I have been sent on a mission to find out how to smoke something in our kitchen at work. I don't really have much of a clue. I need some help. I checked out what I could find here and didn't find much, so I thought I'd try to find info this way! Thanks in advance. We do not have a smoker in our kitchen. That's about the only toy we don't have. All help is greatly appreciated!

[cape chef]

Hi kitcnmomma,
What is it you are planning to smoke?
There are A # of ways to smoke foods without a "smoker"
If you want to do Ala minute stove top smoking you can take a pan with a 2 inch wall(make sure that you don't care if this pan gets ruined)take your wood chips of choice and soak them in water for a hour or so. you can add cloves ,cinnamon sticks even Tea.I do a tea smoked duck breast at work. Any way after you have soaked the wood,place it in tin foil and wrap it up. Place in the bottom of your pan, place a rack over the wood. put this on the stove top and put on medium flame until you start to see smoke. Place you item to be smoked on top of the rack and cover very tightly with tin foil. Depending on what your smoking will determen the time.
Make sure when you remove the foil you remove it under your hood and unwrap the foil from the back end so you don't get hit with all the smoke. I hope this helps. Also there are some good books out there for smoking foods,don't have any names off the top of my head.Happy smoking
cc

[Live_to_cook]

Momma, another possibility is buying a Weber kettle grill ($25 for the smallest ones, about $50 for the medium) and using that as a smoker. Needed: charcoal briguettes, lighter fluid, appropriate wood chips. Use the smallest Weber and you could be in business for $35.

This is done outside. You put a small pile of charcoal briquettes to one side (8-10 for the medium smoker) and light them with the fluid. Meanwhile, soak some wood chips (hickory/mesquite/fruitwood) in water. When the coals are ready (covered in grey ash) put the food on one side (NOT over the coals) put the lid on and damp it down (slide the adjustable thingys covering the air holes down below and on the lid) to half-open. Cutting down on the oxygen makes the fire go slow, and most briquettes are good for at least an hour.

Wait.

Check every 45 min. or so, add more coals and chips if you want the fire to keep going/more smoke-flavor.

Salmon fillets take about 40 mins. by the way.

[Greg]

Another method (like Cape's): use a 6" hotel pan, a 2" perforated hotel pan, and a chafer lid. Like Cape's method, use pans you don't plan on using again for something else. Lay out a 1/4" layer of wood dust on the bottom of the 6' hotel and put over two burners on medium heat. When you see smoke, put the 2" perf pan containing your product in the deep hotel, and cover. I like using the lid instead of foil for convenience and safety (foil wrapping a hot pan isn't one of my favorite hobbies). When you lift the lid off, pull it towards you, don't lift up the front to peek inside or you'll smoke yourself.

[shroomgirl]

I had a chef do a smoking demo last year for the culinary group I belong to ....he showed us how to Tea smoke with rice/brown sugar and seasonings, Cold smoke over ice...for cheeses or trout....these were all done on a stove top with a disposable pan...pretty coool did not come home and practice...so have forgotten alot of the specifics. But as I recall it was easier than I expected it to be.

[Live_to_cook]

You should be able to use the same pans to smoke other things... just not cooking.

[Dlee]

Kitcnmomma,

One of my pass jobs we had a hot box (Just a plain old hot box.) that we used outside for smoking only.

I have also seen smoking being done in a convection oven.

Myself, when I smoke at home. I have an old Garland stove that they were throwing out at one of my old jobs, I stripped it down, that is my smoker. What I do is get an old sheet pan and put the charcoal (burning with white ash )then place wet (drained) wood chips in the middle. The whole sheet pan then goes into the bottom of the oven (my old stove.) The product then goes over the smoke. That's it.

D. Lee

Thanks! As soon as we do this, I'll let you all know how we did! When I get more details, I'll keep you posted. Could I use the same Smoker pans for smoking other things?

[cape chef]

Who are you?

Who ARE you?