Each of us loves to enjoy delicious smoked meat, fish, fruits and other smoked meats. But not everyone thought that they could prepare this or that delicacy at home (even in an apartment) or in their summer cottage.
Therefore, I suggest that in this article you study what smokehouses exist and how you can build or assemble a hot or cold smokehouse yourself. After all, when guests arrive or on a day off, it’s always good to treat yourself to a delicious smoked product prepared without leaving home.
Process
The smoking procedure itself is extremely simple - all you need is smoke and the appropriate temperature for uniform heating of fish, cheese, lard, vegetables or meat.
It doesn't take much intelligence to buy the necessary equipment. All you need is funds. On the websites of various companies and stores involved in the sale of factory-installed units, a huge number of photographs of hot smoked smokehouses are posted. The range is so wide and varied that anyone will find a device to suit their taste and budget.
Or maybe it’s worth thinking about making a smokehouse with your own hands? This is not a very complicated process and does not require any special skills or abilities.
Housing or smoking chamber
It can be made from any material, even wood, because the smoking temperature is not high.
Inside it is equipped with special shelves-grids or hooks for food, and a container for collecting fat. Equipped with a door that closes tightly.
For the correct operation of the smokehouse, it is important to observe the proportions and distances of the structure. To create a structure, you do not need enormous experience, special materials and equipment. A cold smoked smokehouse can be made with your own hands from available materials.
Types of installations
There are three main types of smokehouses:
- lined up or located vertically, the so-called shafts;
- placed horizontally, like tunnels;
- having the shape of a box or, as they are also called, chamber ones.
Let's take a closer look at where and under what circumstances it is best to place one or another type of hot smoked smokehouse at home.
Tips for use and care
A proper smokehouse must take into account three main points, and the summer resident, when constructing such a structure, must also remember them. Firstly, uniform heating and fumigation must be carried out in the smoking chamber. Secondly, the smoke itself for smoking should be very light, not carrying harmful substances and heavy decay products that can give the meat an unpleasant taste. Thirdly, the design must be airtight to ensure uniform penetration of smoke into all layers of meat; Additional smoke generators can serve the same purpose.
By the way, you can assemble a smoke generator yourself. A body is made from a metal can, a hole is drilled at the bottom for igniting wood chips, and the upper part is tightly closed with a lid. The compressor can be a computer cooler. The entire structure is assembled using welding air, and then all that remains is to ignite the sawdust or wood chips and turn on the cooler. The peculiarity of the smoke generator is that the built-in cooler does not push smoke out, but pulls it in. Therefore, it must be connected to the smokehouse directly.
Traction is a prerequisite for smoking. It is not enough to simply put the product into a chamber filled with smoke. Otherwise, the meat/fish will simply evaporate, as a result of which it will acquire an unpleasant aftertaste. This is critical for cold smoking; in the case of hot smoking, everything is a little different, but it’s still worth following this rule.
To give the meat a rich taste, you should take special care in selecting the right tree species, the logs of which will be the most aromatic when burned.
For example, you should not use only birch logs in the smokehouse, as the meat may get an undesirable bitter taste. Yes, and birch logs will first have to be cleared of bark. It is also strictly forbidden to use coniferous trees for smoking. The culprit is the abundant resin content. It is best to add juniper branches and cherry leaves to the logs: they will add pleasant notes to the aroma of the meat. If there is a need to give the meat a certain color, then you can also use certain types of trees. Mahogany will give the meat a golden hue, alder and oak will give a dark yellow color, and hardwoods will give golden yellow tones.
In general, fruit trees like apple and pear trees and cherries have the most pleasant aroma. This is especially convenient for gardeners who can use old tree branches directly from their site for a smokehouse.
Also, different tree species are used for different types of smoked meats: even if these types of trees do not grow in your summer cottage, it will not be difficult to purchase the appropriate wood chips in the store. Thus, alder chips remain the most universal, on which almost any meat, lard, fish and even vegetables are smoked. Oak sawdust is used primarily for red meat and game. Willow and birch, which have a specific bitter taste, are used when smoking large game such as elk or bear. And cheeses, nuts, vegetables and fruits are smoked on the softest cherries and apples.
Firewood and pieces of wood added to the fireplace for aroma should not be larger than 5-10 cm in size. Larger pieces are more difficult to heat to the point that they begin to char.
