Smokin-It User Forum!
Recipes => Cold-Smoking => Topic started by: SuperDave on February 10, 2015, 12:58:03 PM
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My buddy and I were discussing cold smoking and he proposed the idea of placing a vented box on top of our smokers that would use the exhaust smoke from our smoker to cold smoke the food item. I'm visualizing some real possibilities. What do you guys think?
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So, you could cold smoke and warm smoke at the same time if you wanted to?
Very interesting idea. That could solve the issue of low air flow through the main box.
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Something about using recycled smoke bothers me about that unless I missed something.
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I'm not sure it would be considered recycled smoke. It is just taking a little longer to get from the main smoke box to the cold smoke box.
It is a very popular method in home built smokers to run the smoke for a distance in a tube underground before flowing into the smoker. So, unless you were talking about somehow recirculating the smoke from the top back through the bottom again, I don't know that I would consider this recycled.
My thoughts anyhow.
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Like I said, I am probably missing something here in the way it works. Exhaust smoke to me means used smoke so that's where I get concerned, unless the vented box is actually another burner. More info please Dave.
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In simplest terms, making an offset smoker by putting a vented box over the hole on the top of our smoker. The heat is primarily contained in our smoker while cool smoke passes into the "cold smoke box". It is essentially how cold smoking has been done for 100's of years.
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I think it would be easier to just run the SI at 100 or less and skip the extra box.
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I think it would be easier to just run the SI at 100 or less and skip the extra box.
That setting doesn't control heat gain from the smoking wood.
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I think it would be easier to just run the SI at 100 or less and skip the extra box.
This isn't an option if you want to cold smoke though Brian. Specifically for cheese, you can't have your cheese go over 90 (preferred to not go over 75) or it will melt.
I think it is an interesting idea if you really want to do a lot of cold smoking at low temps.
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I'm interested in how this could work. Kill two birds with one stone. Smoke a brisket in the chamber and cold smoke cheese in a "smoke trap" on top of the SI2. I don't really feel like buying cold smoking plates for the standard methods of cold smoking but if I could do it from the exhaust port on the top during a regular cooking session it would be worthwhile trying (e.g. cheese).
I'm guessing ambient air temperature is likely to drive the success of something like this. Along with the design of the "smoke trap" on top.
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For cheese, I thought this could be as simple as a cardboard box and a baking cooling rack. I'm not sure about the 2 smokes at once as I'm not sure whether the smoke would have picked up any meat flavors / particles. But with little to no investment in parts and a block a cheese, might be worth a try.
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Should work fine Dave as long as the SI box temp remains low. There is a lot of heat that comes out that exhaust. Here in Florida where my ambient temp is in the 70s I would need the minimum temp necessary to burn the wood, probably pellets.
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The cardboard box option is exactly what is recommended in my Big Chief directions.
Although with a little bit of scrap wood, I think it would be pretty darn easy to make a wood box as well. I think this would be a summer time project for me, but it is intriguing if nothing else.
It would be interesting to see what kind of temps you would get.
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Gregg,
My other thought was taking the bottom out of an old mini chief, if one had one laying around.
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Gregg,
My other thought was taking the bottom out of an old mini chief, if one had one laying around.
Or just drilling some holes in the bottom. If the smoke can work around the Cold Smoke Plate, I would think it would be able to make its way through some drilled holes in the bottom. What way you would have some drip stop in case whatever you are smoking can drip.
I guess you could cover the top of the SI and poke a hole prior to setting the box on top too.
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??? I see what you are saying, but you would definitely have to find a way to cool the smoke, which would degrade the amount of smoke. The smoke coming out of the vent hole is at whatever temp you are running your smoker - it vents the heat, too. If you devise a way to pipe the smoke somewhere other than the top of the smoker, it might work. But, it also may have an adverse effect on airflow through the smoker. Just spit-balling here, I'm not sure.
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A couple things that will help are that the box no matter what you make it out of will not be insulated as well as the SI. So, you'll lose some heat that way.
I would also have more vents which will let more cool air in as well.
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Just cold smoke here during the Iowa winter. When I did my Boston Butt's the other day it was -10. I'm guessing the smoke in a cardboard box on top with those kind of temps wouldn't be all that warm without the insulation and extreme cold temps.
