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Cold smoking

post #1 of 10
10/10/09 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
Hello :)

I was wondering if any of the smokers here could give me advice on cold smoking. This is an area that I have no previous experience/knowledge. I use a BackWoods Smoker to smoke my food.

Any comments welcome :peace:
dan
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post #2 of 10
10/10/09 at 2:19pm
Bre'er Dan,

Wrong forum. You'd be much better off at the Backwoods website.

Offhand, I'm not sure if you can actually use it to coldsmoke; but you can get pretty close if you have a big enough firepan in a big enough cooker -- close enough to make salmon that's more lox-like than hot smoked. But, IIRC you have a Fatboy, and my guess is it won't do a very good job.

The best coldsmokers have some serious insulation between the smoke and fireboxes, and some method of cooling the smoke after it's generated.

BDL
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post #3 of 10
10/10/09 at 2:32pm
I am thinking about taking the chimney cap off my traeger and clamping on some dry flex vent. Run that to a plywood box for cold smoking.
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post #4 of 10
10/10/09 at 2:51pm
You can do a good kippered hot smoked salmon.

For a whole salmon fillet:

Marinate in rum 15 minutes. Many liquids will do. I usually use some apple juice and bitters because that's what I have on hand. Take out and dry.

For every pound of salmon, mix a cure as follows

1/2 cup brown sugar,
1/4 cup coarse salt (kosher)
1 tablespoon pepper

Lay 1/3 of the cure in the bottom of a rimmed pan/baking dish so that the salmon covers it evenly. Cover the rest of the salmon with the remaining cure. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours. Timing matters as if you forget about it, it gets too salty.

Rinse off the cure but try and leave some pepper on the salmon. Smoke at standard smoking temperatures (250) for an hour. Alder is good but I also like hickory or mesquite on this. It will talke longer depending on the time of year, but even in summer a longer smoke of 2 hours is still quite good but can get a bit leathery on thin pieces. Bigger pieces hold up to longer smoking times than thin obviously.
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post #5 of 10
10/11/09 at 1:51am
See if your smoker manufacturer offers a cold smoke kit for your smoker. Some do.
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post #6 of 10
10/11/09 at 2:19am
That's really a very god idea. I have seen a few others use a similar set up with a mini or small BGE running flex hose to a large. I have heard others claim that they also run cold smoke to fish or cheese from their smoker to an upside down cardboard box for cold smoking.
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post #7 of 10
10/14/09 at 6:57pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone :) and the recipe phatch!

I posted the question in the BackWoods forum and got a few positive responses for cold smoking. They said lay two rows of three coals which are lit, place two pieces of your choice of wood on top. Then place some cubes of ice in the water pan.

One noted that he kept the temp easily under 100f, while another kept the temperature around 80f.

Couple this the colder weather coming in and it should be a go!

thanks all!
dan
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post #8 of 10
10/15/09 at 1:04am
I do a lot of cold smoking, especially in the fall/winter seasons.

My favorite food to cold smoke is pork chops. I use applewood chips in the smoke box and apple cider in the water pan. The combination of both infuses the chops with an intense apple flavor.
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post #9 of 10
10/15/09 at 3:02pm
From what I read cold smoking is just the smoke is not as hot, IE. 140 deg. Although I did see a tv show once where they actually cooled the smoke, and then passed it to the box, in that case it seems it would be room tempurature or below.
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post #10 of 10
10/19/09 at 8:40pm

cool smoke

Dan, it is not so complicated. Build a small hot fire without the food inside the smoker. Have about 3 handfulls of wood chips soaked in water. When the fire is going with some coals, just add the soaked chips so it puts the fire out and is essentially smoldering. Now put your food in. Keep an eye on the fire so it does not light up again. The smoke plumes will flavor the food without cooking it. Make sure the food is suspended high enought above the coals that it does no get heat, just smoke.
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