Building a smokehouse?

[HUNTINGMAN]

I am thinking about building a small smokehouse,maybe 4x4 and 6' tall or so. I was wondering if any of you guys or gals have do e this and could i get some ideas as to an electric heat source. I am mainly looking to do sausage and bacon when winter returns.

[devo]

LOts of good ideas here. All depends on what you want to build. Just click on the links above for plans also.



http://www.meatsandsausages.com/smok...kehouse-burner

[PitRow]

Cowgirl has a great write up on hers on her blog, but it's not electric. You could certainly use hers as a guide for the smoke house then use a hotplate in the bottom for a smoke generator.

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/...mokehouse.html

[hog warden]

I live in an area where there are a lot of remnant smoke houses and chicken houses still standing from decades ago, when nearly every farm had and used them as a way life. Went to the farm over the weekend and probably passed over 50 of them. The smoke houses would have been used to smoke bacon, hams, sausage, etc., but using cold smoke. As explained to me, likely as not the smoke source was a shovel of hot coals out of the wood stove into a metal bucket, then wet sawdust or wood chips on top, which was simply set on the floor inside the smokehouse. It would smolder and smoke all day.....and maybe into the night. Do that for several days until you got the way you liked it.

BTW, most of these will be at least 6' x 8'. Maybe 8' x 10'. But they were hanging the bacon sides, hams and sausage from 5 to 10 hogs at a time.

The other thing they used the smoke house for was to hang fresh meat in the winter. A quarter of beef or a side of a hog. It was cold enough most of the time they didn't worry about refrigeration. Go out each day and lop off a piece and that was dinner (noon meal) and supper (evening meal). If things got far enough along there was concern if it was going to last or safe to eat, they took it down, cut it up and canned the rest in fruit jars in pressure canners.

Anyway, the point to all this is one of my goals in the coming months is to start documenting how these were built......sizes, materials, etc. These folks were no nonsense and would have only built what they needed for it to function. They had figured it out. Might was well copy what they did vs. us trying to re-invent the wheel.

It also appears there is a large number of new smokehouses that have been built on the south side of St. Louis. Built by Bosnian immigrants a few years back. They replaced what they used in Bosnia. When I get a chance, I'm also hoping to visit some of those to see how they do it. One of those was featured on the Travel Channel.

http://www.stlbosnians.com/touring-bosnian-smokehouse/

What they don't say on that feature is the St. Louis natives who live in that area have been complaining about all the smoke. Apparently there are enough of them in a small area that the smoke gets thick enough to be objectionable.

[hog warden]

BTW, big difference between cold and hot smoke. Once you go to a hot smoke.....actually cooking sausage, etc. to internal of 155+/-, construction changes. Metal or block vs. wood.

I remember seeing a guy build a nice house out of wood and plywood, and he was using a gas burner inside. Looked good when new, but after a few smokes, the inside turned black (read charred). My guess is he wasn't too far from burning it down.

[Richtee]

I remember seeing a guy build a nice house out of wood and plywood, and he was using a gas burner inside. Looked good when new, but after a few smokes, the inside turned black (read charred). My guess is he wasn't too far from burning it down.

it's just a matter of time before they go up in smoke... cool/cold smoke only! and it's smart to have fireproof materials around the heat sources even then.

[hog warden]

I know a guy (wasn't me this time) who tried cold smoking some bacon in a big ol heavy duty cardboard box a refrigerator came in. Tried the bucket of coals and wet wood chips trick for his smoke source. Got it going, was looking good so he went to town for something, and couple hours later when he got home, all he had left was an empty burnt out bucket, and his slab of bacon laying on the ground amidst a pile of ashes.

His wood chips dried out and got hot enough to ignite and that was that.

Am really curious to inspect one of those Bosnian smokehouses close up. Look close and you see a pile of firewood next to it. Not little sticks, but good sized wood. That holds potential for a pretty hot fire. Top part at the eaves and roof structure is wood. Topsides that are wood have some pretty big cracks between the boards, which would vent a lot of heat and smoke. Kinda looks like a fire cured tobacco barn.

[DDave]

I am thinking about building a small smokehouse,maybe 4x4 and 6' tall or so. I was wondering if any of you guys or gals have do e this and could i get some ideas as to an electric heat source. I am mainly looking to do sausage and bacon when winter returns.

Here's a thread on one that Ken built.
http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8065

30" x 30" x 4' tall wood with an electric heat source.

I know a guy (wasn't me this time) who tried cold smoking some bacon in a big ol heavy duty cardboard box a refrigerator came in. Tried the bucket of coals and wet wood chips trick for his smoke source. Got it going, was looking good so he went to town for something, and couple hours later when he got home, all he had left was an empty burnt out bucket, and his slab of bacon laying on the ground amidst a pile of ashes.

Hot coals in a cardboard smokehouse AND he left it unattended for a couple of hours??

What a

Dave

[redruff]

If you are looking for an electric element, bass pro has a replacement Brinkman element that is wired up with a plug and it works great in my fridge conversion.

[minnbill]

it's just a matter of time before they go up in smoke... cool/cold smoke only! and it's smart to have fireproof materials around the heat sources even then.

Even then Huh Rich Now that's funny cause I'm just in the process of rebuilding my ol outhouse .Still using the concrete underlayment materials but going to be heating with gas only. Will be a low temp smoker from now on.

[dcarch]

Heat source is completely dependent on degree of insulation. My refrigerator converted 4.5 cu ft smoker gets plenty hot with a 300w halogen bulb.

dcarch