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I have been watching this thread. Personally, I am not sure if the SI pulls enough draft through it to make a separate smoke box worth while. In most of the setups I have seen for cold smoke, there is a fair amount of ducting between the hot box and the cold with enough draft to pull the smoke. Since the SI is so efficient, it doesn't pull a lot of air through it. I think I will stick with my cold plate.....it works great. ;)
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You wouldn't really need draft coming from the SI if you have proper venting in the cold smoke box.
There is plenty of smoke that comes out of the smoke hole and effective vents in the cold smoke box should get it moving through the cold smoke box.
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My view was that the lid of the SI makes a helluva free cold plate.
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My view was that the lid of the SI makes a helluva free cold plate.
It would, if it didn't have that big hole in the middle to let the hot air through. The cold smoke plate doesn't have any holes - total insulation.
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Did anyone try this cold smoke idea?
Did it work?
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Did anyone try this cold smoke idea?
Did it work?
Doesn't look like it, Boone. The thread probably would have continued, if they did. :-\
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I'd say smoking any meat would produce meat vapors along with the smoke.
Not necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing. It just is.
To ensure a cold smoke, you could pipe the exhaust port with some metal pipe (plumbing copper) to the cold smoke box and run that pipe through a bath of ice water.
Another idea would be to run the smoke itself though a bong filter of ice water. Would probably need a small fan for that.
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I agree that you would want to connect some sort of tubing to the hole on the top, and run it a short distance, possibly through an ice water bath (or the bong idea is interesting), to a cold smoke box off to the side. But I also think this would screw up the airflow for the interior chamber. The exhausted smoke/air would be too hot directly above the hole to cold smoke there. And things would probably end up dripping onto the top of the SI. I've made cold smoked Salmon Lox in my #1 with the cold smoke plate, using the "15-20 minutes full blast, 40-45 minutes off" (no preheat) method for 4 hours, and it worked great! My smoker temp never went above 80 degrees, and I got good smoke production. I do like the idea though... utilizing smoke you already have for multi-tasking.
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Done it...
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(https://www.smokinitforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi660.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu325%2Fdert_photos%2Fmeat%25202014%2FFFA5F354-D1AC-4028-A41A-CB2CE05297C3.jpg&hash=8c9258cf52c988a32ee4ad49a45024317d20feec) (http://s660.photobucket.com/user/dert_photos/media/meat%202014/FFA5F354-D1AC-4028-A41A-CB2CE05297C3.jpg.html)
(https://www.smokinitforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi660.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu325%2Fdert_photos%2Fmeat%25202014%2FE15929B7-D4ED-460C-AFDB-E18F4EF05752.jpg&hash=ada6d9f5e5f410493e6a5bdbd2f4f8b20705fac0) (http://s660.photobucket.com/user/dert_photos/media/meat%202014/E15929B7-D4ED-460C-AFDB-E18F4EF05752.jpg.html)
(https://www.smokinitforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi660.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu325%2Fdert_photos%2Fmeat%25202014%2FEA00E9E7-2813-478F-917A-80AC6804CB0E.jpg&hash=1c0fbc13c2de4fad8e6f1dc86b33ff532ef8887c) (http://s660.photobucket.com/user/dert_photos/media/meat%202014/EA00E9E7-2813-478F-917A-80AC6804CB0E.jpg.html)
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Wow. That's creative!
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How'd it work for you? Looks interesting...
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That's what Pabst will do to an afternoon:)
Interesting
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That looks like it would work....
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I know this is an old topic but I have an offset smoker and built a separate smoke box out of cedar and ran a dryer exaust tube from the offset smoker to the smoke box which was above and a couple of feet away from the offset smoker. Worked great for me. I don't see why it wouldn't work with the SI besides the fact the hole where the smoke comes out is very small.
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I think that's a great idea, Chris! We've always been focused on pumping cold smoke into the SI, instead of essentially using the SI as a smoke generator for a cold smoke box! You could make a cold smoke box out of a big cooler, or even a dorm fridge, and hose the smoke from the SI into it. No need to buy a smoke generator - you already own one!!