How to make a homemade smokehouse with your own hands. Hot smoked smokehouse: drawings and dimensions Diagram of how to make smoking at home

There are many models of compact portable smokehouses on the market for a summer residence or a private house. But it is much safer to build a brick smokehouse on a garden plot with your own hands. Its design is not as complicated as it seems at first glance. The presented drawings, photos and videos will help you understand the device, and step-by-step instructions will help you cope with the task without any problems.

What kind of smokehouses are there?

You can smoke chicken hams, bacon, fish, homemade sausage, meat. When smoked, products are saturated with wood smoke, acquiring a unique aroma and taste. Without a wood-fired smokehouse, this result cannot be achieved. No liquid smoke, tea infusions and other inventions of industry and resourceful housewives can replace real smoking with smoke.

On a personal plot, you can install both a purchased smokehouse and build it from scrap materials with your own hands. A homemade smokehouse can be:

• from a metal or wooden barrel;
• from the bucket;
• from welded metal sheets;
• brick.

At home, you can also smoke products in the chimney located in the attic of the house. To do this, it is necessary to build a smoking chamber near the chimney, into which smoke will flow through the chimney from the stove located in the house. This option is the most budgetary, but at the same time the most dangerous from the point of view of fire safety technology.

The most reliable design is a brick smokehouse. Moreover, a structure laid out by skillful hands can become a real highlight of the landscape design of the site. Using photos and drawings, you can build a functional, durable and stylish structure.

Brick smokers differ:

• to size;
• by device:
• by functionality.

On the site, you can build both a very small in volume and a fairly impressive size smokehouse. It is recommended to design large smokehouses in the form of decorative houses.

Smokehouses of different design can be used for hot and cold smoking of products. In the first case, the firebox will be located directly under the smoking chamber, pouring hot smoke over the food. Cold smoking implies a hearth of fire slightly distant from the chamber, so that the smoke can cool down before getting to the food. Products are cooked by hot smoking on average 2.5 hours, but cold smoking will take up to 7 days. The drawings clearly show the difference in the device of the two types of smokehouses. You can expand the functionality of the smokehouse by combining it with a barbecue or barbecue.

What does a smokehouse consist of?

The design of any smokehouse consists of:

• furnaces;
• blower;
• chimney;
• smoking chambers;
• doors;
• top floor (roof);
• metal grates and horizontal beams with hooks;
• tray for collecting fat.

The wood chips placed in the firebox form thick smoke, which is fed through the chimney into the smoking chamber. Combustion waste (ash) is accumulated in a blower located under the firebox. Products in the smoking chamber are laid out on metal grates or hung on special hooks. It is imperative to install a removable drip tray in order to collect the resulting grease.

Preparatory work

Choosing the right place for a stationary smokehouse is of great importance, since the smoking process is associated with fire, smoke and soot. The main requirement for fire safety is remoteness from residential and utility buildings on the site. The same rule applies to green spaces. It is also necessary to take into account that the area of ​​the selected area is sufficient for laying the chimney.

The place chosen for construction must be cleared of foreign objects, debris and grass in advance. It is also worth taking care of the necessary materials and tools. You will need:

• refractory bricks;
• cement, sand, clay;
• wooden doors;
• sackcloth;
• materials for roofs;
• metal corner;
• measuring instruments;
• trowel, hammer, spatula;
• container for mixing the solution.

For high-quality work, experts recommend that beginners prepare a drawing of the structure in advance and develop step-by-step instructions that should be followed when building a smokehouse with their own hands. It will not be superfluous to study the theory, get acquainted with the photos and videos of upcoming works.

Laying the foundation

Like any building, a smokehouse needs a solid foundation. The first step is to carry out the markup according to the size of the future smokehouse. To do this, use wooden stakes and a cord. For small smokehouses, a 40 cm deep foundation will be sufficient. If a more voluminous structure is being erected, the foundation should be deepened more and reinforced when pouring.

For pouring the foundation, he uses a cement-sand mixture with the addition of gravel or crushed stone. In some cases, the foundation trench can be laid with construction waste, and poured with concrete from above. Since the load on the foundation of the smokehouse is small, such a device will be quite sufficient.

Advice. To ensure waterproofing of the foundation, it is recommended to cover it with a layer of roofing material.

It will be useful to equip the basement. To do this, it is necessary to build a wooden formwork that is wider than the laid foundation.

We lay out the chimney

The principle of construction of any smokehouse is the same, regardless of its size and internal structure. First of all, the chimney is laid out - the main working element of the structure.

A trench of the following dimensions is dug under the chimney in the ground:

• width - 50 cm;
• depth - 30-40 cm;
• length - 25-30 cm.

The bottom of the prepared trench is carefully tamped and a row of bricks is laid using clay mortar. It is important that there are two bricks along the length of the chimney, located end-to-end. The chimney channel is limited on one side by the firebox, and on the other - by the smoking chamber.

Attention! The smoking chamber must always be located above the firebox.

The rule for the location of the chamber implies that the smoke channel should rise from the firebox at an angle of 8-9 degrees. When laying the chimney, the brick is installed on the edge, and the dressing of all seams remains the same. The vertical walls of the chimney are erected to a height of 25 cm. The upper ceiling of the chimney is also made of bricks. For convenience, it is recommended to perform it in the form of a house.

When the chimney is laid out, the solution used must be allowed to dry. Next, the chimney is covered with a layer of earth, which is limited by the smoking chamber.

Attention! The chimney should not enter the smoking chamber by more than 25-30 cm.The layer of soil poured onto the chimney should be 12-14 cm.

We spread the smoking chamber

When the chimney is ready, you can start building the smoking section. Here you can show your imagination by building a round, square or rectangular camera. Drawings, photos, videos and step-by-step instructions, widely presented on the Internet, will come to the rescue. The most important thing is not to rush, but to lay out bricks with high quality. For a home smokehouse, a chamber 1 x 1 m in size and 1.5 m in height will be quite sufficient.

It is advisable to lay the masonry on a clay mortar, laying the brick on the edge. Clay is a natural material and does not emit harmful substances when exposed to high temperatures.

