smokers Building conversion, into a smoker

M

MrRocoto

My plan is to convert a building we have on site, (I ought to point out that i run my business from an old walled nursery garden, dating back to 1757) and have had a newish building, approx 1900 to our lease. There is a small annex to this, about 8' deep and 6' wide and qute a high ceiling, about 12' at the apex.
I plan to line it board, with a wipe clean surface on the inside.
My main questions are has anyone converted a building like this before, and as its going to be quite large, too large for racks, any suggestions, I had thoughts about threading loads of chillies onto butcher string and hanging bunches like ristras from hooks, as you hang a run of sausages?
Again any thoughts would be gratefully recieved.
Matt
 
I'm going to see what local metal smiths can sort out, either that or visit auctions that deal with catering equipment, I plan on smoking lots of things, as a keen fisherman, some fish too, assuming i catch something......
 
Hello, MrRocoto,
Sounds like a great fun project.

One thing that caught my eye was "line it with a wipe clean surface". I'd suggest avoiding paints or plastics since some smoking is done at higher temps. I know some old homesteads have a smokehouse that's been there for years. I'm guessing they're made of wood or stone/cinder blocks. What's your building made out of?

For shelving, there are food service racks on wheels that are fairly tall. I'm looking at building a small smoker and plan on keeping everything that comes in contact with the food some kind of food-safe material, stainless steel, cast iron, enamel, or wooden dowels if for hanging meats. Might end up just buying replacement bbq grills if they aren't too expensive.

Post some pics when you get working on it if you can. We'd love to see it.
salsalady
 
Check with your local agencies regarding zoning, materials, etc. and pick this book up.

Not sure what you mean by line with board. Wood? Wood is flammable. If this is a block room, it is ready to go. Don't think of it as a room, think of it like you would the inside of your grill. It's not dirty, it's seasoned. Don't worry about easy to clean surfaces unless you can afford SS panels.

salsalady said:
I'd suggest avoiding paints or plastics since some smoking is done at higher temps.
Click to expand...
LOL yeah no plastic! I would guess this would be obvious, but you never know.

salsalady said:
or wooden dowels if for hanging meats.
Click to expand...
Um no wood either SL ;)

May I suggest Metro (Intermetro) brand shelving, in stainless.
 
Sorry to take a few days to get a reply up, running a mail order seed/plant business is pretty hectic at this time of the year.
Hopefully photobucket will get the pic up.
smokehouse1.jpg

You can see the doorway partially obscured by ivy at the moment, the room is approx the dimensions I mentioned earlier. My main task in the next few weeks will be to remove the Ivy, then Longleat will be repairing the roof, replacing the 50's tiles with traditional slate or terracotta, depending on their mood, as they are doing the work and paying for it, whom am I to complain.
I mentioned a wipe clean surface inside in an earlier post, this was after making a recce to a small comercial smoke house a few miles away. Basically i don't want dust/cobwebs etc getting in/on what I'm trying to smoke. So I'll line it with something, then I'll seal the doorway. A small flue will be attatched, through a hole in the door. I will make the door seals as tight as possible as I also would like to do some drying in the room.

I did see a very clever post on here, about using an electric element to create smoke, this is something I'm going to look into.

Again, if anyone can help with ideas, I'd be grateful

Matt

Going back to work.
 
Electric smoker, boooo. You have a whole brick building, that's like putting a Hyundai engine in your Benz. Seriously?

Never heard of such sacrilege!
 
The part of the building that I pan to convert into a smoker is the small room at the back, you can see the change in the brickwork. If it proves to be a success, I'll look seriously into converting the rest of the building. My plan is to use the est of the building for secure storage.
 
Yeah I get it, but building a nice brick smokehouse with electric coils does not compute.
 
Well any suggestions?
Prior to starting this post, the only smoking set up I had seen was a friends Bradley smoker, which seemed to cost him a small fortune in briquettes. I was looking here and saw the converted filing cabinet smoker, and wondered if the idea of an electric element may be a good idea. I am thinking of labour saving as much as poss.
As I am going to be insanely busy at harvest time, as I am seed producer, so I would like the smoking to be as simple and time consuming as possible.
To illustrate how busy I am likely to be, I'll get a little write up about the business up later on today, as I am off to teh nursery now, to tend to 1,000's of seedlings awaiting posting out, plus lots (I hope) of seed orders which have come in over the weekend).
 
You don't need a large firebox for a smokehouse, in fact you want a small controlled fire or there is too much creosote. Needs to be made of firebrick or concrete, below grade if possible, three feet from the SH outer wall, with a 2" masonry pipe intake with an elbow to connect to the bottom of the firebox, and a 4-6" delivery pipe from the top of the firebox angled up to the SH. Then you need a chimney on the roof to pull the smoke through.

You want labor-free? You should be able to smoke all day with just stopping by once in awhile to check on it or add wood. There are BBQ restaurants that leave the pits overnight and open up in the morning to the finished product. You don't think they start a 12 hour smoke in the morning, do you?

Electric uses wood chips which are for short smokes or you need to constantly add chips, and I don't think it's enough smoke to fill a smokehouse. It's not a fire. Anything with wood chips (electric or gas) requires a lot more attention.
 
There are a lot of smoke generators out there that run on pucks or logs of compressedsawdust.
I'd think you could rig up a hot plate type thing with a convection oven fan and make one.
Most of the generators look like they are gravity fed hot plates,more or less.

One of these days I want to convert a metal storage shed into a cold smoker...
Stay away from Galvanised metal.It puts out toxic fumes when heated.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homebrew-Cold-Smoke-Generator/

http://www.smokepistol.com/smokepistol.html

http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Grills-Grill-Accessories-Smokers-Fryers/Bradley-Smoker/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx92Z3az/h_d2/Navigation?langId=-1&cm_mmc=SEM|RPM&skwcid=TC|14775|%2Bbradley%20%2Bsmoke%20%2Bgenerator||S|b|9177035621

Links to smokehouse making.

http://www.peprimer.com/smokehouse.html

I saw a smoke generator that was just a gas BBQ (about 2ft. X 16in) with a metal box on it.The cover of the box had slits in it to let the smoke out and make the wood chunks burn slower.
Can't find the link now...
Kinda like this but the wood was in a closed box with vent holes.

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/public/images/smokehouses/burner-kit-gas.jpg

Homemade smoke generator

http://oldcoothillbilly.wordpress.com/how-to-build-projects/
 
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