Horseflesh
Found some matches.
Here's how I do cold smoking with my Big Green Egg ... open to other ideas. My method is not as easy as it could be, but it does let me use any wood chunks that I have, instead of also stocking chips or sawdust.
I use a small pile of used lump charcoal and get it stared just enough to keep a wood chunk smoldering. Not shown, I close down the bottom vent almost all the way, and put in the BGE plate setter too, to help keep the top of the BGE cooler.
It's important to use once-used fuel because fresh fuel has to get hot enough to blow off bad-tasting smoke ... and that doesn't happen quickly with such a tiny fire. Unburned leftover chunks are perfect, though.
A dryer hose and foil contraption routes the smoke into an electric smoker, which is just used as the smokehouse. I monitor temperature at the top of the BGE... I don't know exactly what that hose is made of and I worry about fumes not being food safe, so I try to keep the temperature at there less than about 110F.
The setup is kind of backwards because the smoke is going high to low, but ... it's what I got!
A small desk fan in the bottom of the smoker keeps the smoke moving. Does it really help? I dunno, but it was cheap to try it.
Today's payload is white cheddar and Muenster because that's what I had around and I was too lazy to go out. I usually let it go for ~3-4 hours and I find that it needs to rest for 3 weeks at least before it's ready to eat.
I keep looking at other smoke generators and am always unsure they'll actually be easier to use. Plus like I said, being able to use chunks is convenient and cheap.
I love the idea of an electric hotplate plus chunks but I haven't yet found someone who's posted "here's exactly how I do that and it's great." If that's you, let me know!
I use a small pile of used lump charcoal and get it stared just enough to keep a wood chunk smoldering. Not shown, I close down the bottom vent almost all the way, and put in the BGE plate setter too, to help keep the top of the BGE cooler.
It's important to use once-used fuel because fresh fuel has to get hot enough to blow off bad-tasting smoke ... and that doesn't happen quickly with such a tiny fire. Unburned leftover chunks are perfect, though.
A dryer hose and foil contraption routes the smoke into an electric smoker, which is just used as the smokehouse. I monitor temperature at the top of the BGE... I don't know exactly what that hose is made of and I worry about fumes not being food safe, so I try to keep the temperature at there less than about 110F.
The setup is kind of backwards because the smoke is going high to low, but ... it's what I got!
A small desk fan in the bottom of the smoker keeps the smoke moving. Does it really help? I dunno, but it was cheap to try it.
Today's payload is white cheddar and Muenster because that's what I had around and I was too lazy to go out. I usually let it go for ~3-4 hours and I find that it needs to rest for 3 weeks at least before it's ready to eat.
I keep looking at other smoke generators and am always unsure they'll actually be easier to use. Plus like I said, being able to use chunks is convenient and cheap.
I love the idea of an electric hotplate plus chunks but I haven't yet found someone who's posted "here's exactly how I do that and it's great." If that's you, let me know!
