[Nicko]

I am looking for a decent home smoker, and haven't had much luck finding any that can handle both hot and cold smoking well. At the restaurant we had a beautiful digital smoker but it was thousands of dollars. I have been giving a lot of thought to making my own, but was wondering if there are any out that someone would recommend.

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Thanks,

Nicko
ChefTalk Cafe Administrator
nicko@cheftalk.com
www.cheftalk.com "A food lover's link to professional chefs!"

[Isa]

On a very popular French cooking show, the host suggested we make our own smoker. He use a medium size old pot, make sure it's one that you don't mind sacrificing for this use, and put some wood chips on the bottom. To old the food, he put a cooling rack covered with a piece of screen. He put it on a burner on medium heat, I think.

I never tried this method but judging from the comments left on his board it was highly popular and worked quite well.

If you are so inclined you might do what I used to use. Get an "Old Smoky" smoker usually available froma place like Sears or something. It's inexpensive aluminum with an element on the bottom and a pan to smoke the chips. This is good for Hot Smoking. Next get an older small refrigerator. Dorm size and larger work well. Install a simple incandescent lamp holder in the ceiling. Tape it, nail it screw it in whatever works for you. Cut a hole in the back and attach a section of dryer vent piping that you can also attach to the Old Smoky. The idea is that for cold smoking you're using the old smoky for the smoke source and allowing the smoke to enter the refrigerator without the heat generated from the heat element. However since you do need some heat you use a 100w bulb in the refrig. to generate that small amount of heat. Believe it or not this set up is actually easy, inexpensive and works fantastically!

Nicko, thanks for helping me change the stupid misspelling of my own name when I joined up.
So in gratitude, maybe I can save you some money.
I have an old (at least 20 years) Cook N'Cajun smoker that uses charcoal, wood chips and a water pan. Very, very simple. In 20 years, I have had to replace the pan that hold the charcoal fire. Does a great job! Did a 20 pound turkey at Thanksgiving. Must be used outdoors and it gets inefficient when the temperature is less that 55 degrees. There are now electric versions of this which I understand are really good. I've seen them at K-Mart for maybe $30.
Now the really cheap thrill. I smoke smaller things -- oysters, duck breast, fish, cheese, etc. -- in an old wok that I bought for 50 cents at a rummage sale. It came with a domed lid and I added a rack. There is another posting about a highly-regarded French TV chef using a cast iron pot which should work equally as well. I have a great exhaust hood over the stove but you might want to disable your smoke alarm. I don't find the slight lingering smell of smoke offensive; others might.
Food and Wine magazine had an article about this 2 or 3 years ago and suggested the same method.

Margaret:
Your wok idea sounds great. I assume you just put some soaked wood chips in the bottom under the rack and go?

Another thing- do you pre-cook the oysters at all? How long do oysters take?

When we lived on Puget Sound and gathered our own oysters, we used to put them, unopened, on the grill. As soon as the shells opened, and we squirted a tablespoon of cream mixed with minced garlic in each one with a baster. A couple more minutes and they were done. Another nice way to do oysters.

Mike

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travelling gourmand

Originally posted by Nicko:
I am looking for a decent home smoker, and haven't had much luck finding any that can handle both hot and cold smoking well. At the restaurant we had a beautiful digital smoker but it was thousands of dollars. I have been giving a lot of thought to making my own, but was wondering if there are any out that someone would recommend.

I bought a smoker from www.cookshack.com and am very, very pleased with it's performance. It's a scaled down version of their commercial smokers. All S/S, thermostatically controlled, HEAVY DUTY. Check them out at their web site. No, I don't work for them! Just love their smoker. Oh yes, it will do cold smoking with the addition of a small cold-smoking kit. I don't cold smoke because of the need for strict attention to temperature control and the possibility of bacterial growth.

Gandolf

[Katherine]

Nicko, did you buy a smoker?

I came up with this idea driving down to Florida two weeks ago. I'm thinking of making a cold smoker, using an old but working refrigerator as a temperature-controlled smoke chamber. The plan is to drill a hole in the top and another one in the side, toward the bottom.

Next, take an old stainless pot with a tight-fitting lid you won't be needing any more. Have your local metal shop attach a fitting so you can put on a flared copper tube probably about 10'. The tube should be long enough to wind into a coil a little smaller in diameter than the lid, , have them flare it at one end. Attach the coil to the lid, bending the coil as necessary to allow it to sit on top and rise from it, to allow for cooling of the smoke. Now, run a plastic tube from the pot lid to the bottom hole in the refrigerator, and another one from the top hole to the outside, so you don't fill up your house with smoke.

Put your smoke generator (pot) on a burner or hotplate, put in hardwood shavings, whatever you want to use for smoke. Turn up the heat until you start to get smoke. Put your meat or fish on the rack in the smoke chamber.

If the copper coil gets a little warm, it's ok, but you don't want it to get so hot you melt your plastic tubing. If it does get hot, a fan might cool it, otherwise you would need to arrange for water cooling. The cooling coil would probably need to hang into a kettle of cold water.

I haven't done this yet myself, so if you succeed, you may consider yourself an engineer as well.