Metal pins are drilled into the upper part of the chamber, on which a grate or rods with hooks for food will be mounted. In the lower part, it is necessary to provide fastenings for the burlap, which is used as a smoke filter. In the middle - fastenings for a removable grease pan.

The top of the chamber is covered with a special cover that regulates the density of the smoke. If the construction of the smokehouse provides for the installation of a roof, do not forget about the ventilated opening holes. When the frame of the smoking chamber is ready, you can install the doors and mount the devices for laying out the products.

Furnace arrangement

The firebox is installed at the end of the chimney opposite from the chamber. Its construction is very simple. It is made of thick sheet iron with dimensions of 40 x 35 x 35 cm. A small blower is placed under the firebox to collect ash and provide draft in the chimney. From the back or side, the firebox is connected to the chimney.

It is recommended to cover the firebox with bricks from the outside. This will protect it from the effects of precipitation and give a complete appearance to the entire structure. The whole process of erecting a smokehouse on a personal plot can be seen in detail in the video.

DIY step-by-step instructions for building a brick smokehouse

1. We lay the foundation for the smoking chamber.
2. We dig a trench for the chimney.
3. We lay out the brick chimney.
4. We are building a smoking chamber.
5. We equip the firebox.
6. We give the building a decorative appearance.

Beginners in the construction business should not despair when building a brick smokehouse with their own hands. If you have a desire, then everything will work out! The main thing is to be patient, and slowly, step by step, do this painstaking work. As a result, the brick smokehouse will serve you for a long time and regularly.

DIY brick smokehouse construction: video

Brick smoker: photo

At the dacha, a smokehouse can be made from household items. You need bricks, a supply of iron and you need to provide the structure with a water seal made of a hose. Such a building will fit in a small area.

Creating a small smokehouse with your own hands does not have great subtleties, which we will talk about in our review of smokehouses.

Suitable for cooking fish and meat, making it is not difficult, it will take a little time to build. A gradually sloping slope is required, with a slope of approximately 35 degrees. Dig a hole 200 cm deep. At the initial stage, a fire is made, the smoke goes along a closed path to the smoking chamber, and there can be a barrel in the form of a compartment.

This is what a simple cold smoked smokehouse looks like.

Since the chimney from the chamber to the smokehouse is not in a vertical position, toxic parts of the smoke will be lost in the ground, and condensed water will also remain there. It can be done on a hike as well.

It is more difficult to make it. The drawing shows the vertical position of the structure, thanks to this, the smoking process will go better, therefore, an additional outlet must be made for the smoke. If you make a lid with a water seal, there will be the necessary pressure in order for the products to smoke evenly. The amount of smoke will have to be controlled.

This is how a hot smoked smokehouse looks like

It is better to place food above the tray, otherwise the food will become bitter. For constant conversion, you need to make gaps in the lid. It is advisable to protect the brick with special clay that keeps fire. This version of the smokehouse is suitable only for summer cottages. For smoking to take place, a large amount of smoke is needed, therefore a smoke generator is necessary.

The smoke generator is easy to make yourself:

• We take an iron can as a basis;
• We make a hole in the lower part;
• To avoid drawing in air from above, we make a cover;
• A fan from a PC will come down to seal the smoke;
• We do the work by welding, fire up the chips and start the fan.

It looks like a ready-made smoke generator made by hand for a smokehouse

The smoke generator has a characteristic feature: the cooler draws the smoke, not repels it! The smoke generator is placed to the compartment in a direct way, because ignition takes place in a separate compartment from which the smoke generator will have to expel smoke.

It is possible to combine a hot smokehouse with an oven (here the price for electric heaters for a sauna is very low), but this requires a complex design, so we will not describe it in the text.

What materials are needed to create a smokehouse?

Smokehouses can be made on their own only of small dimensions. You will need sheets of iron, you need to weld them along the lines. Most projects require brick. In fact, a brick building with a large capacity comes out. A brick chimney will quickly become saturated with the taste of various dishes, this will be reflected in other products. Therefore, a brick is needed only for the rigidity of the structure.

Good welding and stainless steel sheets are ideal for creating.

Semi-hot smokehouse from scratch

If you have a cooker with a special hood, cut the tin can and place it on a low heat, add wood chips. To prevent grease from staining the stove, place a tray, food can be hung on the hood. The smoke will reach the food already cooled to the desired temperature. It will not work to cook a lot of food this way. If there is no stove, then you can use an electric stove instead.

You can take a refrigerator as a basis, the dimensions of the refrigerator make it possible to make a smokehouse for large amounts of food in a summer cottage. We take out all the mechanisms, tear off the facing insulation.

The entire place in the refrigerator will serve as a smoking chamber. The sliver should lie on the bottom on a special platform, stir the fat platform a little higher.

In the place where the motor was located, you can put a smoke generator. Make a large hole in the lower part of the refrigerator, put a tube in it, the tubes must be combined with the exit from the stove, where the chips are burned.

Small stainless steel smokehouse

From the name it is clear that this smokehouse needs a stainless steel, specifically three grill grates and a couple of rods. The rods must be bent in a U-shape, then three pairs of rings must be welded to each at the same distance from each other.

We attach 4 short beams of 2-3 centimeters to the gratings by welding, which will then need to be inserted into the newly welded rings. The structure must be rigid, that is, it must not "walk" under the mass of products. Dig a hearth with a chimney on the street and that's it, you can smoke! Such a smokehouse can be made on a gas oven, then there will be no need to worry about the power of the fire, and just wait for the food to be cooked.

What is a water seal for?

It is used to channel smoke into the water, thereby preventing smoke from spreading throughout the room. A hole is made in the compartment lid, which is then combined with a water source. It is also used to pressurize the chamber when many foods need to be cooked at once.

How to make a grill smokehouse?

It is necessary to make the smoking tank in such a way as to create a path for smoke. The chamber must have a place where the fat will drain, the main thing is that it flows outside the barbecue, otherwise the fat can spoil the cooking.

