Aching for the bacon...

[Lloyd_E]

New function on the farm... smokehouse.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and recipes too!

Thanks.

Lloyd

 

[pitw]

Now you'll need to get a job that burns a zillion calories. Looks good. Hope to see many pics and tutorials.

 

[MossRoad]

New function on the farm... smokehouse.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and recipes too!

Thanks.

Lloyd

All that smoked meat is bad for you.... I advise you to share it with family and friends! :licking:

Very nice! :thumbsup:

 

[The kid]

New function on the farm... smokehouse. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and recipes too! Thanks. Lloyd

I agree with MossRoads. Bacon should not be consumed in mass quantities and liberally shared. Especially the hams. Bacon is an addictive drug similar to crack. I prefer the thick sliced with my BLT's and biscuits and gravy. :grin: i did a quick search on the net and there are hundreds of hits giving advice on all stages from butchering, preparation, smoking, to storage. -kid

 

[brin]

Everyone is just jealous...big time...so don't listen to them....eat up and enjoy....fax me some or email me some or post some...

 

[jinman]

That smokehouse looks great, but is that little-bitty burner outside going to supply enough smoke to the meat? Not only am I not expert, but I know less than nothing about how much smoke and how long it takes to fully smoke the meat. Someone is gonna have to be there to keep that fire going. How tight is the smokehouse, Lloyd? Does smoke leak out? In your photo of the open door, the smoke looks pretty concentrated.

 

[forgeblast]

Looks great, a smokehouse is on our plans of things to do. I want to make one very similar where we can cold smoke, and then be able to put a turkey fryer burner inside to hot smoke. There is just so little time for so many projects.

 

[dmccarty]

Looks great, a smokehouse is on our plans of things to do. I want to make one very similar where we can cold smoke, and then be able to put a turkey fryer burner inside to hot smoke. There is just so little time for so many projects.

Amen!

I want to build a smoke house...

But I first need to replace the temporary well house that I built in 2004. It was supposed to last a year..... :shocked:

I need to be able to retire to have the time to finish my chores.

Lloyd, how is the "smoke channel" connected to the 55 gallon drum fireplace?

Later,
Dan

 

[teejk]

You are going to have some fun with that bad boy.

I think bacon is "cold smoked" (you don't want to cook it in the smoking process). "Good Eats" had a show years ago utilizing a gang of 3 school lockers. Wood in bay one, piped into the middle bay with flexible duct to allow it to cool before entering bay 3 where the meat was hanging.

Absent that, I think the experts use really green/wet wood that only produces smoke, not a lot of heat and the bellies are hung as far away as possible. You might want to think about injecting a brine.

I'm going to follow this thread closely. It's on my "to-do" list.

 

[Sysop]

Yea, fresh cut green wood gives the best flavor. I've been taking out some old apple trees the past few years and using the applewood to smoke stuff and the flavor is always best from fresh cuttings. By the end of the season once the tree has been down a while the smoke doesn't have as strong of flavor.

 

[Gunny]

+1 on the apple. If my apple wood is seasoned, I try to soak it in water for a day or so before throwing it in the smoker.

Then there's the old favorite around here, slabs salted down heavy, then hickory smoked

 

[teejk]

I always soak any smoking wood in water to keep the flames away. I have tons of clean cherry shavings from the planer now and water brings the aroma back nicely. Apple/cherry/hickory all work nicely. My mesquite is now limited to a nice steak since its distinct flavor tends to overpower anything else.

One thing I intend to do is cut some of the wild berry canes and try that to see what happens (soaked of course). Waiting for a piece of meat that I wouldn't mind throwing away if it doesn't work.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Thanks all... actually I eat very little bacon - give most of it away. I did a lot of research on the web, bought a few books and asked around.
One of the challenges, for me, is to avoid nitrates. Most commercial products you buy, Salt 1 or 2, Prague salt etc. contain it and it is nasty stuff. Used in small amounts it does its job but it is deadly. My challenge is to not use it. I use a recipe of 1/3 salt, 1/3 brown sugar and 1/3 maple syrup. I brine the portions in zip-locked bags for a week, turning them over daily. From research, you can freeze the end smoked product for about 6 months, but you must consume the bacon in 2-3 weeks when stored in the fridge... not an issue. The cold smoke system allows you to control smoke and temp over 2-5 days. The building is not air-tight. Some buildings have controlled vents. I left the eves open and enough cracks to let the smoke through. **** Remember this is all new to me and a huge learning curve.*** The fire box is 8-10 feet away from the house. Mostly 6 inch ss pipe. I use apple wood and pruned branches from my trees but I do have access to pear trees, cherry and plum on my land - so over time I may try them all. Stay away from the coniferous woods. I got the internal temp of the bacon slabs up to 100+ degrees and smoked for about 6-8 hours. Some research info says 80 degrees, some say cook it at 150... I usually take a slice off and try it. If it is not smoked enough you can always continue. So long as there is smoke coming out it is working. Because I gave up salt years ago I do find it a bit salty. I took one piece after smoking and let it sit in water overnight and drained and tried a piece. The sweetness and smoke is there but not the salt - this I prefer but my friends don't mind the salty taste, so I guess you can fine-tune as you go. I will try fish next and some cheese as well. Some people are smoking pepper, salt and other spices for added flavour. A ton of info out there... I did do some hot smoking over the years with great results. I bought a hot smoker from local hardware store... it looks like R2D2. Simple but works. Hopefully I have answered most if not all of your questions. Along with the pizza oven build - this is another thing crossed off my bucket list! Cheers... PS: you all need to do this!!!! And yes to do need to tend the fire.

 

[GYPSY]

a cold smoker, u lucky bugger. cheese/fish and bacon. mmmmmm

p.s. make sure no critters have made homes in the up-pipe

 

[user.69169]

Speaking of bacon, anybody ever tried cooking bacon on one of them George Forman grill contraptions?
Looked at one the other day at a garage sale, seemed might be a little small, but looked like you could cook some bacon on it and keep it from wrinkling up.

 

[Gunny]

Speaking of bacon, anybody ever tried cooking bacon on one of them George Forman grill contraptions?
Looked at one the other day at a garage sale, seemed might be a little small, but looked like you could cook some bacon on it and keep it from wrinkling up.

The kids gave us one of the large George Forman grills several years ago. I tried burgers and chicken breasts on it, but they were too dry to eat, so it went back on the shelf for a year or so. For some reason, I took it out one day and threw some bacon on it and voila (that's French for Shazam!), darned good bacon. Cooked just right, all the grease drained away and the bacon was perfectly flat, just like using a bacon press. Right now, bacon is the only thing that it's used for, and that's the only reason we still have it.