Smoke house with central air

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Swallow
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Smoke house with central air

Post by Swallow » Wed Jan 18, 2012 22:50

I hear quite a bit about cold smoking, at what temp do you fellas cold smoke, and how do you get to that temp?
Firstly my smoke house is made of 1/16" steel rolled round to five foot diameter standing six foot high , blanketed by 4" fiberglass insulation and then covered in stucco wire and mortared up field stones set up on a concrete pad with a 12" square hole in the middle which is in turn covered by a steel smoke diffuser. My smoke and heat source is an old airtight coal stove which sits downhill from the smoke house at about 8'. This stove is connected to the smokehouse by a length of 8" insulated stainless steel chimney. This setup works just great for hot smoking, for cold smoking "not so much".

Talking to the little woman about this problem last fall, (yes I do talk to her sometimes and it's not just when I want something special :wink: ) and she said why don't you just do what you did in the house for air conditioning? Well in the house I have set up a Acoil from an old air conditioner, the coil sits on top of the cold air return duct of my furnace and is connected to the water supply which comes from a very deep very cold well. The water passes through the coil once and then goes out to the sprinkler where it waters the garden.

Sooo what I did was install a heater core plus the squirrel cage fan that I got from the auto wrecker for six bucks. The 110 volt motor came from the same old air conditioner that I used for the house. I installed this core at the bottom of the smokehouse with a duct connected to the smoke pipe. It is connected to the house water by a garden hose and it works great and it's completely controllable dependent on the flow of cold water I can make the temp inside of the smokehouse drop like a rock or hardly at all.

Sorry no pics, firstly because I haven't figured out how to post pics on this forum and secondly because it's -34f with blowing snow outside and I ain't going out to take any pics of a snow covered smoke house.

Now I realize that this method would not work for everyone but out here in the wilds of Manitoba it is a good ,easy and CHEAP way of doing things.

So what method do you fellas use?

Swallow
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ssorllih
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Post by ssorllih » Wed Jan 18, 2012 23:16

At present I am using my BBQ grill and a separate fire box and no insulation. When I want hot smoke I light the LPG burner. Right now we are about 70 degrees F warmer than you are but plus forty still works for cold smoke. I do plan a dedicated smoker separate from my grill and I have not yet decided to insulate or just brute strength the heat. I anticipate only about twenty square feet of surface area so a 100 degree temperature rise is reasonable to consider.
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Post by Chuckwagon » Wed Jan 18, 2012 23:56

Hi Swallow,
It sounds like you`ve really got a nice setup. To answer your question about temperatures, consider this: Because fish begins to cook at 85°F. (30°C.), the temperature in most American "cold-smoke houses" is less than 85° F. (29°C.) and often much lower in order to prevent spoilage. In Russia and many parts of Europe, the upper limit has been 71°F. (22°C.).

Cold smoking is a drying process usually involving many hours for several days or even weeks. Products are not smoked continuously as fresh air is usually allowed into the smoker at regular intervals to allow time for complete penetration of smoke deep into muscle tissues. As moisture leaves the meat, the product will become rigid naturally.

Because cold smoked meat and fish products are not cooked, cold smoking is an entirely contrasting process from hot-smoking as the heat source is remote and the smoke is "piped" into the smokehouse from several feet away, giving the smoke time to cool down. Most often, the cold-smokehouse is elevated higher than the heat source, or the smoke is forced inside by a fan.

Cold-smoked products must contain nitrite or nitrate/nitrite cures to be safe because even using thin smoke, oxygen is cut off and most obligate anaerobic bacteria, some facultative anaerobic bacteria, and even some microaerophile bacteria may thrive. Never cold-smoke fresh sausage or any meat product without using a curing agent. Some dry-cured (raw) sausages are held for weeks in cold-smoke while they continue to dehydrate safely below .85 Aw. Additionally, some semi-dry cured sausages may be cold-smoked after they have been prep-cooked. Again, cold smoking is not a continuous process and it assures deep smoke penetration. It is usually discontinued overnight, allowing fresh air to assist with the uniform loss of moisture.

