My $2 Cold Smoker

[TheBigGuy]

Well I didn't think it could get much better than the spring I smoked up the day before. I was wrong, the Chum turned out even better using this method in the freezing weather. It didn't have the beautiful full dark red colour of the spring, but the taste was even better than the spring. I love my cold smoker, it has really upped my game. Using electricity in the freezing weather turned out a very nice product before, but I could never get that nice lox consistency. Using the element in freezing weather it would still be 110 degrees F at the lowest inside the smoker. Now in freezing weather it is only 70-80 degrees at the most inside the smoker. Perfect for cold smoking.

One other huge benefit. It is basically totally unattended smoking now. Unless you plan on basting during your smoke you don't even have to be there. I put the AFC smoke ring on to burn last night then went and spent the night at my girlfriends. Came home to a perfectly smoked batch of chum salmon today. It doesn't get any easier than that.

 

[SteelyDan]

Yep totally loving the unattended smoking burning the pellets. One thing that I do before I load my pellets it microwave them for a minute in a pirex bowl. This ensures there totally dry and keeps a consistent burn going on.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Yep totally loving the unattended smoking burning the pellets. One thing that I do before I load my pellets it microwave them for a minute in a pirex bowl. This ensures there totally dry and keeps a consistent burn going on.

Same here, short micro first. Only microwave about as much as you will use for one burn though. I found if I repeatedly microwaved the same pellets they would start to break down and fall apart. If they start breaking up into dust they won't burn right.

Now for the pubic safety announcement. If you are going to cold smoke use fish that has been frozen for an entire month. That is how long it takes in a residential freezer to ensure all parasites in the meat are killed. Frozen Salmon absorbs the brine better anyways, and you don't want to risk your health.

In addition, when cold smoking you may want to use a curing powder such as instacure #1 (Prague powder #1) for added protection against botulism poisoning. I guess I'm just getting a little more cautious as I get older, as I'm planning on adding this to my cold smokes for extra safety. I have ordered Prague powder #1 from Stuffers in Langley and will be adding it to all my cold smokes in the future, because it only takes once with botulism.

 

[SteelyDan]

Here is my tray that I made out of perf steel. It's a copy of the one you can buy online.

 

[SteelyDan]

12 hours of unattended smoking. Cold smoke, hot smoke too if I turn on the element in the smoker. I light it with a blow torch on one end and use a blow dryer to really get it going then blow out the flame and pop it in the bottom of the masterbuilt.

For true cold smoking guys have put these trays inside a vented mailbox and piped it in the side of the smoker. I have found that it can be hard to keep the temps below 80 with the tray inside the smoker because of how well these things are insulated.

 

[TheBigGuy]

View attachment 30777 Here is my tray that I made out of perf steel. It's a copy of the one you can buy online.

Very nice job constructing a copy of the a-maze-n pellet smoker, it looks almost identical. On cold nights my pellet smoker in an un-insulated big chief stays below 80 degrees F. Cold enough to smoke cheese no problem. However, I've started to smoke the cheese in a cardboard box on top of the aluminum smoker because my GF was complaining the cheese was picking up a fishy taste inside the smoker. Smoker has been pretty busy smoking chums lately, and they've all turned out very well using the pellet smoker.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Glad I'm using pellets today. Power just went out in the middle of my smoke. Good thing I don't need hydro for smoking anymore. Much less headaches all around using pellets.