Before putting the log on the fire, it is a good idea to slightly moisten it: damp wood produces abundant smoke, which is very important for smokehouses. However, you should not overdo it with humidification: if too much steam is generated, the products will become soggy, which will significantly reduce their shelf life. In addition, in order to get good, abundant smoke, after the formation of coals in the stove, it is worth closing the pipe valve. At this moment, active combustion stops, but the sawdust that produces smoke begins to smolder.
To improve product quality, it is best to provide the fire with an active supply of oxygen. At the same time, you cannot fan the flame in the smokehouse: it is important that the wood smolder, but not burn.
It is very important to provide smoked products with a continuous supply of smoke from the beginning of cooking until its completion. This should be taken into account when placing pieces of meat or fish of different sizes in the smokehouse: small ones will be ready much earlier than large ones. For the latter, you will have to additionally pour sawdust and shavings into the tray, thus maintaining a constant temperature. However, do not forget about the danger of over-smoking products: the process must be carefully controlled and the products must be periodically checked for readiness.
Another method that significantly speeds up the smoking process is to pre-boil meat or lard in water with salt and spices.
The optimal temperature inside the smoking chamber should range from 60-90 degrees Celsius. Even without temperature sensors, adjusting the temperature is quite simple: water in a small container placed on the lid of the smoking chamber should not boil. For cold smoking, slightly lower temperatures are chosen, for hot smoking – higher temperatures, sometimes reaching 120 degrees Celsius.
By the way, you can smoke not only meat, fish, lard or sausages. Smoked nuts, vegetables and fruits have interesting tastes. Smoked cheeses are also worth mentioning. It all depends on the temperature inside the smokehouse and the sawdust and wood chips used inside.
Before the smoking procedure, it is better to place the products for some time in a separate drying cabinet, which allows you to get rid of excess moisture and thereby increase the shelf life of the product. It’s easy to make it yourself: just take a large box with a tight sealed lid, into the side of which a fan is inserted. Before placing the product in the cabinet, it is better to pre-salt it. It will have to spend from one to three days in the closet until completely dry.
Large stationary smokehouses can only be installed in a country house or, if living in the private sector, on the territory of one’s own home. Such structures require a lot of free space, and they also produce a lot of smoke, which can harm plants, enter the house and disturb neighbors.
Before starting active operation of the smokehouse, one “smoking” procedure is performed without products. Thanks to this, the chamber will be saturated with the natural smell of the firebox and the products will subsequently acquire a better taste and aroma.
Sources https//dom-i-remont.info/posts/pridomovaya-territoriya/kak-sdelat-koptilnyu-goryachego-kopcheniya-tri-prostejshih-varianta/ https//vdome.club/materialy/svoimi-rukami/kak-pravilno -sdelat-koptilnyu-holodnogo-i-goryachego-kopcheniya-dlya-ryby.html http:/PechnoeDelo.com/koptilni/goryachego-kopcheniya-svoimi-rukami.html https//HouseChief.ru/koptilnja-gorjachego-kopchenija-svoimi -rukami.html https//stroy-podskazka.ru/koptilnya/svoimi-rukami/ https//o-remonte.com/koptilnya-svoimi-rukami-kholodnaya-gor/ https//1pokopcheniyu.ru/koptilnya/shertezhi-koptilni
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Mine option
If the family spends a lot of time at the dacha, it makes sense to choose a vertical structure. You will have to do a fair amount of work, but you will have a permanent installation.
The shaft structure can be made from sheets of steel or brick. This is a labor-intensive task; you will have to start with laying the foundation. A description of the manufacturing process may not help in the work. No wonder they say that it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times. If you definitely want to have a major smokehouse in your garden, we recommend finding a video on the World Wide Web and watching it.
Masters, both professionals and DIYers, are happy to share their successes and post interesting videos on YouTube with step-by-step instructions.
It is much easier to make a smokehouse from a bucket or barrel.
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How to make it yourself
All types of smokehouses, in addition to electric ones, can be created yourself if you have the opportunity to use a welding machine. And if this is not possible, then you can create a unit from available items. It is worth paying attention to the drawings of smokehouses and trying to repeat the experiment.
A barrel, bucket or used gas cylinder is perfect for this.