There is a killer book on the market by our very own "Seminole" in Florida. It is, "Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design"... by Stan, Adam, and Robert Marianski. You can find it at Bookmagic.com and even have a sneak preview. Hope this helps Swallow. Good luck.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
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Post by Bubba » Thu Jan 19, 2012 01:19

Swallow wrote:Sorry no pics, firstly because I haven't figured out how to post pics on this forum
Hi Swallow,

If I can help you to post some photos it would be a pleasure. Another member on here also had difficulty posting photos and he e-mailed them to me then I posted for him.

PM me if you need some help and I'll send you my e-mail address. :smile:
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Post by Devo » Thu Jan 19, 2012 01:44

This is what I did for a cold smoke adapter. I have a 4 rack bradley that has their own smoke generator attached to the cabinet and it will produce about 120*F heat inside the cabinet. So smoking cheese was kind of hard to do with such a high temp. So I took an old microwave and did some modifications to it.
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Post by snagman » Thu Jan 19, 2012 05:34

Devo,

Set up looks interesting, please expand on the method. Is the microwave just an external smoke source ?
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Post by Devo » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:23

The Bradley smokers have a smoke generator that moves the wood onto a heating element. Normally the SG is attached to the smoker like in picture #1 and the element resides inside the smoker creating unwanted heat when cold smoking. The solution is to buy a cold smoke adapter from bradley. Picture below of their cold smoke adapter.
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Or you can make your own like I did. Old microwaves are all over the place in recycling place's and it didn't cost me a dime other than some flex pipe and my time to make it. All the heat is trapped in the cold smoke adapter and by the time the smoke goes up the pipe to the smoking chamber it is a nice cold smoke. :wink:
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Post by Devo » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:52

Here is a little movie of it working with the A-MAZE-N-PELLET SMOKER instead of the smoke generator. I can use either one or even both but that would be over kill for smoke.

http://youtu.be/f3BE0pQho94
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Re: Smoke house with central air

Post by howdycameron21 » Fri Oct 01, 2021 11:12

Swallow wrote:
Wed Jan 18, 2012 22:50
I've heard a lot about cold smoking; what temperature do you guys cold smoke at, and how do you get to that temperature?
First and foremost, my smoke house is made of 1/16" thick plastic "Steel rolled to a five-foot diameter and standing six feet tall, covered in 4" fiberglass insulation, stucco coax cable, and cemented up field rocks set up on a concrete surface with a 12" square hole in the middle covered by a metal smoke diffuser. An antique airtight charcoal stove sits approximately 8' downhill from the smoking house and provides both smoke and heat. A length of 8 feet connects this stove to the smokehouse "stainless steel insulated chimney This configuration is excellent for both hot and cold smoking.

Last fall, I discussed this issue with the tiny woman (yeah, I do talk to her on occasion, and it's not just when I want something special :wink: ). and she asked, "Why don't you should do what you did for air conditioning in the house?" In the home, I've installed an Acoil from an old air conditioner, which appears at the top of my furnace's cooler air return duct and is connected to the water system, which comes from a very deep and extremely cold well. The water runs through the coil once before being directed to the sprinkler, which irrigate the garden.

So I installed a heater core as well as a squirrel cage fan that I purchased for $6 from an auto wrecker. The 110 volt motor came from the house's old air conditioner. With a duct attached to the smoke pipe, I inserted this core at the bottom of the smokehouse. It's connected to the house water through a garden hose, and it works beautifully. Depending on the flow of cold water, I can make the temperature inside the smokehouse drop like a rock or barely at all.

Sorry for the lack of photos, first because I haven't found out how to submit photos on this topic, and second because it's -34 degrees outside with blowing snow, and I'm not going out to photograph a snow-covered smoke house.

Now, I realize that this strategy will not work for everyone, but it is a decent, easy, and CHEAP way of doing things out here in Manitoba.

So, how do you guys go about it?

Swallow
If you have a smoke house and air conditioner as well in the house. Then, You must have to chimney which directly out the heat and smoke. Otherwise, you can use an outdoor fan.
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