Smokehouse description:

• Brazier, it is better that it is wide - it will be easier to remove the coals for smoke.
• On top of the barbecue, we put the tank on a brick stand so that oxygen is available. Any tank will do, the main thing is that it is spacious.
• Spacers are made of wire inside the tank in order to hang food.
• To make smoking evenly, you can put a water seal, it is done near the tank, while the compartment is covered with a lid.

A smoke generator is not needed here. This option is only suitable for outdoor use.

Cold smoked smokehouse in almost any conditions

• No need for iron and no need to make a separate oven.
• Take three to four meters of greenhouse film.
• We drive the stakes into the soil a couple of meters high to get a square.
• We connect the stakes standing diagonally with rods.
• We place food on the rods, then stretch the film.
• We lay out half a bucket of coals on the ground, place bricks for delimitation, hide with grass - the smoke generator is made.
• We cover the entire structure with foil until fully cooked.

Needed: A welding machine, a grinder, not thick fittings and a few sheets of iron.

1. We cook the iron in such a way that you get a box of four sides.
2. We make the bottom, weld the seams well.
3. We use the remains of iron to create a lid so that it is larger in size than the edges of the box.
4. We make a pallet inside and a row of rods in order to hang food.
5. We put the finished work on the bricks and kindle a fire under it.

So everyone can make a smokehouse. What kind of smokehouse to make - everyone decides for himself, the main thing is to comply with all execution technologies!

We offer several videos from experienced specialists who will tell you how you can make a smokehouse with your own hands.

Many are interested in how a cold-smoked smokehouse is done with their own hands, because everyone loves to feast on delicious smoked meats from time to time, because these products have a unique taste and aroma.

Previously, smoking was used to extend the shelf life of meat and fish, due to the property of smoke to prevent food spoilage.

Now meat and fish, pleasantly smelling of smoke, have become a real delicacy and appear in our homes, both on holidays and on ordinary days, and are also irreplaceable in the country.

If you are the happy owner of a summer cottage or a private house, then you can buy a smokehouse or make a homemade one for hot or cold smoking with your own hands (from the refrigerator, barrel or brick) in order to enjoy delicious and aromatic products as often as possible.

Important points in manufacturing

To build yourself correctly, you should only carefully study the design drawings.

You can smoke products using hot and cold smoking. You can smoke various types of meat, bacon, fish, vegetables and even cheese.

Hot and cold smoked smokehouses are very similar. They consist of a hearth, an area for prepared products, a tray for accumulating fat, hooks for future delicacies.

The constructive structure of the smokehouse ensures the movement of smoke, resulting in smoking. The longer the chimney, the colder the smoke will be.

The difference between hot and cold smoked smokehouses lies in the length of the chimney.

The hot smoking process takes place when heated from 80 ° to 150 ° (for fish) and 35-50 ° (for meat), so the products are cooked very quickly.

Usually, after a few hours, you can get a smoked treat. These foods will have a rich taste and smell.

The temperature of cold smoking, unlike hot smoking, usually does not exceed 40 °, so smoking lasts for several days.

After cold smoking, the products retain their firmness and texture and are stored for a long time.

Smoking takes place due to the smoldering of wood chips, due to which a lot of smoke is emitted.

It is very important that the wood does not ignite and does not char, since in this case carcinogens will begin to be released from the sawdust and, as a result of smoking, we will get harmful charred products.

To prevent this from happening, you need to create a reliable structure. The lid of the chamber must be tightly sealed so that air does not enter the chamber and the chips do not ignite.

After repeated combustion, the metal of the chamber may bend, so it is better to press down the lid from above with something heavy, for example, a piece of brick.

It is also important to choose the right wood for the hearth.

If there are too many chips and sawdust in the composition, then smoking smoke will form very slowly, due to lack of air. And too large components can ignite, which should also not be allowed.

Therefore, about half should be wood, the rest - wood chips and shavings for smoking. Such a composition will provide the right amount of heat.

You cannot use coniferous sawdust, as the production of smoked meats will fail. Unpalatable products are obtained when smoking on aspen wood.

Best of all, trimmings and chips of various fruit trees - apple, cherry, apricot, sea buckthorn, which are likely to be found in your country house.

The firewood of bird cherry, birch and alder will give a tasty aroma to the product, but you should get rid of the bark, as it can impart bitterness.

How does cold smoking work?

Cold smoking occurs when heated from 20 ° to 40 ° (for fish) and 18-22 ° (for meat).

When smoking cold, you need to carefully monitor the heating of the smoke.

Unlike hot smoking, cold smoking lasts quite a long time and requires utmost attention from us.

It is ideal for very fatty foods. Products need to be pre-processed at home before the process. First you need to sprinkle the meat or fish with salt and leave it for 4-5 days.

After that, in order to get rid of excess salt, the product needs to be soaked in cold water for several hours.

After that, you should blot the product with a clean towel and hang it to dry in a dry room of your house until the meat or fish is slightly dry.

Keep insects away from the product.

As already mentioned, with cold smoking, it is important to maintain a stable temperature regime. The composition of the firewood plays an important role here.

In this case, you need to use a lot of chips and sawdust, and no more than 20% of the total mass - firewood.

Firewood is laid in the middle of the hearth, and sprinkled with sawdust and chips on top. The chips should be stacked in a heap, rather than spread all over the bottom, so you get more heat and less fire.

Such a mixture will smolder well and will not ignite, which is very important for successful smoking at home.

After cold smoking, the products acquire a very pleasant aroma and firm texture.
Such products can be stored at home for a long time without fear of their freshness.

We start making a cold smoked smokehouse

Cold smoking with your own hands is not a fiction, but an instrument available to everyone.

First of all, you need to choose a place for the smokehouse device. It should be comfortable so that you can sit freely or place food.

In addition, the structure is quite flammable, so choose a location so that in the event of a fire, the flames do not cause serious damage.

You should also provide for where the underground chimney will be located, the length of which should be 3 meters, width 30-50 cm, and height 25-27 cm.

When organizing a smokehouse, care should be taken to have good traction between the chamber and the hearth.

