Smokers

[Metasequoia]

Does anyone have a smoker? Is there anything unhealthy about smoking meats?

We could eat smoked salmon every day, but it's so dang expensive!

Is there any kind of set up that doesn't require a HUGE out-house sized building? (That's all I've seen as far as home smokers.)

[ursusarctos]

I don't think smoking is inherently unhealthy... there is the formaldehyde from the smoke (which I think is what preserves the meat?) but I doubt it's terribly harmful in moderation. Smoking has definitely been on the list of food preservation techniques used by healthy TF cultures.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a smaller smoking setup in a book somewhere - I think it was made out of a metal garbage can or something? Sorry I'm not more help, but anyway I think it's perfectly possible to make a small mobile smoker.

[cristeen]

Our smoker isn't much bigger than a standard kettle BBQ.

[kl5]

I think most fish is cold smoked, no? Hot smokers, the kind people have in their backyards, are higher temperature (200* and up) and suitable for meats. For a cold smoker, you would have to have a place to place/hang the fish and a firebox located somewhere nearby, so that the smoke can be channeled to reach the meat, but not most of the heat from the fire. I saw Andreas Viestad smoke little trouts once by hanging the fish over a big stock pot with some wood shavings on the bottom, placed on a burner. The heat from the burner made the wood shavings smoke but not burn and it stayed pretty cool in the pot (with the lid askew). Neat idea, but maybe not so practical with big salmon! (Though, maybe you could rig up a rack of some sort, a colander at the top of the pot with a little rack of some sort inside, and put a couple of salmon fillets in it...? Thinking out loud, but definitely something worth experimenting with.)

ETA: Here is the Video mentioned above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gxocblSJxw

[FireWithin]

We built a cold smoke box out of a cardboard box (where the meat goes) and a dryer hose which is hooked up to our bbq. We make bacon with it. yummmm.

[lil_earthmomma]

We have an awesome smoker that sits on our tiny deck. Definitely not the size of an outhouse! Our neighbor has one of those huge set ups and it's for smoking large game etc. Ours is fine for our personal use.

I haven't come across any research saying smoking is unhealthy. We love ours! Have fun!

[krankedyann]

Alton Brown has an episode of Good Eats on how to smoke Salmon. It was a very easy set up as I recall.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo

We built a cold smoke box out of a cardboard box (where the meat goes) and a dryer hose which is hooked up to our bbq. We make bacon with it. yummmm.

Originally Posted by krankedyann

Alton Brown has an episode of Good Eats on how to smoke Salmon. It was a very easy set up as I recall.

I was about to say, these are what I was thinking of. Alton Brown also has a cold smoke setup for bacon, a multi-day process. Would take some work to gather some supplies, but it was inexpensive, and yum, the bacon looked SO good.

[Bensmommy]

When I saw the title of your post, I thought you were looking for TFers that were smokers!!!! I thought, "That's a strange thread..."

[AJP]

We have a Bradley smoker than can be used for hot or cold smoking. It looks like a tiny refrigerator with a chimney. It uses little pucks of compressed hardwood shavings to make the smoke, with an electric heating element, and that unit is mounted off to the side with a duct to take the smoke to the part where the food is so it's easy to control the temp. We've used it for all kinds of stuff - ham, bacon, turkey, fish, jerky, pastrami, etc. It cost more than cobbling something together from scrounged parts, but it's so easy.

[Metasequoia]

Awesome!! I can't wait to look into some of these suggestions ~ thanks guys!!

[ebethmom]

We have an electric smoker that's about the size of a small grill. Dh likes to smoke salmon and turkey. He just smoked a turkey for a church potluck. It was really yummy!

[Metasequoia]

I saw a smoker on clearance at Target yesterday, but it looks like it cooks the meat. It was a type where you put wood chips in the base, place the tray/dish over that & put the lid on.

I don't want to cook the meat, I want to make lox. Hrm.