Custom cold smoker + Bacon = YAY!

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bob the noob

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Feb 3, 2009
87
10
So I had posted this before the re-build of the forum and thought I'd post it again along with some pics of the bacon I smoked in it.

The smoker is about 3 foot deep, 4 foot wide, and about 6 1/2 foot tall.

Here's a top view:


Here's the bottom with my MES in it for an idea of the size:


I used Cowgirl's idea of drilling holes in a 2X4 and then cutting it down the center but it didn't work out so well because I drilled free-hand and they were crooked. The other set I just cut with a jig saw and it works fine.

I did two batches because I wanted to do a hickory smoke and applewood, but because it was so cold in the smoker when I did the hickory it was really mild. The applewood was stronger because it was warmer (still 70sh deg's).

Here's the bacon in it:


and here's the slabs in the fridge. Yellow bands are those silicone rubber bands that came in handy. I've got multiple colors so they'll make keeping track of the bacons pretty easy:


I have more bellies in the fridge downstairs, just need to cure 'em up and smoke 'em next week.
 
whats the smoke generator in the smoker ?
Looks like a good option and easy to do. What grade/thickness plywood are the sides made from ?

I really have to find a cheaper way of smoking stuff. The bradley works a treat but costs £1 ($1.30) an hour to run in wood pucks.

Wood I can get, I know several landscape gardeners. Just curious as to how you're doing yours :-)
 
Bob, that looks great!
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It looks like he has an MES sitting in there in the second pic. Cool idea-crank up the electric smoker and then the wooden smokehouse it is in becomes a cold smoker. I like it.

The real question is : Did you throw a fattie in the MES while the bacon was smoking??

Points anyway for a cool cold smoker.
 
The smoke generator is an electric "hot-plate" single burner thing, with a pie tin on top and the wood in that. It takes a little tweaking here and there to keep the wood smoking but not flaming.
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I just set the probe alarm to 80 or 90 and it lets me know when the wood has actually started burning. The burner is actually inside of the smoker but it doesn't seem to add to much heat, maybe 30 or 40 deg's. So when summer hits I'll actually set up some duct work to help cool things before it hits the smoker.

The plywood is cheap, thinnest stuff they had. All told I think it was maybe 100 bucks (US dollars). One thing I'll say is the plywood tends to splinter a bit when cut (used a jig-saw) so wear some gloves when you move it around after cutting.

Granted it's not much use other than a cold smoker being wood and all, but you could build whatever size you want so it's a nice little project.

Also, I'd like to say I'm sorry for not catching the activity on this thread sooner. I've been a little pre-occupied with research and gathering software for the new phone I'll be getting friday night. A Blackberry Storm...
 
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