It is not always possible to achieve this, since the temperature difference between the ambient air and hot smoke affects the thrust.

Sometimes, smoke exhausters (fans) are used for good draft, and collectors are used to cool the smoke. Not everyone can make such a device.

From the barrel - the first option

There is also a simpler cold smokehouse scheme. To smoke a little food, ordinary wood or metal barrels are useful.

A 2-3 meter long trench should be dug in the ground, which will serve as a chimney.

Its walls must be reinforced with slate, iron or built of brick, and sprinkled with earth on top.

The end of the trench, on which the fire is located, is better to be made deeper - this way you will provide better traction.

It can also be made of bricks. A sheet of metal with holes for smoke should be placed on the bottom of the barrel, and a sheet of metal or burlap should be placed on top of the barrel.

A metal grid should be installed inside the barrel, on which the food will be attached.

From the barrel - the second option

There is another option for a cold barrel smokehouse. At the top of the barrel, fasteners for products are made.

Holes for the pipe should also be made at the bottom of the barrel. At a distance of 2-3 meters from the barrel, an oven is placed and connected with a pipe.

During smoking, the barrel is covered with burlap.

Brick

If you plan to constantly smoke food in the country or at home, then you can make a similar structure from clay refractory bricks.

A structure made of this type of brick will serve you for more than one year.

The scheme of such a smokehouse is not much different from the previous ones. The main thing is to decide on the place where the brick device will be located, since it will no longer be possible to transfer it.

The firebox and chimney are lined with bricks from the inside; the food chamber can also be built of bricks or made of wood.

Inside the chamber, fix the food holders, and make a door on top or on the side of the chamber.

For many years such a smokehouse will delight you with its serviceable work, and it looks much more aesthetically pleasing.

From the fridge

Many craftsmen make a smokehouse in the country and at home from the refrigerator. To do this, the body of the old refrigerator is freed from all the insides, and the holes are sealed with adhesive plaster.

A hole is made at the top of the refrigerator body for smoke outlet, a fan is installed (if desired).

The schematic drawings presented in the article provide a visual description of the process.

At the top of the refrigerator chamber, food grids are attached. A stove-stove or some suitable size closed container for the hearth is connected to the refrigerator with a galvanized pipe 3-4 meters long.

An electric stove is placed in the container, sawdust is placed on it. The electric stove turns on, and when the sawdust starts to smoke, it turns off.

As you can see, the design of the fridge smokehouse is very simple and straightforward. A similar device from an old refrigerator is available for DIY to any home craftsman.

A distinctive feature of homemade smokehouses is their low cost.

Such a smokehouse can be built from scrap materials that are in any country house - old barrels, remnants of bricks, galvanized sheets.

However, in a home-made smokehouse, even if you did everything right, the result of smoking is different every time and the products always turn out different.

In addition, it is not possible to barbecue or grill on it.

Often, in home-made smokehouses, the bottoms in chambers or furnaces burn out from hot air and fire, and changing them is not always easy and convenient, and homemade smokehouses do not look very aesthetically pleasing.

If there is not enough space on your site near the house or in the country and you cannot make a chimney of the required length, then you can make it curved, or install a smoke cooler on the chimney.

To do this, you need to wrap the chimney with a brass tube and let running water through it.

Fat will be released from meat and fish during smoking, so a shallow pan should be placed under the wire shelf so that there are gaps between the edges of the pan and the sides of the box.

A wet burlap can be pulled over the firebox to allow smoke to pass through but retain ash and other contaminants.

To check the smoking temperature, you can drop water on the barrel lid. If the water fizzes strongly, then the temperature is high, if it evaporates without fizzling, it is the normal smoking temperature.

At first, to check the readiness of the product, you can slightly open the lid and quickly return it to its place.

Over time, you will already know how long it will take you to prepare different foods.

When smoking, you need to follow important rules:

• Check the temperature of the smoke that is kept inside the chamber;
• Smoke should be done in good weather, without wind and wet precipitation;
• It is better to prepare for smoking fish and meat in the evening, and start the process in the morning;
• You do not need to often open the camera to look inside, so the process will drag on for a long time;
• In the firewood, if possible, add juniper, grapes, cherries for aroma. This can be done both at the beginning of smoking and at the end;
• You cannot use coniferous trees, as the resin from them will spoil the taste and smell of the finished fish and meat;
• Firewood must be well dried before smoking. Wet wood will smolder intermittently and the process will take a long time;
• Be sure to install a drip tray, otherwise grease will drip into the sawdust and spoil the flavor of the finished food. In addition, if fish or meat pieces are accidentally dropped, they will end up on the pallet.

How to choose a ready-made smokehouse?

If you find it difficult to independently develop a smokehouse project, and also allow funds and opportunities, then you can purchase a ready-made smokehouse for placement in a country house or on a plot in a private house, which is not so expensive, but looks completely different.

The content of the article:

A home smokehouse is an equipment designed for the preservative processing of products with smoke. Such devices are especially popular with summer residents, as they allow you to cook meat or fish in a natural way without the use of food chemicals. You will learn how to make a smokehouse at home by reading this article.

The principle of the smokehouse

During the smoking process, the products absorb substances from the smoke that give the finished products a specific aroma. Partial dehydration of meat or fish from exposure to smoking smoke extends their shelf life. There is cold, semi-hot and hot smoking. Taking into account its type, you can pick up in the store or make the appropriate equipment at home.

Hot smoked cooking products at a smoke temperature of at least 50 and not more than 140 degrees is called, therefore, in such an environment, bringing them to readiness does not take long. Hot smoking from meat or fish intensively melts fat. This is a good reason to use only non-fatty foods for hot smoke treatment. Ready-made, they can be stored for up to two days. Hot smoking uses an external fire source that heats the sealed chamber from below. At its bottom are smoldering sawdust, and above them are products suspended for processing with smoke.

