Kinds of smoking and domestic smokehouses
Traditionally, there are two types of smoking: hot and cold, but this is not entirely true. In the real world there is still an intermediate variant, let's call it a semi-cold smoking, which has the properties of two traditional methods and, thanks to this mix of qualities, gives a completely different taste from hot or cold smoking.
Hot smoking
Hot smoking is quite fast, it takes only about three hours. It allows meat and fish to be prepared with the help of temperature and smoke. Food is obtained simultaneously baked and smoked.
The process is quick and easy, most often it's the way products are smoked at home. But there is also a minus - meat and fish of hot smoking are not suitable for long-term storage.
For meat and fats, a sufficient smoke temperature of 35-50 ° C, fish will need 90-100 ° C.
Semi-cold smoking
Half-cold smoking, born out of non-compliance with the norms of building cold smokehouses, will take a little longer. As a rule, 1-1.5 days is enough. All this time it will be necessary to monitor the presence of firewood or sawdust and to ensure that fuel does not flare up, but smolder.
These products can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 weeks, but usually they are eaten before.
Meat and lard are smoked at a temperature around 30 ° C, and for fish, the temperature will be slightly higher - 60-70 ° C.
Cold smoking
This is the way most products that we see on the shelves of the shops smell: sausages, fish, cheeses, balyk, seafood and other delicacies. The method allows you to create a meal with a long shelf life and a rich taste, but it takes a huge amount of time and labor. The process takes place within 5-7 days, and all this time it is necessary to monitor the presence and quality of smoke, smoldering, the presence of sawdust, sufficient cooling of the smoke.
For cold smoking, the temperature in the meat container should be at 18-20 ° C, for fish a mark of 40 ° C is permissible.
Hot Smokehouse at home
If you are determined that you want to build a smoking smokehouse, then we can safely assure you that this is the simplest option. It can be made from a medical bix, a bucket, an old saucepan, a metal barrel and any other hermetically sealed container. You can even start from scratch and independently make a device from metal sheets.
The principle of operation is always one, so consider the most difficult option - mounting from metal sheets. If you already have the capacity, just discard the first three items in the step-by-step instructions, only the fourth one will be useful to you.
Step 1. Cutting
The sheet must be cut into sections that are convenient for making the box. This can be one form for the bottom and four walls + the form for the lid( in this case the sheet will have to be bent) or you can cut the metal into at least ten pieces: one for each side, the bottom and five for the deep lid( if you intend to use a flatcover, one piece of metal is enough, but it can not provide sufficient tightness).
Please note! If the lid on your idea should be worn on a container, and not just lying down, make its width and length not flush with the bottom, but increased by twice the thickness of the sheet + 2-3 mm.
Cutting is easiest to do with a Bulgarian.
Step 2. We form the workpiece
In the case of individual sheets, we need to take two of them and make them spot welding at right angles. For accuracy use the carpentry corner. Do the same with all sides of the tank and the bottom. The same procedure is repeated by welding the lid.
If the workpiece was to be bent, we perform this operation extremely carefully to preserve the correct geometry of the parallelepiped. When all sides of the container are bent from the bottom up, we weld the joints at a right angle with drops. The same is done with the lid.
Please note! Once the elements have cooled, check if the lid is on the container. Putting on and taking off should not require effort.
Step 3. Create a sealed smoking
For this, all the internal seams must be welded with all the care of the jeweler.
Step 4. Suspensions and handles
Inside the container it is necessary to weld( in a bucket or a pan you can simply fix it in an accessible way) two levels of twigs for hanging meat and fish. Hang on them.
At the bottom of the tank weld the fasteners to install the pallet. It is necessary that the fat does not drip from the products to the sawdust and does not cause a fire. Sawdust should only smolder!
If there are no more handles on the outside, weld them( on both sides and on the lid).Of course, the quality of smoking is not affected, but it will be much easier to handle such a smoker.
Step-by-step process of making a homemade smokehouse look at the video in another tab.
