Help for Smoker design

[finga]

Got a keg or two from my scrapey mate
I might look at those 2 barrel versions.
The heat and smoke maker in the bottom and the meaty bits in the top section with a couple of big tubes going from the heat/smoke section to the meatybits holder.
Going to have to think about this a bit I reckon

[baldyhead]

I have a mate who has a great smoker setup...He got 6 old pallets and stood a large single cavity old fridge on them to get some height. On the top of the fridge he has cut and fitted a small 75mm chimney c/w a regulator flap. He has added extra shelves inside to place the fish on. Has also set it up to allow him to hang a leg of pork etc on hooks inside as well. He cut a 100mm hole in the back of the fridge @ the bottom.
At approximately 16m away he placed a 60l drum on the ground after he had cut a door in the bottom of it, fitted a rack to hold the coals and cut a 100mm hole in its side near the top. He cut the top outta the drum also & modified it as a lid. He got 2 x 8m lengths of aluminium irrigation pipe which he coupled together & fitted one end into the hole in the fridge & the other into the fire drum.
He supported the pipe @ intervals so that it was on a 30 degree incline from drum to fridge. Then he did sumptin tricky!
Before he fitted the pipe into the fridge he slid a length of 150mm PVC pipe over the alum pipe. He fitted the pipe to the fridge then heated the ends of the pvc pipe & formed it down to touch the the alum pipe then sealed it all with Silaflex.
He drilled a hole @ each end @ fitted a piece of 25mm pvc pipe into them.
He took a 200l drum to the launching ramp & filled it with salt water, took it home and placed it on the ground adjacent to the lower end of the 150mm pvc pipe. He plumbed the 25mm pipes using gravity & a 12v bilge pump to cycle the water thru the pvc to cool the smoke.
He builds a good fire in the drum, gets heaps of good coals going then add his smoking material Then puts the lid on the drum & the smoke travels up the alum pipe gets cooled on the way and he smokes the BEST PORK<FISH & chook that I have EVER tasted.
Sorry for the long post....Haven't got any fotos of his setup unfortunately.
cheers baldy

[gone_phishin]

That sounds awesome baldyhead. I like the idea of the cold smoking and if you can get any photo's at some time I'd love to see the setup, though with your description I reckon I could do something similar anyway.

Thanks for the beer keg info bondy99! If I can't find a weber or decide against the cold smoking, I'l go and se my local scrappie and see if he has any...I know the local home brew shop used to charge $100 for a keg

Cheers
Geoff

[Noelm]

cold smoking or "indirect" is usually the way the pros do it, but it takes a lot longer and requires a bit of extra space to have the "smoke box (fridge)" then a fire box and all the "plumbing" to go with it, but it does work a treat.

[bondy99]

G'day gone_phishin

No probs, that beer keg sounds a bit pricey though, I'm sure you can get the buggers cheaper than that, especially ex-brewery. I'm going to check my new source for a price, I got one for $20.00 last time, same place but different person there now. I'll check and get back to you and let you know.

Peter

[gone_phishin]

Thanks Peter! I'd be interested to see what price you can still get them for. Finally found a Weber yesterday but they wanted $80 for it....and all the food bits and grease and stuff were freebies

Geoff

[gone_phishin]

G'day Noel

Still hunting the Weber....got plenty of fish on Saturday but I'm not allowed to put Red Jew in the smoker anyway. yum!!

Cheers
Geoff

[gone_phishin]

Weber found!!! Went looking for an old chest freezer at the local tip to make into a big smoker, and the first thing I saw at the steel section was an old Weber...cost...nothing. The guy who runs the tip used to live next door to me 15 years ago in Gove NT. It's out the back at the moment burning all the old crap off it, and I'm looking back at the thread, and drooling....willl let you know what happens in the next day or so Noel.

Cheers
Geoff

[gone_phishin]

G'day All,

A special g'day to Noelm if he's listening!! Mate....that recipe you gave me for the brine is bl##dy lovely!! So far I've done smoked chook legs (didn't make it past the lunch table beside the Weber) and we got a couple of Mack Tuna on Wednesday, and instead of feeding the dogs, thought I'd give them a whirl in the brine and smoker. Old mate told me Thursday night I was wasting my time as smoking only made them stronger in taste (hate strong fish) and they were only worth feeding to his cat.

Boy am I gonna make him eat his words....as well as some of the smoked Tuna I've got neighbours about 3 kilometres away who haven't stopped calling since last night to see whether I'd caught any more. Told 'em I was just finishing up smoking the last lot a few minutes ago...and I think I can here a car pulling up in the drive as I speak

Anyway thanks again Noel, and I'll keep you posted on any other experiments, and the results of the Jerky I'm yet to try.

Cheers
Geoff

[pog mo hoin]

I used an old fridge once, the racks were already there etc. had an old webber that we put a hole into the the lid and used air con ducting to the fridge side about half way up. Got the coals etc happening in the webber added the various smoke chips etc pop on lid and it used to work a treat. We would do rare smoked chicken breast, and finish them off on the Barbie or the oven and we used to do a lot of Reef Shark Fillets as well, the shark ( Flake ) fillets smoked make great fish cakes once smoked. Lamb racks work really well also, we used to soak a heap of fresh rosemary and unpeeled garlic bulbs in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and chuck them on the coals, the volume of smoke is amazing and the oil in the rosemary would flavour the lamb wonderfuly. Fresh horseraddish cream is always a good accompanment with any smoked meat. My two cents

[Swamp]

Gents, ladies ??

An old and wonderful subject

Lots on the net

Start with a big keg, and 2nd hand webers are great, I've also seen cardboard boxes used

Best of luck, and great eating

[Haji-Baba]

Here is what i do for all meat, fish, crabs, prawns and pork.

Got some pork spare ribs on right now.


Also have a large wok which very seldom leaves the van and when we are travelling we use it on the outdoor stove or wood fire on the Barbie plate.

Works for me.

Have fun Haji-Baba

[Haji-Baba]

Hello Geoff,

Saw a "smoker" in Tassie.
He had a drum in the ground and underground pipe 6m. long leading up hill to an old fridge.

Smoked all his fish and venison etc. in that.

Cold smoking took days but worth it.

For cold smoking you will need to salt and sugar meat etc. to stop it going off before the smoke takes effect.

Have Fun Haji-Baba

[Noelm]

hey, just saw your post 'fishin" glad you found the Weber, you will do all sorts of stuff, takes a bit of time to work out, how hot, how much, what to smoke, you will have some fantstic results , and some dismal failures, but it is all fun, I have just started smoking fish wrapped in foil with just a couple of small holes in it to let in the smoke, works OK, not too smokey flavoured, the Chicken legs are good huh! tried Breast too, but it tends to get a bit dry, might try it in the foil!

[voiletmay]

Hi, I'd really like to thank everyone for this thread. It inspired me to start using my weber that has been sitting on my back deck for well over 5 years untouched. I've been enjoying using it, and have even bought one of those quickstart chimneys so I can be a bit more creative in where I place coals (necessary for smoking at low temperatures if you only want coals on one side, I couldn't light just one side of my weber, but it is easy with the chimney). There are video tutorials on http://www.webernation.com that I have been watching too. Aldi had cheap hickory chips and smoker boxes too (not that you need them, foil works).

My neighbour/fishing parter and I are even more eager to find somewhere we can catch legal size fish (we live in the Redlands. QLD) so we can try them smoked. We are landbased. Might have to try some of the dams as smoked trout seems extremely appealing.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thankyou to Geoff for starting this thread.