Building my own Hot Smoker

Smokin'!
(or at least about to...)

 

I've always enjoyed the taste of smoked food. The salty sometimes acrid flavours permitting through a side of fish or a piece of cheese, and always given the choice go for smoked bacon, I hardly ever eat the non-Smoked variety unless I am eating it out where I'm not given the choice.
 



Homebase Galvanised Bin

So for some time now I've wanted to make my own smoker. I've been looking for sometime on the internet for different ideas, and then also this year Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty on Friday Night Feast (Ch4)  made one in their home build section although this one was fairly large made out of two full sized oak whiskey barrels, so I needed something more in keeping with my requirements and that fits within out home environment.

The type I decided to go with was using a full sized galvanised dust bin (the old school type of thing Top Cat used to live in!)

I chose to create one over a bank holiday weekend, so was able to take advantage of a 15% reduction in prices at Homebase. This is really the biggest outlay you need to make - somewhere between £20 & £30.





I'm a Firestarter, twisted Firestarter...

 

I brought it home and then set about making a fire inside of it, on the internet there is a bit of speculation as to whether the zinc used in the galvanising process is harmful or not so as not to take the risk, we had the fire. I literally put in some paper and dry wood and within minutes it was blazing away happily.

 

 

After the flames had died down a little and the inside of the bin had started to blacken the outside too started to change it's appearance going from a shiny silver to a dull white ashen look.

I chose a nice shiny bin to start with, it didn't last half an hour so done worry about what it looks like!
 

The Barbecue I used

Chips in the barbecue base
over the fire, with the grill pan
suspended

I let the fire subside a little and then took the base of a small barbecue and placed this on to the embers.

I bought wood chips from the barbecue section (again in Homebase - I'm not on commission though?!) they are quite widely available these days, alongside barbecuing paraphernalia.

Wood chips for smoking in a pan of
water (soaking)  pre-smoking

One thing you may not realise is that chips should be soaked in water a little before smoking. After half an hour in water I drained and then put the chips into the barbecue base over the burning embers.

The ones I chose were Hickory wood but any good hardwood will work - I've since bought oak and cherry and am looking out for mesquite - some people use whiskey barrel oak and you can soak the plain chips in an alcohol/wine etc. to impart extra flavours (I haven't tried this yet - when I do I'll let you Lon how it goes!)

The actual smoker I was making is an electric one based on a heating element in the bottom to smoke the chips and not have the need for a big fire every time. I have now purchased the element to facilitate this but that will be the basis of my next 'Smoking' blog - the next step...

But as the fire was there I thought I'd use it. The next thing I needed was the grill plate from the barbecue this I suspended with wire 'meat hooks over the top end of the bin.

For my finished version I intend to drill and secure a few bolts around the bins circumference to allow the grill to be suspended, again to be discussed next time.

Loin of Pork

Trout, sausage and Swordfish

As for this time - I now had to decide what I was to Smoke.
I got two fresh rainbow trout, a piece of swordfish, some pork chipolata sausages and a joint of pork loin.
I started with the sausage and fish as I knew it would not need as long in the smoker as the pork loin.



After putting the chips in the smoker you need to allow time for the smoke and heat to build up inside your bin. I tested this by looking for smoke and not steam and also by testing the temperature of the bin lid.
when I felt it was about right I placed all of the above on the suspended grill pan and left them to smoke for between 30-50 minutes. there are no hard laws on this if is a bit hit and miss. For the trout I waited until I could remove the top fins by hand showing that it was thoroughly cooked through, the swordfish had juices running clear and the sausage just looked plain cooked.


The Smoked Trout
(just being checked by
my little one!)

After removing this I placed in the loin of pork and obviously this took longer than the other pieces because of size and density of meat. The smoker relying on the fire was where this did not work as well as I expect it to in the future as eventually the fire died down resulting in a good smoked flavoured piece of pork but a not entirely cooked through piece, so it was into the oven to finish it off this time.

The Finished Pork Loin
The slight pink line around the
 outside shows a real smoking has
taken place.

Smoked Trout with Horseradish
Cream and a Radish Salad