Cold smoking differs from hot in greater labor intensity and can last for several days. Bringing the products to readiness is carried out by enveloping them with smoke at a temperature of 20-40 degrees. To cool the smoke from the smoldering wood stove to the smoking chamber, a pipe about 2 meters long is laid. The temperature of the medium is controlled by a thermometer installed in the chamber. For smoking meat, 15-20 degrees is enough, fish - up to 40. The shelf life of cold smoked meats is longer than in the previous case.

Semi-hot smoking is a middle option between the two methods described above.

Home smokehouse is a sealed container with a lid. The material for the manufacture of such an apparatus can be metal, brick or concrete. Inside the smokehouse there is a grate for stacking semi-finished products on it and a pallet onto which fat emitted during the processing of products with smoke flows down.

The principle of operation of the smoking unit is based on optimal heating of the crushed wood, when it smolders slowly, without igniting, and at the same time emits a significant amount of smoke. Therefore, the main task of a home smokehouse is to create such temperature conditions under which the products cooked in it will be healthy and tasty. The lid should tightly cover the smoking chamber. If its tightness is broken, instead of smoking, combustion will occur, which is highly undesirable.

As mentioned earlier, the design of a home smokehouse depends on the smoking method. If it is cold, the hearth is located at a distance from the smoking chamber and is connected to it through a smoke channel. For hot smoking, the fire source is located directly under the chamber. Below we will take a closer look at several options for homemade smokehouses.

DIY cold smoking equipment

Of the many different devices for smoking products, we have selected for you the most suitable for the conditions of a country house, such equipment can be made independently.

Smokehouse on the hill

If the site has any relief, it is not difficult to build a smokehouse on its hill. Relief features can be a small ravine, a pit, a slope, and even a drainage cut.

In addition, when choosing a site, for fire safety purposes, the location of trees and outbuildings should be taken into account. They should be at a sufficient distance from the fire source of the future smokehouse.

The place for it should be chosen so that it is convenient to lay out the products and rest while waiting for the completion of the cooking process. When determining the size of the building site, an additional 2-3 m of its length should be taken into account for the installation of an underground smoke channel.

It will be useful to determine the preferred direction of the wind, since clouds of smoke in the house are unlikely to be needed for you.

Work on the installation of such a smokehouse should be started from the device of the smoke channel. You can dig a mine for him with a shovel. The depth of the ditch should be 50 cm or more, width - 30 cm. The length of the shaft is taken as 1.5-3 m. This is the distance between the fire source and the smoking chamber. When the trench is dug, it is necessary to lay a metal pipe with a diameter of 150-200 mm in it, make a bend in it and insert it into the chamber. This will be more reliable than making a smoke channel out of wood or concrete.

When the channel is ready, you can start making the firebox for the smokehouse. It is a metal or brick cube with dimensions of 40x40x40 cm. One side of it must be connected to the chimney pipe, and on the other side, a valve should be installed that will regulate the draft in the furnace.

The easiest thing to do when making a home cold smoked smokehouse is to assemble a chamber for storing or hanging products to be cooked in it. It can be knocked out of wood and installed over a smoke channel. In this case, the smoking chamber must be sufficiently sealed. It will need to install hooks and grates, a smoke damper and a door for laying semi-finished products and removing finished products. The wooden chamber will give the smoked products a special aroma. You should not worry about its safety due to possible drying out or ignition, since cold smoking does not provide for a high temperature of the smoke entering the chamber.

This is where the work ends. Now you can search for a culinary recipe and start preparing delicacies.

Stationary smokehouse

It looks more solid. The construction cost will be slightly higher due to the improved aesthetics of the structure. Such a smokehouse will have a simple concrete foundation, a refractory firebox and a regular brick chamber. An asbestos-cement or metal pipe is suitable for the smoke channel.

In terms of design and principle of operation, a homemade smokehouse made stationary with your own hands is not much different from the above option, but for its construction you will not need to look for a hill on the site, it can be installed where it is convenient.

The work must begin with the construction of the foundation for the smoking chamber. It should look like a platform. Therefore, first of all, you should dig a rectangular groove with a depth of 0.5 m in the ground and a branch from it in the form of a trench at least 1.5 m long for laying a chimney towards the future firebox. Then sand, gravel should be poured into the recess in layers and everything should be tamped thoroughly. The remaining space must be poured with concrete, pre-reinforcing the future foundation with wire, mesh or metal rods. The thickness of the concrete slab should be 30-40 cm.

The chimney shaft for its connection with the smoking chamber must be made in the process of pouring the foundation. It can be made in the form of a brick box, or you can simply lay a pipe with a diameter of 150-200 mm to the firebox from the chamber.

When the smoke channel of the smokehouse is ready, it's time to start building the firebox. It should be erected at the opposite end of the chimney relative to the smoking chamber. The furnace can be made of metal in the form of a metal box tightly adjacent to the smoke channel, or in the form of a cube made of refractory bricks and equipped with a special valve.

After the concrete foundation slab has hardened sufficiently, the brickwork of the chamber should be started. Its walls can be laid out in 1/2 bricks, make internal ledges for shelves in them and decorate the outside with facing materials. But the main thing in this matter is not to forget to install transverse steel rods in the chamber when laying the masonry. They will then be needed to hang raw food on hooks before smoking.

The smoking chamber must be equipped with a special lid. To make it, you need to make a wooden frame and cover it with burlap, which will need to be moistened during the smoking process.

Any stationary smokehouse can be simplified as much as possible. For example, if instead of pouring the foundation and building a brick chamber, you use pillars as an alternative to a concrete base, and an old iron barrel for the chamber.

There is another way - to leave simplicity and build an expensive structure. Such a smokehouse will look as reliable and beautiful as possible. It can have a large chamber volume in which a huge amount of food can be placed. The principle of operation of an expensive and massive smokehouse does not change, but the durability and quality of such a building will be much higher. After all, now it will be a separate building, helping not only to provide the owners' table, but also to make good money. In such an apparatus, it is possible to organize both hot and cold smoking by erecting 2 fireboxes at the smoking chamber and using them alternately.

How to make hot smoking equipment

Hot smoking of products is faster, they are more aromatic than those obtained by the previous method, but also more harmful. However, if the products are of high quality, and the recipes for their preparation are original, the latter circumstance will not matter much.

