Cold smoked smokehouse - instructions for how to do it yourself. Drawings, diagrams and sizes (150 photos)

In ancient times, smoking was used in order to keep food fresh longer or, for example, to take with you on the road, going on a long journey. Now there is no urgent need for such measures, but smokehouses can still be found in many homes. People love smoked foods for their special taste. Such dishes always have a place on the table.

Summary of the article:

Cold smoked process

Smoking is divided into two options: hot and cold. At what the process does not differ much, the whole point is the location of the semi-finished product relative to the outbreak. With cold smoking, the aging temperature of the products should not exceed 35 C. Therefore, a fire center is arranged away from the design of the proposed smoking.

It should be added that the dimensions of the smokehouse are generally not important, the main thing is that the individual parts of the semi-finished product are located on the grid so that there is space between them where smoke can penetrate, and also there is a distance between the walls of the smokehouse chamber and the product.

The process is quite long and takes an average of 2-3 days. During the process, moisture leaves the product over time, and smoke, on the contrary, fills it. When cold smoked, meat or fish semi-finished product well loses moisture, but the fat retains. Therefore, the surface of the products of this method of smoking is dry, but slightly oily.

Features of the process allow you to save the products for many months. But if the semi-finished product did not contain enough fat or was obtained from an old animal, the output will be very rough products, remember this.

Material for the smokehouse

Important material for sawdust, which is used for the procedure. Suitable sawdust:

alders, only peeled from the bark, as it gives bitterness to the product;
juniper, it is important not to overdo it with the quantity, as the result will be an unpleasant, too sharp taste of the product;
bird cherry and birch;
oak;
maple;
sawdust of fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry, and so on);

To achieve an optimal result, the wood used must be dry and not spoiled by the fungus.

Smokehouse design and smoked meats manufacturing process

Any smokehouse, regardless of the smoking option, consists of a furnace, where they fire and maintain fire; adits or pipes through which smoke from a bonfire passes; a smoking chamber equipped with grates and hooks, a semi-finished product prepared for smoking will be located here.

In the chamber where the product is smoked, there should not be a bottom, for obvious reasons. But it is best to close this part of the smokehouse with a dense but breathable fabric, such as burlap.

The smoking process is as follows: a container filled with sawdust is installed near a heat source, fire or a heated element, this is an important part of the whole process, because observing the temperature regime is necessary to maintain wood sawdust in a state of decay.

Smoke from burning wood rises through the manufactured chimney to the semi-finished products, the smoking process takes place. At the same time, a pallet must be placed under the products, and fat from the products melted from the temperature will flow into it.

After the smoke leaves through a special chimney outlet. If so provided. Or through the hole in the lid of the smoking chamber.Such a useful device as a smokehouse can be assembled and made with your own hands from materials available in any garage.

How to make a smokehouse?

For a smokehouse, both a metal barrel and an ordinary bucket, an unnecessary refrigerator or an old pressure cooker are suitable. Some craftsmen weld the chamber from metal sheets, others assemble from brick.

Brick smokehouses are the most common and environmentally friendly, but their assembly is quite a laborious and costly process. And on the Internet there are a lot of photos of the smokehouse, combining a Russian stove, barbecue and stove with a hob.

The construction of such structures is rather complicated, but the result lives up to expectations. This is not only an extremely useful thing in the household. Such a smokehouse will delight the eye with an unusual design, it looks very colorful in any country house and always presents the owners in a favorable light.

Buy a home smokehouse

For those who love smoked products, but do not have a summer house or their own site for the construction of a volumetric smokehouse, the electrical appliance industry has released home smokehouses. Small, portable, they are a large pan mounted on a heating electric element.

Inside the smokehouse-pan there is a network of departments for wood chips, product, fat flowing from the semi-finished product. A thermometer is built into the lid of the device, which greatly facilitates and allows you to adjust the entire smoking process.

The lid handles for such devices are usually made of wood, because such material will not heat up during the process, and this will help to avoid injuries to people working with similar equipment.

Such smokehouses are usually made of stainless steel. It is this property that makes them very resistant to corrosion, and a smooth surface contributes to easier cleaning of the surface.

Smokehouse smoke generator and why it is needed

Everyone who has ever smoked in the traditional way knows that this is a rather lengthy and energy-intensive process, usually the product is smoked for several days and requires continuous monitoring of the temperature and the amount of firewood in the furnace.

Engineering thought allowed to significantly reduce the time and effort due to the use of a smoke generator for the smokehouse. This device was created in order to create smoke in a short time and in a rather large volume and supply it to the department where the products are smoked.

At home, it can also be made. Its device is not complicated, the smoke generator consists of a chamber in which wood chips are poured on the bottom, it burns, perpendicularly, a pipe made of metal, adapted to circulate air, supplied, for example, by an aquarium pump, passes through the upper part of the body.

It is important to ensure the flow of air to the chamber in which smoking occurs. Creating such a design at home, do not forget that you should make a hole in the lower part of the smoke generator body, it will serve as a blower so that the wood chips smolder more intensively.

In general, people have gone quite far in the quest for fast and cheap tasty wholesome food. Examples of smokehouses for every taste, color and wallet can be found in huge numbers. Photos of finished smokehouses on the Internet at different sites are also in abundance.

Interesting fact about smoking

And finally, an interesting fact: it is believed that it is impossible to smoke on pine sawdust, because the increased resin content in coniferous wood will add a bitter taste to smoked products. Our ancestors during the Russian Empire in the White Sea often used fir cones for smoking products.

And in the Volga region, pine sawdust was used for such purposes. Unfortunately, product manufacturing recipes have not reached our days, but this fact once again proves that it is necessary to experiment in order to get a decent result. Therefore, do not be afraid to try new ones; make only the most delicious and high-quality smoked meats.