Making smoked foods - Soldering iron cold smoker

I bought some very inexpensive cuts of chicken labelled "Breast roasts for two" from my local supermarket.

They appeared to me to be a prime candidate for value adding.

I brined them in a solution of water, salt, sugar, pepper, and some lemon juice. I also threw in a couple of bay leaves. I have no accurate record of the measurements used.

Measurements are a tricky thing, because you cant rely on one batch being the same as the next. The amount of meat, and it's existing water and salt content create differences. You can probably ignore the existing levels, but the amount of meat being brined changes things a lot. The result is you cant just say x amount of water needs y amount of salt.

As I understand it, the process of absorbing the salt and sugar is done by osmosis. Salt is removed from the water, so the amount of meat in the brine changes how much salt is left in the brine. The result is the solution might need to be stronger to brine more meat. Irregular shaped meat like my chicken breast still on the bone, requires a bigger amount of water to cover it.

The good thing is, it will probably work well no matter what you do, but it does make a recipe a bit pointless.

That being said I used about 6 litres of water and a bit over half a cup of both salt, and sugar.

Brine your food in cold water, in the fridge.

After an hour and a half, I removed the chicken, pat it dry, and placed it into my lidded BBQ.

A 12 or 24 hour brine would have been better but I was pressed for time.

I also placed my trusty tin can full of holes inside, and jammed a 60watt soldering iron* into it at the base.

Perfect, cold smoke in minutes.

A total success.

The wood chips were from a store bought pack of smoking wood chips.





I'm pretty sure this would ruin the soldering iron for soldering, but this was one I've never used as it was way too powerful for anything I might do.

Previously I used my tin can full of holes with burning heat beads to keep it going, so I needed quite a few holes to support the combustion required to keep it alight. With the soldering iron, I can choke it down a lot more because it will never go out. I think I'll make a new tin can with less holes, and a large adjustable hole in the top by way of two lids with large holes that I can rotate to make whatever size hole I need. This should allow total control over how much smoke is made, and with some marks on the lids, I should be able to keep a record of what setting it was on, and what worked and what didn't.

But it does seem that everything works, no matter what you do so don't be too stressed over recipes and instructions. Just have a go, and you wont be disappointed.



120 Things in 20 years - Should have done a bit more research before trying to make a cold smoker because a soldering iron works really well.


*using a soldering iron for a cold smoker is NOT an original 120 things idea

Making smoked foods - Tin can smoker - Cold smoke

I thought I'd try to get the food to a place where I had a little more control over the temperature. In my first experiment with my tin can smoker, the device was inside the BBQ, and contributed quite a bit of heat. I suspect the BBQ was at around 50c, which is perfect if you want to breed bacteria.

I'd prefer not to.

I figured I might be able to create smoke by just dry frying some wood chips, and I think it shows some promise.


I put the can on the wok burner and ran it on high for a bit before adding some hickory wood chips.

In this photo I used a flash so as to not distort how much smoker there was. It's a dull day, and if I took it without the flash, I would have captured half a second of smoke instead of 250th of a second or whatever flashes really run at. [Which is why you cant see much of the flame]

Probably much much faster.


Anyway...

It worked a treat.

A total successful test, and only took about 5 minutes to start smoking, and be ready to use. It might even be possible to just move it inside the BBQ now that it's going, and the BBQ heat night keep it going.

That might mean it will be useful as a cold smoke maker, and a hot smoke maker.

I guess I should write some stuff on what smoking is all about instead of jumping right in with a smoker. Sometimes I forget I'm supposed to be writing about this stuff, and just get on with the learning.




120 Things in 20 years' Making cold smoke in a tin can smoker on a wok burner may just be the 2nd success in a row. I'm not sure that's ever happened before.

Making smoked foods - Cold smoker build

I thought I'd finally be well enough to do something, and thought building the cold smoker experiment should be a good thing to do some of.

So I did.

And it looked like this...

I started with a tap.

Then added all the other metal bits that would fit on it.