Consider the option of manufacturing equipment for hot smoking from metal sheets. In fact, this is a closed container, the capacity of which depends on the owner's needs in terms of cooking products at a time. The volume of the smokehouse should allow the installation of a grate for storing semi-finished products and a tray designed to collect dripping fat during smoking. If there is no such pallet, then the fat falling on the coals can impair the taste of the finished products during combustion. The grille can be made by welding from steel rods.

Before making a home smokehouse for hot cooking, you need to get a grinder, a welding machine, a square, reinforcing bars and two sheets of metal with dimensions of 1500x600x2 mm.

The work should be done in the following order:

• One of the sheets needs to be cut with a "grinder" into four identical parts, then the finished smokehouse will have a rectangular cross-section.
• Using welding, the sheets should be tacked in pairs along the edges, forming a box from them without a bottom and a cover. In the process of work, you need to actively use the square, placing the side planes of the box strictly at angles of 90 degrees.
• After assembly, the joints of the sheets must be carefully welded with electrodes from the inside to create the tightness of the future apparatus.
• The second sheet of metal must be cut into two parts to make the bottom and lid of the box. After the necessary measurements and adjustment, the bottom of the planned smokehouse should be cut from one part and welded to the assembled workpiece. Also cut the lid out of the sheet in accordance with the dimensions of the box.
• From the remaining metal, you need to cut four strips of the same width with a length slightly longer than the dimensions of the smokehouse. Then these strips should be welded to the ends of the sheet cut for the cover. After that, it will be easy to put on and hold on to the body of the smoker.
• It is necessary to complete the process of making a smokehouse by installing metal rods inside the apparatus. They should be on two levels. At the lower level, the rods will serve as a support for the pallet, at the upper level - as a "hanger" for hooks with meat, fish, bacon, etc. The rods should be attached to the walls of the smokehouse by welding. It is advisable to make comfortable carrying handles for the new smokehouse.

How to make a homemade smokehouse - watch the video:

The very sight of smoked food arouses the desire to taste it, but not everyone immediately starts rummaging in their wallet - is it worth running to the store or to the market? The number of people who decide to get a hand-made smokehouse is not decreasing at all. It's really quite possible to build your own smokehouse, and we will try, as far as possible, to help readers in this useful and tasty business.

The financial factor is not the only one, and perhaps not the main one, thanks to which the popularity of home smoking is by no means diminishing. To independently make a smokehouse of the correct design means to be confident in the quality of the product; if homemade smoked meats are sold - convincingly offer them to buyers. Nowadays this is not superfluous: in today's world, falsification of food, unfortunately, is widespread and legalized literally everywhere, and smoked meats are a favorite object of substitute producers.

The scale of falsification of smoked products in our time is difficult for the ignorant to imagine. For example, the WHO recommends not to exceed the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, with this muck we will encounter) in food in 0.62 μg / kg. In the Russian Federation, the content of PAHs in food is allowed up to 0.2 μg / kg; a properly built home smoker is capable of delivering a product with a PAH content of 0.1 μg / kg. And in Germany, boasting of its environmental friendliness, the content of such an infamous PAH representative as benzo (a) pyrene is allowed up to 1 μg / kg. In Russia, benzo (a) pyrene is recognized as a carcinogen of the first degree of danger, and in the EU, doctors consider its harmful effect on animals to be fully proven, but on humans - insufficiently proven. How can this be understood, except as a veiled recommendation to people to buy (but of course!) And there is something that a dog in its right mind will turn away from? The rats are dying, but is it okay for humans? If he is an adequate well-meaning consumer? But back to the topic.

The most important thing

Manufacturing a smokehouse does not present any technical difficulties and will be inexpensive... The design of the smokehouse is simple, flexible, easily and without compromising the quality of the finished product, it is adaptable to the available materials and possibilities. But, before proceeding further, it will be appropriate to remind: smoking is a process of food technology.

Imagine, by analogy, that someone has come up with some ideal, "correct" in all respects, a saucepan. Can a person, who until then had anything to do with cooking only as an unassuming eater, holding a cookbook in front of his eyes, cook real naval borscht in it right away? Another analogy is also appropriate: there is a cheap, stamped from thin stainless steel, frying pan and antediluvian electric stove with an open spiral. Will a skilled chef be able to cook at least an ordinary roast with this "equipment" as in his own kitchen?

The conclusion is simple: there is no single "correct" smokehouse. But there are many types of smokers in which proper smoking is possible. This is what we are going to do. At the same time, smoking itself, based on some mandatory requirements for the design of the smoking unit.

Constructive types of smokehouses

The device of successfully operating home smokers is very diverse; some samples are shown in the photo. As a rule, they try to build a smokehouse that provides the possibility of all or most types of smoking (see below). But all this visible inconsistency fits into only 3 basic schemes of smoking installations: vertical (mine), horizontal (tunnel, trench) and chamber. Homemade smokehouses most often combine elements of 2 or all 3 schemes.

Shaft smokehouse, left on the trail. rice., the easiest way, does not require equipment space for it and is the least time consuming. Initially, this is a conical hut, chum or wigwam, in which pieces of meat are suspended at the top in reserve. In this case (conical shaft) and a semi-permeable smoke seal (green dotted line in the figure) is not necessary.

However, the mine smokehouse is not without serious drawbacks:

• Smoking by the fumigation method (see below) is impossible, because the temperature of the smoke club under the chimney mouth is always higher than that of the surrounding air.
• Simultaneous smoking in 2 ways is also impossible.
• Adjustment of the mode of smoke generation by the hearth is possible only within very small limits.
• The settling of harmful components of smoking smoke (see below) is somewhat difficult, which is why it is possible to achieve compliance with the concentration of PAHs in products with the norm only with hot or semi-hot smoking.
• With an increase in the humidity of the incoming air, from unsuitable or too damp fuel, the "acidic" zone may spread to the smoked, which is why the entire load disappears: the product becomes unbearably acidic and toxic.
• With the deterioration of the quality of fuel for the hearth (smoking material), as well as exceeding the temperature and humidity of the incoming air, the content of PAHs in the products increases rapidly.

