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to smoke foods

post #1 of 14
7/8/08 at 9:06pm
Thread Starter 
can you do it on or in an electric stove or does it have to have flame heat for it to be effective ?
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post #2 of 14
7/8/08 at 9:32pm
Yes, you could do it on a stove top. However, most smoking is done outside because as the name implies there is lots of smoke involved.

I have used a wok with a wire rack on a stove top (gas burner). I guess if you used wood dust rather than wood chips, electric should be hot enough.

You can make a smoker out of any thing that will stand heat and can be enclosed.

:)
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post #3 of 14
7/8/08 at 9:33pm
Doing it in an electric oven may present many obstacles and problems but smoking does not have to be done over a "live flame." There are a number of smokers out there that use an electric element to heat wood chips to the point of smoking, and I know of a number of people who have created homemade smokers that use an electric hot plate to heat the wood chips. An oven won't allow you to cold smoke foods and it will be difficult to even hot smoke foods given the fact that the heating element is so large and gives off so much heat, but with some ingenuity you should be able to hot smoke in your oven, just turn off any smoke detectors you have and be ready to clean the oven of any soot build up before cooking in it again. The other big problem will be the circulation of smoke around the food. Since you will have to prop the door open for ventilation the smoke is going to want to quickly escape out the front.
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post #4 of 14
7/8/08 at 9:40pm
Alton Brown did it in a cardboard box with an electric hot plate and some untreated saw dust. That guy is a crazy effer.
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post #5 of 14
7/8/08 at 10:33pm
I've done it stove top in a restaurant situation. You've got great hoods there to exhaust the smoke. Use a decent size saute pan and add some wood chips to the bottom. Place a pie tin or stainless bowl over the chips. We were smoking chicken breast so we'd lay them over the sprayed tin. Then place another saute pan or a lid over the pan to keep in the smoke.
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post #6 of 14
7/8/08 at 10:40pm
I've done tea smoking on an electric hob in a domestic kitchen and it works reasonably well using a mixture of tea, rice and sugar to generate the smoke.

Tea-smoked duck breast is quick and easy to make this way...

What are you wanting to smoke?
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post #7 of 14
7/9/08 at 1:41am
Thread Starter 
we have a smoker at Bruces house, but i had seen it done on a stove and wondered if i could do it at home.
we did some stuff at school, and i learnt how to smoke chicken on top of a gas oven then i finished the chicken off in the oven
I can do smoking at Bruces house , but just wanted to try it at home
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post #8 of 14
7/9/08 at 5:35am
tessa,

If you have adequate ventalation (i.e. a direct vent microwave or hood above the stove) then it's easily done on the stove top and then the oven.

They do sell a smoker for this.



It can be found on many sites but here's one I picked at random.Camerons Stove Top Smoker: Stainless-Steel - Camerons Smokers

Quite frankly, to save your self the cost of the item and shipping...... if you grab either a full or half size 6"-12" deep hotel pan, the same in a 2"-4" deep perforated hotel pan and a lid from a beat-up chaffing dish, you could just use that. I say the lid from a chaffing dish because you get more circulation and smoke with less heat ontop of the food with the taller lid than with a hotel pan lid. I've used just such a contraption with great success many a time to smoke scallops, chicken breasts, mushrooms, trout filets, shrimp, tomatoes, pork tenderloin, lamb racks (from your neck of the woods:D) etc, etc, etc. in both my pro and hime kitchens. I have used small wood chips or nut shells (i.e. pecan or walnut) as the flavor. The chips are also available all over the web but the nut shells are a bit more labor intensive (requires allot of cracking:crazy:) since I haven't found a source for those yet.

I usually start the chips on the stove top (used both electric and gas) add the item to be smoked and either finish there, remove from heat (the more dellicate items) or fninsh in the oven (the whole smoker).
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post #9 of 14
7/9/08 at 5:58am
In a pro restaurant situation hotel pans work great. Tinfoil cup in bottom of a 6in full hotel pan for the soaked chips. Some balled up tinfoil in the corners to hold up a hotel pan grate. 2in full hotel pan for the lid.
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post #10 of 14
7/9/08 at 6:17am
In simple terms, there are low heat smokers and high heat smokers. Low heat is used for things like Nova/lox where the salmon doesn't really cook, cheeses, jerky generally and so on.

Higher heat smokers have enough heat to cook the food being smoked slowly: barbecue, kippered salmon and so on.

Some smokers can be run "cool" or hot and the stove top techniques can slip through that simple definition too.
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post #11 of 14
7/9/08 at 6:18am
If I'm doing it at home then I use an old wok, lined with foil as above and a cheap, chinese bamboo steamer rack which fits into the top of the wok.

The wooden rack survives the treatment reasonably well...
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post #12 of 14
7/9/08 at 7:51am
I agree. I was working a saute station so I had an abundance of french saute pans. Those suckers get hot.
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post #13 of 14
7/9/08 at 8:42am
At work, we use a deep roasting tray, put some woodchips in it. Then we place a wire rack, and then the chicken pieces. Afterwards, you cover it with foil, then just put it on the stove on high heat for a while. A few minutes after it starts smoking, reduce the heat until the chicken is cooked.
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post #14 of 14
7/9/08 at 10:44am
Thread Starter 
you guys are great , thanks so much for all the advice i cant wait to try it out
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