A barrel smoker can be extremely versatile. After all, you can place a grill in it and hang food on hooks.
At a height of 10-15 centimeters from the bottom, you can begin to drill holes in the walls for rods on which grates will be installed or products will be placed on hooks. A drip tray is placed on the lower level of the rods; it should be slightly smaller than the bottom of the barrel, by 10-15 centimeters, otherwise smoke from sawdust from the bottom will not get onto the food.
The barrel itself is placed on a stand made of brick or metal, at a height of 20-30 centimeters, and a fire is built under the bottom. The top of the barrel is closed with a lid with a hole or wet burlap.
A gas cylinder can serve as a good base for a smokehouse. You can make it according to the same principle as from a barrel, or you can make a universal device that will serve as a smokehouse or barbecue. But this will require a little more ingenuity and ingenuity.
For this structure you need two cylinders: twenty and fifty liters. A smaller volume cylinder will act as a smoke generator, and a larger one will act as a fryer itself.
But in order to use gas cylinders, you must first clean them of gas residues. When the gas in the cylinder runs out, you need to open the valve and relieve the pressure, then pour water inside and wait a day.
After 24 hours, pour out the water and check the valve for leaks using soapy water.
After cleaning the cylinders, the neck of the valves is cut off. A twenty-liter cylinder must be shortened to fifty centimeters in length. That is, measure the required length, cut off the bottom, cut off the excess metal and weld the bottom back.
Then it is necessary to make a door for both cylinders, it is cut out along the entire perimeter, and windows of ten by ten centimeters are cut out at the bottom closer to the edge.
In a larger container it is necessary to make holes and slits for skewers. It is also necessary to make a hole in the main tank for air removal - at the top, and at the bottom side - a hole for connecting to the firebox.
Smokehouse barrel
It turns out to be a wonderful, spacious chamber for hot smoking. In addition to the base (barrels) you will need:
- sheet of metal up to four millimeters thick;
- welding machine;
- metal scissors;
- drill;
- a pair of hinges and metal handles;
- piece of pipe;
- metal legs;
- pieces of reinforcement or iron rods.
You don’t have to worry too much about the barrel – any will do.
Progress
You need to start the manufacturing process by preparing a drawing (diagram) of a hot smoked smokehouse. The plan is so simple that you can keep it in your head, but just in case, you can put the drawing on a piece of paper. So:
- A circle equal to the diameter of the barrel is cut out of a metal sheet.
- Mentally dividing the barrel into three parts, weld the circle from the inside to the lower part.
- Several small holes are made in the bottom. They are necessary to create draft and remove combustion products.
- In the part of the barrel where the firebox will be located, a small hole is cut for the door.
- Hinges and handles are welded in the door, and legs are welded to the base of the barrel to raise the structure above the ground and ensure free access of air.
- A hole is made in the bottom for a pipe needed to remove smoke.
- Instead of a pallet, a barrel lid is used. It is installed at a height of about twenty centimeters inside the structure. A handle is welded to the improvised pallet - this will make it much more convenient to use.
- A lattice is welded from pieces of reinforcement (preferably metal rods).
The hot smoking device is ready. Instead of a top covering (a lid made of iron or wood), you can even use a simple bag made of dense material.
What kind of wood is needed for smoking?
Any type of wood is suitable for fuel, but juniper and alder wood chips are considered the best for creating aromatic smoke. They also use oak, beech, hazel, ash, maple, apple and pear branches, and even birch.
Each type of wood gives the product its own special aroma. A mixture of different breeds is also used.
Before splitting wood, it is better to remove the bark from it (this is especially true for birch). The bark contains resin, which is undesirable for smoking.
For this reason, coniferous wood is not used. The wood is chopped into pieces up to 3 cm (sometimes sawdust is also used) and slightly moistened, then laid out in an even layer on the bottom of the smokehouse.
For a bucket-sized smokehouse, one large handful of wood chips is enough.
Horizontal option
Based on the landscape features of your summer cottage, you can make a tunnel smokehouse. This type of installation is suitable for areas where there are slight slopes.
The presence of a small hill on the site is not necessary, but desirable, because This ensures stable smoke production.
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It should be noted that it is impossible to regulate the temperature in such a hot smoked smokehouse. However, if you build a special chamber, then the products sent for smoking can be placed on several levels.