We make semi-cold smokehouse with our own hands
The main difficulty of building a semi-cold smokehouse is to find a place for it, because it will require a plot of about 1x5 m. It will not be desirable to walk on this site. If the place is found, you can proceed to the beginning of construction.
Step 1 We estimate the plan of the smoker
Determine if there is a slope in the selected section. In this case, it only plays on the hand, and if the difference in length is at least 30-50 centimeters, that's fine. In this case, a furnace will be located below, a chimney will go along the rise, and the smokehouse itself will be located on the hill.
Please note! If there are no differences in the levels, then the location of the elements can be determined as desired.
Step 2 Make the
furnace We dig a pit with sides and depth not less than 50 cm. Ideally, we can do more for more convenient handling of the smokehouse in the future. For a terrain without level differences, the furnace should be deepened more strongly( 80-100 cm).
Step 3. Laying the chimney
A metal pipe with a diameter of 100-150 mm is perfect as a chimney. It can be straight, and then the smoke will have a higher temperature, or it may be curved like a coil. In the latter case, if the length of the pipe is the maximum, smoking can get almost cold.
The pipe is dug into the ground in such a way that one of its ends starts at the top of the wall of the furnace, and the other comes to the surface in the highest place at the maximum distance from the furnace.
Please note! If you can not find the right pipe, it's possible to do without it at all. Dig a trench with the required volume and fix its walls from the landslides, and cover the top with sheets of iron and prikopayte earth. The method is also good because the length of the chimney can be maximized or two versions of the chimney can be made: one for cold smoking, one for a semi-cold one.
Step 4. We bring to the mind the
furnace. We lay out the sides and the bottom with a heat-resistant brick, instead of the solution we use clay. Instead of a brick, you can use natural stone or thick sheets of iron. The main thing is to reach the goal - the walls must be protected from collapses. For the same purpose, we smear with clay and reliably fix the entrance of the chimney.
Step 5. Install the
Smokehouse A container like the one described in the section on hot smoking is suitable as a smokehouse. You can use any metal( but not aluminum) hermetically sealed container. It also installs rods with hooks and a tray for grease, with the only difference that you need another hole for the entrance of the chimney. The pipe will need to be brewed or sealed in another safe way.
Please note! During smoking it is recommended to cover the chimney with a damp cotton cloth, which should be changed every couple of hours. In this case, the products will absorb a lot of smell of smoke, but they will not be covered with resins.
Homemade smokehouse
This method is the most difficult to implement at home. Theoretically, such a smokehouse can be built by one's own hands in the same way as described in the previous instruction, but in practice it turns out that too many nuances need to be taken into account, and there is not always such an opportunity. However, the Russian resourceful people came up with a way to make a cold smokehouse out of( who would have thought?) A polyethylene film. We will describe it in a step-by-step manner.
Step 1. Select the film
We need the most dense polyethylene film, which make a greenhouse. Ideally, it should be a sleeve, then it is necessary to sew only from above.
Step 2. Preparing the
film We need to make a bag with a circumference of 4 m and a depth of just over 2 m. For this, the bottom and sides can be patched and ironed through the paper with a heated iron.
Step 3. Prepare the place and frame
It will take 1 square.m. of free flat terrain. At the corners securely drive two-meter stakes, we connect them from above with cross-bars so that the structure is stable and not afraid of the wind when a film is put on it.
On opposite stakes in several levels fix diagonal rods, so that they intersect each other. Hooks are put on rods.
Step 4. Load the smokehouse
Hook fish on hooks, narrow strips of fat or meat, after which a bag is stretched from the top to the middle of the structure. At the bottom closer to the center pour half a bucket of burning coals, which immediately need to cover with fresh grass or birch or cherry leaves. After the bag is worn to the end, and its edges are fixed on the ground for maximum tightness.
Of course, this option is not a cold smoking in the literal sense of this type of food processing. Meat, lard and fish are soaked here not only with smoke, but also with the smell of herbs and leaves, and are also treated with steam. Nevertheless, tested and approved by many Internet users, this method also has a place to be used both in the yard of your house or at the cottage, and, for example, on a fishing trip.