Note: the latter factor is especially sensitive, since just like that, the excess of PAHs is imperceptible. On the contrary, their excess can enhance the pungency and piquancy of the taste and aroma of finished products.

For a tunnel smoker, in the middle in fig., a fairly large amount of earthwork is needed and, highly desirable, a suitable site on the slope: the more free (without a smoke seal) draft in the system, the easier it is to ensure a stable mode of smoke formation. Due to the location of the smoke generator in a semi-closed chamber with an adjustable cover for air access and a closed chimney, the dependence of the quality of smoking on the weather decreases: it is possible to use a tunnel smokehouse up to 75% humidity and 30 degrees of outside air temperature for up to 8-9 hours a day, in the absence of atmospheric precipitation.

Cold smoking is possible in the tunnel smokehouse if the channel length is over 3 m; over 5 - fumigation, and over 7 m - 2-3 types of smoking at the same time. A properly built and operated tunnel smokehouse is capable of providing PAH content in finished products in the range of up to 0.2 μg / kg for all smoking modes.

Chamber smokers, on the right in the upper figure, not so ancient: a tunnel smokehouse on a slope of sufficient length of 10-30 degrees, supplemented by a shaft 1.5-2 m high and a diameter of approx. 1 m, see fig. on the right, this is already a chamber smokehouse: a long tunnel and a dead bottom of the mine serve as a smoke distiller; the latter works as an expansion chamber, where the deposition of the residual harmful components of the smoke is sharply increased. Modern industrial smokehouses of food industry enterprises are built exclusively according to the chamber scheme, but compact, with special air preparation units and smoke electric distillers.

What's going on in the smokehouse?

Visible smoke, i.e. unburned fuel particles and ash (mineral) inclusions, oddly enough at first glance, do not significantly affect the smoking process. They contribute to the deposition of a shiny golden crust on the product; no harm was noticed from them. And they also, by the type of smoke, make it possible to quite accurately determine its suitability for smoking.

Let's make a fire from slightly damp firewood in calm weather or in a high hut, this is the simplest smoke generator hearth. Directly above the flame there will be a transparent zone where pyrolysis gases burn out. Above - dirty gray, possibly with a brownish tint, rather dense smoke. Even higher - a grayish, sometimes with a slight blue, and even higher - a translucent white smoke.

Now we will take samples from each zone, except for pyrolysis, and make their chemical analysis. Not at home, of course, here you have to resort to liquid chromatography and other subtle methods. In the "gray-brown" (conditionally severe) zone, the predominance of carcinogens and other substances with significant molecular weight will be found. In the "gray", medium, sample against the background of thinned carcinogens and toxins, radicals of organic acids will appear more. The same benzo (a) pyrene with residues of formic and acetic acids (possibly malic, citric, etc.) will remain in a white haze of harm in noticeable quantities, and other light components are just those that give the smoked a unique taste, aroma and have a bacteriostatic effect, i.e. do not allow the product to deteriorate for a more or less long time; in the smoke from fuel suitable for smoking, they will come to the fore.

Let's continue the series of experiments, lighting a fire from different types of firewood of varying degrees of humidity, with the addition of green leaves and herbs of different types, and each time changing the combustion mode. And it turns out that the concentration of benzo (a) pyrene and acids in white smoke changes by 2-3 orders of magnitude, and in the finished product benzo (a) pyrene is found from 0.1 to 62-65 μg / kg.

Benz (a) pyrene and acids

All PAHs are by no means harmless to humans, but benzo (a) pyrene stands out among them, firstly, by its optimal, from the point of view of poisoning, chemical activity: under normal conditions it is rather inert. Secondly, "meanness": once in the body, benzo (a) pyrene binds to DNA, thus affecting heredity. Even the ancient authors knew, although the content of PAHs in products then, of course, no one controlled in any way, that those who like to overeat with smoked, feeble-minded, frail and sick children are born much more often than among supporters of moderation. Thirdly, ubiquity: due to the peculiarities of its chemical activity, benzo (a) pyrene has a cumulative effect and accumulates in soil, plant and animal tissues, and also migrates along food chains. Fourthly, resistance: at the temperature necessary for the formation of smoking smoke, a significant part of it does not decompose, but sublimes from the wood. Fifth, by "trick": as already mentioned above, it is possible to detect an excess of benzo (a) pyrene in food only by chemical analysis; an increase in taste and aroma can be caused by other, harmless and even beneficial substances.

The fight against any evil is effective at its inception, therefore, measures to limit the content of benzo (a) pyrene in smoked meats are carried out in the following order:

1. The correct choice of wood for smoking material is consistent not only with the desired taste and bouquet of the finished product, but also with the ability of a tree of this type to accumulate PAHs;
2. Harvesting wood for smoking material in ecologically clean places only from completely healthy trees: in the hyphae of molds and in the drill dust of bark beetles / woodworms, the PAH content is 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than in wood, their nutrient medium;
3. Reasonable choice of the type and mode of smoking for a given specific type of raw material;
4. Correct preparation of raw materials for smoking;
5. Correct preparation of smoking material: wood chips, shavings, sawdust, see below;
6. Technically competent construction of a smokehouse according to proven samples;
7. Correct smoke generator device;
8. Setting up the smoke generator for the selected smoking material, type of product and mode of its processing;
9. Effective control over the smoking regime.

Pp. 6 and 7 are constructive preventive measures, and items 8 and 9 are operational measures to prevent the accumulation of PAHs in smoking products. Their essence is that it is necessary to build a smokehouse in such a way as to either prevent PAHs from reaching the products, or to organize the smoking process so that PAHs, without having had time to be deposited in the smoke, flew into the chimney. Pp. 3, 4 and 9 relate to culinary technology, so further we will restrict ourselves to what relates to paragraphs. 6 and 7 and partly to paragraphs. 3, 5 and 9, how much they affect the design of the smokehouse.