You can use a horizontal smokehouse for seven to eight hours in a row. If the length of the device exceeds seven meters, it simultaneously accommodates two or three types of products.
The essence of the smoking process is as follows. The small chips smolder, the smoke rushes into a horizontal channel at the end of which the products are placed.
Where is the best location?
It is very important to find the right place for a stationary smoker: this is not a small, portable structure that can be stored at home or in the garage and taken out when needed.
When choosing a location, it is worth remembering that a large amount of smoke will come from the smokehouse, which should not enter the living quarters in the country house. In addition, harmful substances can harm trees and other green spaces. Therefore, choosing the ideal place on the leeward side will be quite difficult, and for each house it is purely individual. The resulting products can be stored in the cellar, as long as the room is dry and cool.
Step-by-step instruction
- Step No. 1. Two circles are cut out of a metal sheet. One is welded tightly.
- Step No. 2. The second circle acts as a door. It is necessary to first weld the hinges and handle to it.
- Step No. 3. The corners are welded from the inside, just below the center of the product. They will serve as support for the gratings.
- Step No. 4. The next row of corners (below the first) will become a guide for the pallet.
- Step No. 5. After welding a lattice from iron rods, place it in the structure.
All that remains is to place the product on the grill (a firebox prepared from bricks), light the wood and start cooking.
If the device is based on a pipe with a diameter of 30 and a length of 50 cm, then this design will provide a batch of meat, fish or poultry for a company of five to six people.
From an old refrigerator
Many summer residents prefer not to get rid of old non-working equipment, but to take it to their country house. If you rid a non-working refrigerator of the electrical filling and other “innards”, then the remaining box can be turned into a convenient and spacious smokehouse.
It is necessary to make a small hole in the roof for the future chimney. Inside the box, at different levels, six corners should be installed in pairs, on which grates for the tray and products and hooks for smoking will subsequently be located, as well as a tray for fat draining from the products. In addition to a tray for fat, you will also need a tray for sawdust or shavings; it is installed at the very bottom of the structure.
It is also important to ensure that the refrigerator door closes as tightly as possible and does not allow excess air to enter the chamber.
Chamber smokehouses
This type of device is a kind of hybrid of the first two devices. Those. If a horizontal smokehouse (with a slope of 10-30 degrees) is supplemented with a vertical shaft, you will get a classic version of a chamber device.
The dimensions of hot smoking smokehouses of this type can be very different, but the design of a vertical shaft with a diameter of about one and a height of up to two and a half meters is considered close to ideal.
Manufacturing of additional accessories
In order to increase the efficiency of a homemade smokehouse, you can use a variety of additional devices. This will make the smoking process simpler and the resulting smoked products even more delicious.
How to make a simple smoke generator
A small part is cut off from the pipe, which will serve as the body, the length of which is approximately 50-80 centimeters.
Considering the diameter of the pipe, you need to cut out the bottom and cover. The bottom is additionally equipped with sides so that it is in close contact with the pipe. A hole must be made at the bottom of the pipe through which fuel can be ignited.
In order to make the smoke generator for the smokehouse more stable, legs or a piece of metal are welded to it so that it will not bend. Just below the device cover, a smoke exhaust pipe needs to be welded into the housing. A fitting is connected to the side wall at an angle of 90 degrees. After the chimney is ready, you need to attach a fitting and two pipes to the fitting, one of which will go down, and the second will lead to the smokehouse.
It is worth attaching a special tube from the fan to the bottom fitting, to the side pipe and directing it to the smokehouse. A variety of devices can be used as a ventilation device, for example, a cooler from a computer or a compressor from an aquarium.
Drying cabinet
To ensure that there is no excess moisture in the products, it is best to additionally use a drying cabinet.
You can do it yourself without any problems. For the cabinet, you can use a regular plastic box, the volume of which will be, for example, 20 liters.
A small fan is inserted into the side of the box. Pre-salted foods are hung in a makeshift cabinet. It is worth noting that the stronger the air flow, the less time it will take to dry future smoked meats.
Installing an additional compressor
For an additional compressor, you can use a simple aquarium compressor, which is equipped with a plastic tube. Air will pass through it under the influence of slight pressure. The tube is inserted into a transverse pipe that connects the smokehouse with the smoke generator. It is best to install another additional fitting so that all connections are as tight as possible.
