Seasoning a plywood smokehouse

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smokingd

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Apr 2, 2009
349
14
Vegreville, AB, Canada
I am in the process of building my first plywood smokehouse.  (pics to come)  I was wondering how are these seasoned.  Do you still spray the walls with nonstick spray???????
 
Hmmmmm good question since its wood I don't know if you would spray oil on it or not. Hopefully some of the other plywood builders will chime in on what they did. Or go through the builds and PM a few of them and see what they say. I think I would just burn in it but maybe there would be some advantage to spray the walls down.
 
No. I got mine up to 225*, added some wood to produce smoke, and let it run for about 6 hours. I did this twice. I did not spray oil or any other liquids on the interior.
 
smokingd,

You could take a torch to it.

No I'm not being a wise guy (this time).

Just run a torch over it light enough to blacken the grain. Don't hold it at one place long. Keep a rag in your other hand---If you see a little spark, just hit it with the rag---It won't go anywhere.

I've done it for a buddy of mine one time. He put CDX in a shack for a serious beer drinking hangout, but he was too cheap to buy paneling, so he just left it raw. I took a torch, and hit the whole thing lightly. All of the grain turned black, and the rest didn't. Then he put a couple of coats of finish over it. Really looked neat!

My point to that story is that torching won't hurt a thing, if your careful, and it will burn off anything that could be harmful to touch your food against. Just torch it & then you can get that thing cookin'!

Also a couple of sides of Smoked Salmon will make it smell real nice!

Bear
 
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Dennis all I did was run mine a couple times all day with it empty. The smoke seemed to do the job very well without using any oil. I'll look forward to seeing the pics of your build
 
Gotta Have One Now I start building tomorrow
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Seasoned mine with a pickled chicken and turkey, lol!  Just fired it up and smoked two birds and they came out great, along with everything else I've done with it!
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Now it's a lot darker inside!

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and more..

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WHat exactly is the point of seasoning the smoker?
On metal ones it is to get rid of any oils or smells from the metal coatings and to help keep rust to a minimum...

On a wood smokehouse I would say just to get rid of the new wood smell...
 
On metal ones it is to get rid of any oils or smells from the metal coatings and to help keep rust to a minimum...

On a wood smokehouse I would say just to get rid of the new wood smell...


I would also add any adhesives or glues used in the plywood that might gas during the first couple of cooks.
 
Actually if we want to get into gasses from glues, like Solar mentioned, I read one time in "New Shelter", a very credible source, that the particle boards & plywoods used in most new homes & mobile homes are not exactly safe. They recommended to be completely safe, you should open all the windows in those new homes, and not move into them until 6 months later, due to arsenic & polyisocyanurates. I don't know anyone (personally) who has ever done this. So since most homes take about 3 months to build, most new home owners are living & sleeping in a closed box, with these fumes still floating around. I would imagine some of those chemicals have been outlawed in the building industry since I read that, but I wouldn't worry about fumes from plywood glue sticking to my meat, but flakeboard & particle board could be a big difference, which is why we don't recommend using them in the construction of a smoker.

About all I can think of,

Bear
 
I have built and help build many smokehouses in Alaska in my younger years and all we ever did is start a fire to age the wood inside. However we also used Galvanized wash tubs buried in the ground and galvanized chicken wire for the shelves to lay salmon on. I think now days all would agree that is a big no no.

It never caused me any damage though.  It never caused me any damage though.

Yuk yuk yuk.
 
I have built and help build many smokehouses in Alaska in my younger years and all we ever did is start a fire to age the wood inside. However we also used Galvanized wash tubs buried in the ground and galvanized chicken wire for the shelves to lay salmon on. I think now days all would agree that is a big no no.

It never caused me any damage though.  It never caused me any damage though.

Yuk yuk yuk.
LOL---Good one!

Bear
 
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