Smoked meats - what could be tastier! Many craftsmen make cold and hot smoked smokehouses with their own hands, so as not to pay a fabulous price for goodies, to cook them from environmentally friendly products in a safe way. How to make a smokehouse with your own hands? In fact, it is quite simple, and even those who have no experience in construction or design can cope with the task.
A cold smoked smokehouse is a fairly simple device, and you can do it yourself. The main thing is to understand the principle of its functioning, prepare the necessary materials and consumables, have a small free corner in the personal plot or the local area, and, of course, the desire to make a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands.
The principle of operation of a cold smoked smokehouse
The main purpose of cold smoking is not heat treatment of the product, but saturation of its structure with aromatic smoke. The structure must heat and fumigate the food placed in it evenly.
The temperature in the smokehouse chamber should not be higher than 20-30˚С. Only this temperature regime allows meat, fish, cheeses and other products to absorb the maximum amount of aromatic substances from the wood burned in the combustion compartment.
The chimney of a cold-smoked smokehouse is arranged in such a way that its so-called "carbon monoxide" (harmful) components settle without getting into the main chamber of the device. Industrial structures do not provide such an effect, that is, it is better to cook smoked meats in hand-made devices.
The smoking chamber itself does not "release" the fragrant smoke immediately, but delays it for some time. Before smoking, products are usually salted or boiled, depending on what type they are. For each "source" there is a step-by-step recipe for preparing for cold smoking.
The main elements of a cold smoked smokehouse
Such devices can be mobile (portable), stationary, which are installed on a personal plot or a local area and are used year-round, camping - consisting of prefabricated elements. Making any of the options with your own hands is quite simple. The main elements of a cold smokehouse:
- combustion chamber,
- elongated chimney,
- smokehouse.
The combustion chamber is called a "smoke generator" in professional language. This is necessary to know for those who decided to make a cold smokehouse with their own hands in order to understand the construction scheme. You can find such schemes in both print and online publications.
The chimney for cold smoking should be at least 2 meters long. Experts recommend making it from 2 to 2.5 m. Moreover, its role can be played by a simple groove, a depression in the ground, covered with slate or a sheet of iron. It is better not to use plastic for these purposes - it can emit harmful vapors when heated.
The cold smoking chamber itself can be made from an old barrel, an outdated refrigerator, or rather its body, built from old boards and other scrap materials. Photos of possible options can be found on the web or in print media.
DIY materials for making a cold smokehouse
In this regard, you can not limit the flight of your imagination and use any materials that are at hand. You can make a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands from
- remnants of wooden building materials (suitable for assembling the camera),
- iron pipes (for the chimney),
- old barrels, cases from a refrigerator or automatic machine,
- ordinary brick or foam blocks.
The most important thing is that when assembling the elements into a single structure, observe the technology recommended by specialists - the distance between the combustion chamber and the smoking chamber is at least 2 meters, the smoking chamber should be just above the chamber where the firewood is burned, the smoke should come out of the structure gradually.
How to make a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands - step by step instructions
The very first step in the process of building a cold smokehouse is the creation of a project, drawings of the device. In no case can you skip this stage - the functionality of the structure depends on it.
After the project has been created, the dimensions of all elements have been calculated, you can prepare materials for construction. Moreover, you need to prepare not only the materials themselves, but also consumables - mixtures for preparing solutions (if the structure is made of bricks or foam blocks), nails or screws (if the smokehouse is made of wood), chimney pipes.
Step-by-step instructions for building a cold-smoked smokehouse with your own hands:
- digging or equipping the combustion chamber,
- chimney laying,
- assembly of the smoking chamber,
- fit and connection of all elements.
It is very important to ensure a tight connection of the chimney with the main elements - combustion and smoking chambers. This will exclude the release of smoke, ensure high-quality smoking, the products will be evenly smoked and aromatic.
What can be cold smoked
Cold smokers can handle any type of food - meat, fish, cheese, sausages and even vegetables. The only requirement is that the products must be properly prepared for smoking. The most popular of them are, of course, meat and fish semi-finished products. Experts recommend preparing them for smoking in two ways - salting or pickling.
The best and most successful option is classic salting. It is recommended to use a brine prepared in the following proportions - 40 g of salt per 1 liter of water. It is necessary to keep meat or fish in such a brine for at least 4 days. Herbs, garlic and other seasonings can be added to the brine.
After the product is salted, it is dried - suspended, allowed to drain completely, and slightly dried. Well, after that, you can smoke the prepared fish or meat. There are a lot of step-by-step recipes for smoking, a recommendation for choosing firewood.
Before smoking in a cold smokehouse, homemade sausages are recommended to be boiled or salted well in order to exclude their spoilage, to ensure a longer shelf life of the finished product. The value of such sausages is not in their calorie content, but in the original taste. A single portion of smoking depends on the size of the main chamber.
