Cold Smoking In Hot Climates.

[Limey]

Cold smoking in the Florida Keys is a real challenge. Highs in the day(during the winter) run 80+ with lows at night around 70. Even with cold plates, ice bottles and Pork Belly's door opening techniques it is impossible, for me at least, to smoke cheese successfully. I finally broke down and installed an external smoke generator which seems to work well. I took a Smoke Daddy Big Kahuna and strapped it on to my SI3 using two of the SI cord hangers and slightly longer bolts in the preexisting holes-no drilling required. A brass faucet connector and length of hose inserted into the SI's top vent completed the rig. The smoke enters the top of the box and exits out of the vent at the bottom, as well as some escaping from the top vent. The box itself is obviously not plugged in. So far a couple of smokes have turned out very well with no significant softening of the cheese in spite of not using any ice.

 

[NDKoze]

Nice Job! I like it!  8)

 

[Walt]

Very similar issues for much of the year in LA. This may be an option for me. Thanks. Very creative. I assume you drop the tube down near the smoke box.

 

[Pork Belly]

You could rig that unit up to a dorm size fridge by drilling through the sidewall. That would allow you a cool enviroment for long cold smokes of meat and fish. Dorm fridges are only about $125 around back to school time.

 

[Limey]

Walt-I have two different hose lengths, one goes about six inches inside the box the other reaches down to the smoker box. The smoke is cool enough that it tends to fall rather than rise in the box. I got the longer length primarily so that I could introduce smoke reliably into my grills.
Brian-I already considered this and plan to convert an unused kegerator for this purpose, simply running the hose into the hole in the freezer lid that the spigot now occupies. The kegerator is a small chest freezer that I converted using a different temperature controller so there is lots of refrigeration capacity. If you plan on converting a dorm fridge be careful that you do not drill into any refrigerant lines in the side walls- I have done this and ruined a freezer. Incidentally, thanks for all your helpful tips on this forum.

 

[Pork Belly]

My sons dorm fridge appears to be an insulated box. The cooling is done from the freezer section on top. There may be cooling lines in the wall but it doesn't appear so.

 

[Barrel99]

Nice job Roger. I was just looking at the options yesterday to see how I could hook up an external smoke generator. You probably could pump the smoke in the bottom and use the jerky dryer on top to make jerky also.

 

[DivotMaker]

Great idea!