have a high temperature and a low content of active substances. Therefore, smoldering is used for smokers, during which there is no open flame and a large amount of smoke is emitted. To increase productivity and stability of smoldering and ease of control of the process, wood chips are used.
The smoke entering the smoking chamber should have a temperature of no more than 40 ° C, and in many cases no more than 25 ° C.
To reduce the temperature, a refrigerator is used, which is a long chimney (up to several meters). During cooling, excess water vapor, resins condense from the combustion products and solid particles settle.
The products to be processed are placed in a sealed chamber, in which they are suspended or on rare grates so that nothing interferes with the free passage of smoke. New portions of smoke are supplied continuously through the chimney arranged in the upper part of the chamber. The air exchange rate is regulated by changing the flow area of the chimney.
How to build a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands
As mentioned above, a smokehouse consists of three main elements. The scheme of a cold-smoked smokehouse for DIY manufacturing remains the same, regardless of the design of the constituent elements. It is better to start manufacturing from the most massive and dimensional part - the smoking chamber.
Smoking chamber
It is a sealed box with shelves for laying out products, a door for storing and two openings for the inflow and removal of smoldering chips. Chamber sizes can be very different. It all depends on the volume of production.
As materials for manufacturing, you can use wood, brick or other materials that are available.
You can also use ready-made containers of suitable volume with a slight modification:
- wooden or metal barrels;
- wooden boxes;
- the body of the old refrigerator.
The advantage of refrigerator cases is that its design already provides for a hermetically closing door and fixtures for securing grates or pallets. Refinement is reduced to making holes for the inlet and outlet of smoking smoke. The outlet should have a slightly smaller cross-section. Then, during operation, a slight overpressure will be created in the chamber, preventing air from getting inside, even with poor tightness. In practice, it is convenient to organize the supply of smoke through an opening in the side walls or rear. The hole should be located near the very bottom and correspond to the chimney in cross section.
When using a wooden barrel, before cutting out the door, it is important to pre-strengthen the rivets from the inside or outside so that they do not crumble. You can do without a door by using a removable top cover.
A camera from a metal barrel is arranged similarly. Here you need locksmith skills and the appropriate tool. The door is cut out with a grinder, and the awnings for opening and fastening for pallets are fixed either on bolts or by electric welding.
The disadvantage of a metal barrel is its high thermal conductivity. That is, with strong fluctuations in air temperature, it will be quite difficult to maintain the required temperature regime inside.
The most difficult, but most reliable option is to manufacture the camera completely from scratch. The structure can be made from building materials - bricks, cinder block or assembled on a wood frame. In the latter case, the camera is lightweight and can, if necessary, be moved to another place. The main condition for maintaining tightness. As a last resort, during the process, you can cover the smoker with a piece of dense damp cloth (tarp or burlap).
The device and principle of operation of the smoke generator
The smoke generator is designed to generate smoke, the main component of any smoking. In its simplest form, it is a firebox in which wood and wood chips are burned. Since the combustion products have a high temperature directly at the combustion site, they need to be cooled. For these purposes, the firebox is connected to the smoking chamber by means of a long chimney, laid on the surface of the earth or buried in it. To obtain traction and oxygen flow for combustion, the chimney is arranged with a slight slope towards the firebox. In this case, the heated gases rush up and move towards the smokehouse, cooling down to the desired temperature along the way. Along the way, condensate and suspended particles settle on the walls of the flue. The length of the chimney is from one and a half to several meters. It can be made from a piece of pipe of a suitable diameter or laid out of bricks.
Plastic pipes cannot be used.
The advantages of this design include the simplicity of the device, but, at the same time, it has serious disadvantages:
- stationary overall design, not allowing transfer;
- difficulty maintaining steady traction;
- at a low slope for normal combustion, the installation of blowing is required due to external devices such as a fan.
The wood chip stove is made of bricks or similar building materials. Alternatively, you can use part of the LPG cylinder. The firebox should be equipped with a grate for collecting ash and a door for loading fuel and cleaning.
External smoke generators are rectangular or circular pipes with an area of 100 - 300 cm2... It is convenient to use the body of an old fire extinguisher. Chips are poured into the pipe and set on fire through the hole intended for this. Air supply is carried out by means of an ejector - a tube of small section, into which air is supplied from a compressor of low power.
Depending on the volume of the smoke generator, the burning time of the chips can be different.
Ejection smoke generators
By design, ejection smoke generators can be of two types:
- with top ejection;
- with bottom ejection.
The first option is more common and easier to implement, since it gives a more uniform and stable combustion, but at the same time, the smoke passes through the entire thickness of the chips before entering the chimney. Condensate settles inside the generator, chips are saturated with condensate and resins. Swollen chips can get stuck in the pipe and stop flowing into the combustion area. The upper portions of the fuel, like a cigarette at the end of smoking, are oversaturated with tar. All this is burned and goes to the smokehouse.
In the case of bottom ejection, smoke is extracted in the immediate vicinity of the combustion area. The saturation of smoke with resins and moisture is constant throughout the entire process, but here it is necessary to ensure that the chips continuously crumble down so that the flame does not die out.
The combustion rate and the amount of smoke produced are controlled by the compressor capacity. For most cases, an aquarium compressor is sufficient.
Filter design and operation
Since there is no long chimney when using the ejector, the flue gases must be cooled and filtered. For this purpose, a filter is installed between the generator and the smoking chamber, which is a pipe of small section with partitions with holes installed inside.
The smoke, circulating between the baffles, cools down, the condensate settles inside the filter and can be removed through the technological opening.
A metal pipe is used to make the generator and filter. Fittings are welded into the pipes for installing the ejector, supplying and removing smoke.
As an experiment, to test the functionality and performance, a generator with filter can be assembled from cans of suitable size.
The metal of the cans is very thin and this design will not last long, especially for the smoke generator.
Drawings of smoke generators and filters of various designs can be found in the Internet for free access.
It is required to ensure complete tightness of the generator and filter to prevent air leakage.
What kind of wood is used
Deciduous wood can be used to smoke fish and meat, including:
- cherry;
- Apple tree;
- pear;
- oak;
- ash;
- alder.
In no case should you use coniferous wood due to the resin content. Food cooked with pine chips will be very bitter and taste bad.
The only coniferous tree, or rather, a shrub, the chips of which can be added to the smoke generator, is juniper. The low absence of resins allows the use of juniper to give dishes a unique flavor.
It is categorically impossible to use birch from hardwood, since it contains a large amount of tar. In an extreme case, birch chips can be added in small quantities, but subject to thorough cleaning from the bark, the content of tar in which is maximum.
Shortly before the end of smoking, a small amount of aromatic herbs can be added to the chips - thyme, mint.
Chips of various tree species differ in that they give the products different flavors. In addition, the burning rate of some tree species can vary greatly. Of the above, alder has the highest burning rate, and oak has the lowest.
The moisture content of wood chips should not exceed 25%. Otherwise, the combustion products will have an increased content of resinous substances, not all of which will have time to condense when gases move in the refrigerator. Less wet fuel will cause the smoked meats to be dry and rough.
The size of the chips is also important. Too small will not normally support the smoldering process due to its high density, which makes it difficult for oxygen to move. Fine chips burn too quickly and this makes it difficult to control smoke and temperature.
The optimal size of the chips is 1x1x0.5 cm, but you can use a slightly larger one. The higher the performance of the smoke generator should be (large volume of the furnace), the larger the chips can be used, but not more than 2x2x1 cm.