Smoking food

About smoking food

Most of the hard work covering this subject has already been done by Bradley Smokers. They have lots of information on smoking (and even curing) food, even a Forum.

The equipment

I could not justify the high cost of a ready-built smoker, however, the do-it-yourself option appealed to the cheapskate in me. It's really simple, you make a hole in the side of a large box, read old fridge, from the outside of the fridge, poke the smoker unit into the hole and from the inside of the fridge fix the flange, cut a hole for a chimney, plug it in and go. Bradley provide a blueprint in a pdf document, though making a smoker from an old fridge is not as complex as it appears from the pdf.

If I were to do it again from scratch, I would have made the hole for the chimney at the very top of one of the sides,rather than in the top (roof) of the fridge, as in the top of the fridge moisture can condense (or even rain!) and drip down onto the food being smoked.

If you don't have an old fridge to hand; who does?, nip down to your local recycling centre and do your bit for the planet and repatriate one.

Uses

I use the smoker twice a year to smoke my home-cured bacon. I also use in in between to smoke chicken, king prawns, cheese, tandoori chicken and salmon.

User:Robin, of FotoosVanRobin fame has kindly given us permission to use the tips below.

Bisquette flavours and uses

• Alder; Nutty & heavy. Use for: meat and tofu
• Apple; Light, fruity & nutty. Use for: white fish
• Cherry; Light & fruity. Use for: fish, chicken or vegetables
• Hickory; Light, not very smoky. Use for: wild poultry like pheasant
• Maple; Woody & tabacco-ish. Use for: shrimp, prawns and lobster
• Mesquite; Heavy. Use for: spare-ribs
• Oak; Spicy. Use for: salmon
• Pecan; Nutty, coco, coffee-ish. Use for long smoking.

• rice, black tea, sugar mixture; use for: duck breasts
• Earl Grey tea; Use for: scallops

Tip of the day

Go to your fishing gear shop. They sell bags full of cheaper woodchips. And cheaper smokers too!

Interesting links

• Cured meats, the art and the craft

Recipes or articles that also refer to Smoking food.