I don't really need a tap here, but it will make a good heat sink to take any heat out of my smoke, and dump it into the air.

Then I added a plastic fitting that will take a tube I found.

Then for some reason I cut the stainless steel mesh out of a kitchen strainer.

Next I drilled a hole in the lid of a cheese spread jar. (I don't know why I have a cheese spread jar), and jammed the tap kit through it. 

I also drilled another hole for the "air in" tube.

I mounted the tap in a vice, and made a foil cup to hold the wood chips.

I used Blu-tack to block any holes where the tube met the lid.

I also connected the air hose into the second hose.

I connected a tube to the tap assembly and poked it into a hole in the bottom of this collection jar.

This is where the food, or in this case the salt to be smoked will go.

The sieve was jammed in place at the top of the jar, and filled with large sea salt crystals.

The lid will just rest lightly on this jar to allow the smoke to flow through it freely.

This jar might be replaced with a large olive oil tin or something to smoke other stuff like fish.

So then I lit it, and turned on the air pump.

The air pump pumps air into the glass jar with the wood chips, and the only escape for the air pressure from that jar, is through the pipe under the smouldering wood chips and into the jar with the food in it.

And screwed on the glass jar over the top.

The problem was the air pump didn't put out enough air.

It worked a bit, but there was nowhere near enough smoke.

As soon as the jar was screwed on, the glow died down to a tiny ember.

But it did work and it did make cold smoke.

This is how much was leaving the tube.

It looked like this when thae tube was stuck into the food filled jar.

If you look closely, you can just make out the smoke escaping from the loose fitting lid covering the jar with the salt.

Nowhere near enough, but close enough for a proof of concept.





All I need is a better air pump.



120 Things in 20 years still doesn't know why cold smoke will help make home made preserves, but when I did a search for smoked salt, I see 23,100,000 people have mentioned it already, so I think I can safely say it wasn't an original idea.

Making smoked foods - Cold smoke generator

You can preserve a stack of stuff by smoking it, but I don't know how to make cold smoke. Or at least I didn't.

But this will work.

Sometimes I like to do stuff that's already been done, but without seeing how other people do it.

This is one of those times.

I used to make hot smoked chicken wings in a BBQ kettle or whatever you call such a thing in your part of the world. It's a BBQ with a large domed lid. It's like a grill with a big lid. Whatever...

I would get some heat beads (artificial coal like BBQ fuel that are about the size of a golf ball) and set 3 next to each other with a third on top. This arrangement would allow a heat of only 50 or 60 degrees c but would stay alight.

I'd soak some wood chips in water for a while and then wrap them in foil so they would be starved of air and wouldnt burn. Then Id put the foil package against the heat beads, and would be rewarded with a stack of smoke to impart all the yummyness that smoke does.

But I want to be able to make some cold smoke. I'm not sure why, but I've heard of it.

Rather than just looking up how to do it, I thought I'd invent something.

The result is this...

Picture a glass jar with a plastic lid. (I pictured a peanut butter jar)

Drill two holes in the lid and invert the device from it's native, and more normal peanut butter aspect. (turn it upside down)

Make a foil bowl and hug it into a heatproof tube set through one of the holes. It wont matter if it doesn't seal very well. (I think)

No, I';m sure. It wont matter if it doesnt seal very well.

Now add an air line from your aquaponic system's, or aquarium's air pump into the other hole in the lid.

Fill the foil bowl with wood chips, and light them so there is at least a small bit glowing, then screw on the lid, and start the air pump.

Add a plastic tube to the "cold smoke out" tube, and run that to a container with fish or whatever laid out.

This will.... should.... give an adjustable flow of cold smoke that will keep going for ages, and allow total control of your cold smoke preserved fish or whatever.

The air will come in and build (slight) pressure in the jar. The only way out, will be through the glowing wood chips.

It will work.

I'm going to try to make smoked sea salt. That way I might be able to add smoke flavour at will to whatever I want.




120 things in 20 years lovingly includes things that may well have already been done.