Brick built smoker

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Brick built smoker
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jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 7:40 am Post subject: Brick built smoker
Link Thinking of building something like this in a 2.1m width. any thoughts?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 8:11 am Post subject:

it looks mostly ok ,the fire bricks should stop the concrete from popping .

with one more layer of bricks on the back behind the bbq fire it would probably reflect better and use less wood.

the smoker looks like a hot smoker ,an option to use a small fire at the other end with a pipe to feed cold smoke would be good and a chimney on the top of the smoker box ( a chimney might be nicer to work near anyway) might make the thing more efficient.

if you go for flues adding butterfly valves (like a car choke) would give good control.

with a bit of extra planning adding a pizza oven to it might be a neat idea.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 8:44 am Post subject:
I'm certainly not aiming to duplicate the build shown, as you say its a hot smoker, which is limiting, and in my view that build does not utilise space well. I'm figuring it should be possible to combine hot/cold/bbq/pizza oven into a 2.1m space. Mostly its about figuring materials, seen one design that uses a lot of sheet steel, but you need some serious kit to work with that.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 9:13 am Post subject:

I've built a large marble worktop which connects my pizza oven and BBQ. And there's room next to that for my tandoor oven, which I can also use as a cold smoker. Space is bigger than 2.1m tho and the worktop I salvaged is about 1.5m long. You'll get a pizza oven and BBQ in your space, but you'll have no room for a worktop. If you need one, B&Q do a DIY BBQ rack/tray/grill/supports thing for almost no money, and the quality was surprisingly good.

I like the design of having a worktop in the middle. It allows use of the BBQ and the oven easily, and it's big enough for a couple of us to use at once. When we have a pizza evening, the kids next door often come, and they get to create their own. Also nice having an area to prep one, whilst slicing another. It tends to be a production line because the oven will only take one decent size pizza at once, two at a push.

The tandoor will be a milk churn with a hole at the bottom. This will be a vent for the fire, or an input port for smoke. The churn will live in a stone 'pyramid', insulated with vermiculite.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 9:41 am Post subject:

a good scrappers that does more than car bits can be a good option for sourcing assorted bits of metal.

as to chopping it up if needs be if you can do the transport ,marking out etc a local metal basher should be able to ply a gas axe for a reasonable price. a few will have portable kit and will visit.

some scrappers will have such kit and can cut whichever bits you need from the heap

if you were int north i know a few folk who can cut and stick ,im sure there are similar "dibnahs" in the sarf.

buying metal from a stock supplier is hideous expensive and should be avoided.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 10:58 am Post subject:

I'm getting envious of Nick

and am definitely thinking a Tandoori oven needs to get into the plans.
No amount of staring at the space has made it larger, in fact I have realised I was being a little spatially challenged and its 2m not 2.1m, so I think work surface is going to be a folding table for when its in use.

It's going to be a while, as even the brick patio it will be on an extension of, is not quite complete yet.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 4:17 pm Post subject:

2m.

Pizza oven, BBQ and smoker/Tandoor?

I think you'll regret trying to squeeze all three in. None will be big enough. A pizza oven that is to be any use needs to be of a size, simply because you need it to be sodding hot, and stay that way for a while. You won't use it to cook one pizza; you'll make a batch, when you have people round.

Any other room you could steal? Plants, for example, are usually a waste of space. Smoker/tandoor could cope with being elsewhere. They don't need attention. And use the BBQ as a work surface when you're pizza-ing, with a handy worktop off cut (timber, not stone).

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 5:02 pm Post subject:
I am thinking along the lines of dual usage. e.g. I certainly wouldn't be having a pizza oven and a cold smoker, the pizza oven would be connected by a furnace pipe to the smoking bit.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 5:13 pm Post subject:

jema wrote:

I am thinking along the lines of dual usage. e.g. I certainly wouldn't be having a pizza oven and a cold smoker, the pizza oven would be connected by a furnace pipe to the smoking bit.

That would work. Awkward space to use, but doable, I'd say.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45671
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 5:16 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Plants, for example, are usually a waste of space.

Why didn't you tell me that 10 years ago?

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 5:24 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Nick wrote:

Plants, for example, are usually a waste of space.

Why didn't you tell me that 10 years ago?

Sometimes it's funnier to point and laugh.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 6:23 pm Post subject:
I thought hot smoking was soo yesterday and now we plank grill. Actually I only heard about them today, anyone tried it? The planks are stupid money to buy but then I do have a few acres of alder, oak etc to play with.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 16 7:33 pm Post subject:

split oak or beech is pretty good ,dry standing dead wood and an axe(maybe a cut wedge if it is a bit knarly) is all you need .

for a fish it works best with a long fire and a plank longways leaning against a couple of pegs with short stump branches to hold the plank a bit off the ground

tie the split fish on flesh out with 2 or 3 withies .

it acts as a reflector as well as a support so put it on the down wind of the smoke and opposite side of the fire to you especially if it is chilly

a strip of meat can be tied on or pegged with sharp wedges driven through it into axe cuts in the plank.

the linky is mostly nonsense kitchen faff, use em once and then use em again as kindling to cook breakfast. (having to tell folk not to use treated wood

)

proper bushcraft cooking style

ps for spit roasting green ash makes good spits if you peel off the bark

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15970

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 16 7:06 am Post subject:

So stone is out and wood is in. It sounds an awful lot of fiddling around when you could just cook the stuff over a wood fire outside. I agree with you Dpack; if you use wood as a reflector it can be used up for kindling. Don't think I would fancy reusing a bit of charred wood used to cook fish.

At least forewarned if anyone asks for a plank of wood to use for grilling, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do, and want to know how to treat the wood first. Sigh.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 16 9:01 am Post subject:
"what is that unusual marinade? " "cuprinol 5 star and creosote "

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