How To Make a Cold Smoker FireBox?

[abrogard]

HI..
I am completely new. To the forum, to meat curing, to smoking. But I intend to cold smoke a pig. In chunks. Cut up into chunks maybe each as big as a thigh - a ham. To satisfy my wife who is Chinese and it was traditionally done there in her childhood.

So we've got a smokehouse built. It is about 5 foot square. And 5 foot high. A 5 foot cube.

Made of corrugated iron mainly. In temperate Australia. South Australia. Pretty leaky. does that matter?

And I'm now at where I need to build the firebox.

I intend to do it with iron. I have some 2mm steel sheet and some 6mm steel plate. And a length of steel flue pipe.

I propose to build the firebox outside the smokehouse about 3 feet away from it.

The ground is, unfortunately, level. So I will lift the smokehouse maybe six inches and seal the bottom (there is no floor to it) around the edges with road base material I have on hand.

And I will dig the firebox in down maybe another six inches. So if 3 inches of that is ash tray then I've got a rise of 9" to the bottom of the smokehouse. Will that be enough?

I'm thinking of making it as wide as a typical spade so's i can shovel ash out. So what's that? Maybe 1 foot?

And thinking to weld up a grate from reo bar. And make the grate maybe square. 1 foot square. And put that grate maybe 3" up from the bottom.

And that's the end of what I can clearly see. Now I need help.

Should it have a higher steel plate to put wood chips or sawdust on? Or is a grate all that is needed? Wouldn't sawdust and chips fall down into the ashpan?

How high the 'fire chamber' - I mean how high from grate to top?

How important to have a close fitting door? How can I make a door?

How important ventilation? What ventilation do I need? How can I make it?

At the output end the flue pipe I have is about 4" diameter. How can I set that into the steel? Is that size okay? I have some refractory cement and was vaguely planning to use it for that.

How far should the outlet be away from the back of the grate or should it be right there?

When we hang the chunks how do we do it? Stick a hook right through the meat? Or put it in a bag and hang the bag? What kind of bag?

I'm racing against time here. The pig is already salted down the last four days. I hope it's okay. Didn't have any nitrates in the salt either. After reading on this forum I'm going to order some tonight on the web. Hope that's going to be okay.

Any and all help will be gratefully received.

regards,

ab

[ssorllih]

We have a wonderful parent website that is comprehensive in its information on all things meat. This link will take you to a page written by Mr. Stanley Marianski concerning the building of smokehouses. http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/smokehouse-plans

[ssorllih]

A smoke house fire pit and platform. Fire pit made from flue liner.

[ssorllih]

Most smokehouses that I have seen used a fire built on bare ground like a camp fire.

[Darthfrog]

Hi abrogard, welcome to the forum.

For the sawdust/wood chips, you could use an old cast iron frying pan or dutch oven.

And if your pork is well salted, you're not in a race against time. Salt is the preservative as well as the flavouring agent.

--
Cheers,
Rob

[ssorllih]

Abrogard, come back and talk with us. We spend a lot of time sniffing the smoke around our fires but bye and large we aren't too wierd. I think for your smokehouse setup just burning sticks will serve you well.
However smoking is just one of the several steps needed to make quality meats.

[abrogard]

Hello Everyone..

and thanks for the interest in my query and the input.

I've been doing as much googling around and reading and telephoning as I can and I've managed to get myself pretty confused and nervous.

Talking to a guy on the phone this morning whom I want to buy some nitrate containing salting mix from - because of what I've learned - and he's telling me I should also get some stuff called 'QMH' which contains sugars, apparently, for the next stuff he wants me to get which is 'Starter Culture' which starts the fermentation.

Smoking is fermentation? I say. Yes. he says.

And says I should have a vacuum packer. I buy the nitrate containing stuff from him, I rub it on the meat and I vacuum pack it which forces the nitrate into the meat.

And then I keep it in the fridge and leave it there, inside the vacuum pack, for 48 hrs for every Kg of meat.

The nitrate mix he says I should use daily for a week, keeping the meat in the fridge between times.

Mate I can't do it. Any of it. We haven't got the fridge space, the meat has already spent about four or five days lying in a heap in a non-working fridge, rubbed with nothing but salt and herbs.

