Cold smoking smokehouse — instructions on how to make it with your own hands. Drawings, diagrams and dimensions (150 photos)

In ancient times, smoking was used in order to keep food fresh longer or, for example, to take with you on the road, going on a long journey. Now there is no urgent need for such measures, but smokehouses can still be found in many homes. People love smoked foods for their special taste. Such dishes always have a place on the table.

Summary of the article:

Smoking is divided into two variants: hot and cold. Moreover, the process does not differ much, it's all about the location of the semi-finished product relative to the hearth. During cold smoking, the holding temperature of the products should not exceed 35 C. Therefore, the hearth with fire is arranged away from the design of the intended smoking.

At the same time, it should be added that the dimensions of the smokehouse in general are not important, the main thing is that the individual parts of the semi-finished product are located on the grid so that there is a space between them where smoke can penetrate, and also the distance between the walls of the smokehouse chamber and the product remains.

The process is quite long and takes an average of 2-3 days. During the procedure, moisture leaves the product over time, and smoke fills it on the contrary. When cold smoked, meat or fish semi-finished product loses moisture well, but retains fat. Therefore, the surface of the products of this method of smoking is dry, but a little greasy.

The process features allow you to save the received products for many months. But if the semi-finished product contained an insufficient amount of fat or was obtained from an old animal, the output will be very rough products, remember this.

Material for the smokehouse

The material for the sawdust used for the procedure is important. Suitable sawdust:

alders, only peeled from the bark, as it gives bitterness to the product;
juniper, it is important not to overdo it with the amount, as the result will be an unpleasant, too sharp taste of the product;
bird cherry and birch;
oak;
maple;
sawdust of fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry and so on);

To achieve optimal results, the wood used must be dry and not spoiled by fungus.

The device of the smokehouse and the process of making smoked meats

Any smokehouse, regardless of the smoking option, consists of an oven where a fire is lit and maintained; a tunnel or pipe through which smoke from the fire passes; a smoking chamber equipped with grates and hooks, a semi-finished product prepared for smoking will be located here.

There should be no bottom in the chamber where the product is smoked, for obvious reasons. But it is best to cover this part of the smokehouse with a dense, but breathable fabric, for example, burlap.

The smoking process looks like this: a container filled with sawdust is installed near a heat source, a fire or a heated element, this is an important part of the whole process, because compliance with the temperature regime is necessary to maintain the sawdust in a smoldering state.

The smoke from the burning wood rises through the manufactured chimney to the semi-finished products, the smoking process takes place. At the same time, you need to put a pallet under the products, the fat from the products that has melted from the temperature will drain into it.

After that, the smoke exits through a special chimney outlet. If one is provided. Or through a hole in the lid of the smoking chamber. Such a useful device as a smokehouse can be assembled and made with your own hands from materials available in any garage.

How to make a smokehouse?

For a smokehouse, both a metal barrel and an ordinary bucket, an unnecessary refrigerator or an old pressure cooker are suitable. Some craftsmen weld the chamber from metal sheets, others assemble it from bricks.

Brick smokehouses are the most common and environmentally friendly, but their assembly is quite time-consuming and costly process. Moreover, there are many photos of a smokehouse on the Internet, combining a Russian oven, a barbecue and a stove with a hob.

The arrangement of such structures is quite complicated, but the result justifies expectations. This is not only an extremely useful thing in the household. Such a smokehouse will delight the eye with an unusual design, looks very colorful at any dacha and always presents the owners in a favorable light.

Buy a home smokehouse

For those who love smoked products, but do not have a cottage or their own plot for the construction of a volumetric smokehouse, the electrical appliance industry has released home smokehouses. Small, portable, they are a large saucepan mounted on an electric heating element.

Inside the smokehouse-pan there is a network of departments for chips, product, fat flowing from the semi-finished product. A thermometer is built into the lid of the device, which greatly facilitates and allows you to regulate the entire smoking process.

The handles of the covers for such devices are usually made of wood, because such a material will not heat up during the process, and this will help avoid injury to people working with such equipment.

Such smokehouses are usually made of stainless steel. It is this property that makes them very resistant to corrosion, and a smooth surface makes it easier to clean the surface.

Smokehouse smoke generator and why it is needed

Everyone who has ever smoked in the traditional way knows that this is a rather long and energy-consuming process, usually the smoking of the product is delayed for several days and requires continuous monitoring of the temperature and amount of firewood in the furnace.

Engineering thought has significantly reduced the time and effort due to the use of a smoke generator for a smokehouse. This device was created in order to create smoke in a short time and in a fairly large volume and feed it to the department where the products are smoked.

At home, it can also be made. Its device is not complicated, the smoke generator consists of a chamber in which chips are poured at the bottom, it burns perpendicular, a pipe made of metal passes through the upper part of the housing, adapted for air circulation, supplied, for example, by an aquarium pump.

It is important to ensure the flow of air to the chamber in which the Smoking. Creating a similar design at home do not forget that you need to make a hole in the bottom of the housing of the smoke generator, it will serve as a podduvalom to chips smoldering intense.

In general, people have gone quite far in an effort to get delicious healthy food quickly and cheaply. There are a huge number of examples of smokehouses for every taste, color and purse. Photos of ready-made smokes on the Internet on different sites are also in abundance.

An interesting fact about smoking

And finally, an interesting fact: it is believed that it is impossible to smoke on sawdust from pine, because the increased resin content in coniferous wood will give a bitter taste to smoked products. Our ancestors in the times of the Russian Empire in the White Sea area often used fir cones when smoking products.

And in the Volga region, pine sawdust was used for similar purposes. Unfortunately, the recipes for the manufacture of products have not reached our days, but this fact proves once again that it is necessary to experiment in order to get a decent result. Therefore, do not be afraid to try new things, make only the most delicious and high-quality smoked meats.