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newhunterette
04-16-2008, 08:04 PM
You are going to laugh at some of these homemade smokers. they will get the job done.

Natives used two methods of smoking meat. The open rack method or the Tipi method, where meat or fish hung on a rack and was exposed tocurling heat and smoke from a low but smoky fire.

There are also two methods of smoking. One is the cool smoke method where meat and fish is first cured in a salt brine for days, then hung on racks in the smoke house and smoked for days.
If you want your meat to last longer, this is the method to use. Meat smoked using the cold smoke method will last a long time, even for years.

Meat smoked using the hot smoked method only has a storage time that should not exceed 3 months. Here the meat is dipped into a salt brine, hung up to partly dry in the sun, and put into a different kind of smoke house, one that will produce a relatively high heat, 180 to 200 degrees for a short time. Two to three hours is usually time enough to cure the meat. Remember, meat
smoked in this manner must be used within 3 months.

WOODEN BOX SMOKE HOUSE

A smoke house for cold smoking is usually an elaborate building. Figure out how much meat you will be smoking on an average and build it to suite the need. If you smoke a lot of meat make it pretty good size. Maybe big enough to walk into, but remember the bigger the area the more smoke and smoking time you will need. Someone built one that was 4 foot long by 3 foot wide. The doorwas on the front, just a small door where you can open it and reach into all areas of the smokehouse. On one end they had a small slide door to cover a 4 inch by 6 inch whole. This door is toallow smoke to move out. It should never be opened all the way, maybe a half inch to an inch while smoking. When all done smoking. You can then open it all the way and open the front door to allow the smoke out so you can remove the meat. At the other end of the smoke house, you dig a pit about a foot and a half around and about a foot or so deep. Then dig a trench from the pit to just in side the smoke house about 6 inches or so. This trench should be on an up ward angle as it enters the smoke house. In the pit you put clay tiles about 3 or 4 inches across, with the tile inside the pit about 6 inches or so. Be sure the end of the tile is unobstructed. The tiles fit together. Bury the tiles. Be sure the tiles line up with the dirt edge of the pit, you don't want anyprotruding out of the dirt. The heat of the fire will cause them to crack. The pit is your fire pit. Now
you need a lid for your pit. They poured a concrete square big enough to cover the pit and had a ring on a bolt eye to pick it up with. If you don't allow the bolt to go all the way through the concrete, the ring won't get hot. Use the dirt to put around the bottom edges of the smoke house to keep the
smoke from escaping.

Sounds complicted but we have something similar to this idea up at the cabin.

A CARDBOARD SMOKER OR OVEN

This one is practical, although you might not believe it when I tell you that it is made of Cardboard. Yes, cardboard burns, and yes the whole thing can go up in flames. But it won't if you come close to following these instructions.

Get a cardboard box big enough to hold the meat that you want to smoke. The size will depend on what you want to cook. If it is a few hamburgers for a picnic, you won't need a large box. A foot high and two foot square will do.

Cut the bottom out of the box, but leave the top flaps. You will use them to regulate the draft. Scrape a shallow depression in the ground, and dig a shallow channel, about 18 inches long, leading from the depression. Build your charcoal fire in the depression. After the flames have gone out and the coals are glowing evenly, center the cardboard box over the charcoal. The channel leading from the charcoal pit should extend far enough to pass beyond the side of the box. That will enable air to reach the charcoal and keep the coals going. Bank dirt around the rest of the box to close off any air leaks.

Punch small holes in the sides of the box and push sticks through from one side to the other to hold the cooking grill. If you don't have a grill that will fit inside the box, you can make one in a minute by buying hardware cloth. Trim it to fit your box and you're ready to go.

The flaps of the box often do not fit together tightly enough by themselves to create a good smoke oven. They allow too much draft, and the drippings may cause flames. A way to reduce the draft must be found.

It may be necessary sometimes to punch holes near the top and push two sticks from one side to the other. Then you can weight the top with rocks. The sticks will keep the weighted flaps from falling into the box. If there is still a gap because the flaps do not meet, get a piece of plywood, a board or wet newspapers to cover the hole and thus create a better smoke oven.

If you fish often and would like to smoke your catch while it's fresh, a large cardboard box may be the answer. With the bottom cut out it can be folded flat and carried on the floor of your car trunk.
Hardware cloth grills will lie flat inside the box. Rather than get a new box every time, you may want to keep the same one. In that case it will be easier to get a quarter-inch doweling to shove through the side of the box instead of cutting fresh switches every time. The strength of the box is restored when you put the flattened box into its original shapes and shove the sticks through from one side to the other. You can have several layers of grill by pushing sticks through at varying levels.

Grills are not necessary for smoking fish. They are handy for some fish, but other fish can be split open and stretched over the stick while the smoking goes on. Perhaps even better is the hook system. You can make hooks from coat hangers or other strong wire. One hooked end is shoved through the gills and the other hooked over a stick inside the box. Many fish can be hooked into a smoker box system.

A low fire and sawdust or wood chips should be used in smoking fish.

My dad always made a cardboard smoker for many years - he said they were easier because he could just turf it out when he was finished - disposable smokers.

TIPI SMOKER

A small Tipi smoker can be used for concentrating smoke. Dig a vertical trench on the side of a hill, cover the trench with saplings and evergreen boughs. On top of the evergreen cover, replace the sod that was removed for the trench.

Place a Tipi over the upper outlet of the sod tunnel and make a fireplace of flat rocks in the lower end of the tunnel. Cover the Tipi frame with a canvas or tarp. Hang meat or fish to be smoked in the Tipi on saplings or wire, then light a fire in the fireplace. Cover the opening of the fireplace with a flat rock and adjust the draft by undoing some of the tarp in the top part of the Tipi. Make
sure that there is not too much draft, or you will burn the meat.


Avoid resinous woods such as spruce, pine or cedar as they will blacken the food and give it a disagreeable taste. Hard woods such as sugar maple, hickory, alder, willow or birch are ideal firewoods for smoking. Branches of juniper, if you can find enough, give the meat an excellent taste.

Nalidixic
04-16-2008, 08:06 PM
Great read..
Thanks a ton.

Nalid

martyonthewater
04-16-2008, 08:22 PM
you forgot the big cheif.lol

newhunterette
04-16-2008, 08:27 PM
you forgot the big cheif.lol

No I didnt he is sitting beside me lol