We haven't got a vacuum packer. Blah, blah.....

Confusing.

No one else mentions any of that stuff.

He talks about getting Garibaldi's disease or Botulism. Very frightening. Then he says if the meat grows a white mold that's okay but if it grows a black mold that's dangerous. Cut it off.

Cut it off??? That easy? I would have thought it was all over. Junk the meat. But no. Cut if off. Well that's hope. Shows a chance for the future. Cut the black bit off, cut down half an inch maybe, rub with salt mixture, start again...

Reminds me of the man in the govt Meat Hygiene Dept that I talked to on the phone.

Our conversation got all mixed up because it started off about legal requirements to be able to prepare meat this way for sale but finished up being about the meat currently on hand and not for sale but just how safe it was.

In the beginning he's all doom and gloom. I can't do anything. I'm all wrong. Mad for asking. Need $10,000 worth of commercial 'accredited' kitchen before I can do anything.

Then when he's got me frightened and I say what about this meat here - throw it away? He says 'Why' in a surprised tone of voice.

'Wont it be bad?' I say. 'No, you've salted it you say..' he says. Then he proceeds to tell me that if it is bad I'll smell it and feel the slipperyness of it, etc. Reassuring me this way that there's no danger because if it gets dangerous it'll notify me loud and clear and no one will eat it.

One thing that was omitted in that conversation was the question of temperature. That meat was up to about 50degrees F by then and would be now.

So I'm thoroughly confused about the safety of the meat I've got and slightly reassured that if there's a problem I'll get black mould or slipperyness and smell. I hope that's right.

So I've bought some nitrate mix and it won't be here for about three days.

Meanwhile I'll try finish the smokehouse.

Yes, I've seen the parent website. That's how I got here. And I looked at all Mr Mariansky's work and liked it but there wasn't sufficient detail for me to see the answers to my particular little questions on how exactly to build this firebox.

I even got that book of his but though it has an immense amount of technical info it didn't seem to have the answers I'm after just now.

Looking again at his pictures after reading these posts I get the impression that almost anything will work. I could just build a fire in an earthen pit and cover it with a sheet of iron and that'd work. That's what he seems to have there in some of those pics.

In that belief, on that basis, I'm going to plod onwards with whatever ad hoc design I can come up with. Making just a trench and a hole in the ground first and thinking that we can start immediately smoking with just that.

And I can add in my improvements as we go along - steel sides, grate, front door (major hassle, how to build doors...).

That's my favourite way of doing things. Finish it first and build it later, so to speak.

Got to get wood, too. Turns out the wood we were going to use - freely available pine offcuts -is no good. Got to use hardwood. Just how important is that? A subtle difference only detectable by the afficionados or obvious to anyone? Really make the meat unpleasant?

[ssorllih]

Jan, where are you when we need you?


Ab, if you smoke the meat with pine it will taste of turpentine. Also don't use eucalyptus unless you like cough drops. Oak ,maple or fruit wood is a much better choice.
As we say in the states you rather got the cart before the horse with this dead pig. 50°F is at the low end of the danger zone for growing all of the beasties that make people sick. Get the meat cold even if you have to buy ice. The link that I posted earlier contains all of the detail that you need to be safe.
I can't/won't say concerning your nitrite/nitrate supplier but I think you should search further.

[Darthfrog]

Looking again at his pictures after reading these posts I get the impression that almost anything will work. I could just build a fire in an earthen pit and cover it with a sheet of iron and that'd work. That's what he seems to have there in some of those pics.

Begin with the end in mind. You want to expose your meat to smoke. Darn near anything you can come up with to do that will work. You will need to decide whether you're going to hot smoke (which cooks as it smokes) or cold smoke (which does not cook) and ensure that the temperature of the smoke as it is applied to the meat is appropriate. Time to exercise your ingenuity.

Got to get wood, too. Turns out the wood we were going to use - freely available pine offcuts -is no good. Got to use hardwood. Just how important is that? A subtle difference only detectable by the afficionados or obvious to anyone? Really make the meat unpleasant?

Use hardwood, you don't want the resin of the softwoods in your smoke. Pine is a very resinous wood, good for constructing smoke houses only. An exception to that is western red cedar (_Thuja plicata_) which has been traditionally used by west coast First Nations people to flavour salmon and is popular in plank cooking (i.e. smoking on the grill) today.

--
Cheers,
Rob

[ssorllih]

An excellant source for doors is old furnaces. junk yards and scrap iron dealers are the place to look.

[abrogard]

Yes, I'm mainly worried about this temperature business. I'll go right out and get ice. But what happens when we start hanging, smoking?

It goes into the smokehouse and gets smoked for a while. Then people say it often hangs with no smoke for a while.

Then you start up the smoke again. Like it might hang all night with no smoke (particularly if i can't build a good fire).

So that's all okay is it?

So would it be better off if it were hanging outside while I'm messing about trying to get this done?

Once you start smoking it never comes in again and gets cooled down again, right?

[ssorllih]

Ab, you have to read these wonderfully written and informative words carefully and completely. Every question you ask has been answered on the web site that i posted in my first reply to you.
I am also wondering about the manner with which your pig was butchered. Generally pigs are dismembered at their major joints and not cut into pieces like fire wood.

[abrogard]

The pig was butchered professionally. My description might have been lacking.

You gotta remember I don't know where the answers are. I didn't even know today's questions until today. I have masses of webpages and forum posts and even that guy's book.

I was kinda hoping someone would have been familiar with this kind of smoking - I know it's unusual, well I assume it is unusual, in a principally sausage smoking forum - but I thought perhaps I'd get lucky and find someone who could just tell me, off the cuff....

Like:

. Yep, it's okay if it hangs all night without smoke. That's common.

. Yes, it is better if you hang it outside even though warmer out there the outside air is better than the meat being in a heap even though salted.

. No. It never comes in again once smoking starts.

Three sentences.

I've got another one, again totally new, popped into my mind today apropos of the nitrate cure thing:

Can I get it out and start smoking it and then bring it back in and rub it down again with salt + nitrate when I get this nitrate mix on Monday?

See? Betcha that'd be hard for me to find searching through the web pages I've got bookmarked about smoking, and the forums, and the downloaded book.



I'll be smoking tomorrow i think. I hope.

[ssorllih]

Ab, The answers to all of your questions are in the web site that i first linked to you. Study them carefully and and stop skimming for answers to specific questions.
Everyone on this forum and on any other knowledgable forum came by their knowledge through serious study.
The curing time for the many cuts of pork are dependant upon the thickness of the meat. The cure (salt plus nitrate/nitrite) must be given time to penetrate the meat. To do otherwise will leave you with a ham that is rotten in the core.
You have not told us how much salt that you have used or how you have applied it. We don't know how long you have had this meat without refrigeration.
Mr Darwin acknowledged some rules that seem to govern survival of a species. My guess is that you may be ignoring several of these rules.

[Darthfrog]

. Yep, it's okay if it hangs all night without smoke. That's common.

I don't know about common but I would say it's OK in certain circumstances, i.e. that the meat has been properly cured (which in your case will likely involve stitch-puming a curing brine into your big meats)

. Yes, it is better if you hang it outside even though warmer out there the outside air is better than the meat being in a heap even though salted.

If the meat has been properly salted & cured, that's your call. Many folks hang hams in their attic. Hanging it inside will keep it safer from insects and animals.

No. It never comes in again once smoking starts.

If you're cook smoking, frequently the cooking will be fnished off in the oven as only the outer 1/4" or so of the meat will take up the smoke. It is possible to use Liquid Smoke in your curing brine that you inject into your meat to have a more smoky flavour throughout.

Can I get it out and start smoking it and then bring it back in and rub it down again with salt + nitrate when I get this nitrate mix on Monday?

I wouldn't think so and I certainly wouldn't.

I'll be smoking tomorrow i think. I hope.

To tell you the truth, I think you might be heading for a disaster. I think you're in over your head, I'm afraid to say.

My best advice to you right now is to read what ssorllih told you to do above. Then make a proper curing brine as per your readings of that material. Inject brine equal to 10% of the weight of the meat, being especially careful to ensure the meat nearest the bones get treated. Brine the meat in the fridge for the appropriate time. Then and only then, smoke the meat.

If you properly cure the meat, you may still wind up with a disappointing product. But you won't kill anyone with botulism. Safety first, please.

--
Cheers,
Rob