As for the acids, they, to one degree or another, are involved in the creation of smoked meats. Doubts for some may be caused by formic acid, but it is also registered as a food additive E236. Its effect on the bacteriostatic properties of smoking is especially strong. You just need to remember: everything is a medicine, but everything is poison. Table salt is necessary for a person - sodium ions regulate heart activity, but if you eat half a glass or more of kitchen salt, a painful death is guaranteed due to the strong imbalance of sodium in the body. Fortunately, if the measures to limit the migration of PAHs into the product are implemented and give the proper result, then everything is in order with acids. An exception can only be found when smoking on unsuitable fuel or in a primitive smokehouse during extreme heat or bad weather.

Smoking and smoking sheds

Smoking is usually divided into cold and hot. This idea developed at a time when no one had a clue about PAHs, their migrations in nature and the impact on humans.

From the point of view of modern biochemistry, it would be better to highlight the following smoking methods:

• Fumigation (traditionally cold smoking).
• Cold (traditionally semi-cold) smoking.
• Semi-hot smoking.
• Hot smoking.
• Smoke baking, or quick smoking.

We do not consider the last method.... First, because smoke-baked foods cannot be stored, they must be eaten fresh. And secondly, because there is no need to eat a smoky casserole: in terms of benzo (a) pyrene content, products baked in smoke are not inferior to processed liquid smoke, i.e. 100% rigged; see the end for details on liquid smoke.

Fumigation

Fumigation with smoke, cooled to room temperature 18-25 degrees (for fish - up to 22-35 degrees), lasts from 24 hours, for small fish like tulka, up to a week or more, for the leg of a wild boar or bear. So that the raw material does not deteriorate until it is smoked enough to prevent the development of bacteria, it must be salted in brine beforehand. The consistency and structure of raw materials practically do not change, migration of fat inside the piece is also almost not observed.

The main advantage of this smoking method is that the keeping quality of the finished product is practically limited only by its drying out until it is inedible. In a well-equipped cellar, a ham or brisket smoked by fumigation can be stored for up to 3-4 years without losing its taste, which this type of smoking provides the highest. The way to neutralize PAHs in this case is their natural precipitation in a long chimney. Acidification of products is possible as an exception, on very poor fuel or when smoking in extreme heat: acid radicals react with water vapor and condense faster than benzo (a) pyrene settles.

Note: storing products smoked in any way in the refrigerator is unacceptable - the water condensate settling on them not only spoils the taste, but also begins chemical reactions that make the product harmful. An exception is boiled-smoked sausage, stored for up to 4-7 days at a temperature of + (4-8) degrees, i.e. on the bottom shelf or in the vegetable compartment.

It is unacceptable to take breaks in smoking, as they say in the old manuals, when fumigating, according to modern concepts: cooling the load of raw materials during the break and the subsequent launch of the hearth sharply increase the concentration of PAHs in the products. The same will happen when changing the mode of fuel smoldering. Therefore, it is possible to hope to withstand the PAH content in the norm during fumigation only by using an open-type long-burning smoke generator without pressurization, see below. For the device of a smoker-fumigator, a flat slope with a suitable slope is required, see above, because Smoke generators suitable for this application operate with good natural draft.

Cold

Cold (old semi-cold) smoking takes place at a temperature of 40-50 degrees for 2-36 hours. Products smoked in this way are not inferior in taste and aroma to fumigated cooled smoke, but their keeping quality does not exceed 170 hours. The raw material softens, but retains the structure. Low-melting fats migrate along bones and layers until visible from the outside. Preparation of food - soaking in brine (fresh saturated brine) for 4-24 hours, then soaking for 1-6 hours and quick drying from the surface without heating, for example. blotting successively with 2-3 clean cotton rags.

The main danger in cold smoking is the acidification of products due to the spread of the acidic smoke zone upwards. You can avoid it by smoking only on alder or fruit chips in suitable weather. The requirements for the stability of the smoke generator mode are the same as in the previous one. case, but since the smoking time is reduced several times, it is possible to use a simple hearth.

A homemade cold-smoked smokehouse is most often built on the basis of the design of Yu.Chmyr (in the center in the figure), and he, in turn, set out to make an earthen smokehouse more accessible, on the left in the figure, which has long been known to fishermen and hunter-traders who supply production directly to the market. It is difficult to find a place for a smokehouse-dugout; the soil there must be clayey or dense loam. Punching an adit and a shaft with a total length of more than 2.5 m by hand is also not easy; the smoke from the hearth is adjusted by covering the fire with leaves of wild currants, blueberries, lingonberries, ferns, which is also a problem.

Yu.Chmyr managed to reduce the size of the smokehouse and its dependence on the nature of the soil by extending the chimney with a chamber from a 200-liter barrel and reducing the degree of its loading. Thus, an expansion volume was formed at the bottom of the shaft chamber. This, firstly, made it possible to smoke with wood containing gum and tannins, see below, and obtain products of exquisite taste. Secondly, setting up the smoke generator was reduced to changing the width of the window for air access with an additional sheet of tin or just a piece of board. Thirdly, a short internal chimney (chimney) made it possible, if necessary, to reconfigure the smokehouse for hot smoking, and when building it from bricks, smoke it simultaneously in 2 ways, but only homogeneous products (meat and meat, fish and fish).

But the main secret of Y. Chmyr's smokehouse is the way of PAH neutralization. Their molecular weight is generally greater than the substances useful for smoking, and the moistened (not soaked in water!) Burlap covering the smoking chamber creates, as it were, different cravings for different components of the smoke: the light fractions are kept in the area of ​​the smoked, and PAHs below, gradually settling and burning out in the hearth. Burlap must be natural, hemp or jute.

Note: burlap needs to be kept ready 2 cuts - a little the first dry, a fresh wet one is thrown over it, and a dry one is carefully pulled out. It is impossible to release a puff of smoke, PAHs will rush to the food.

Soon after the appearance of this smokehouse, another interesting feature of it was discovered on the pages of the MK: if you cover the mine with thin branches of willow or willow tree instead of burlap, laid in 3-4 layers crosswise at intervals, then you can beat off the natural smell of some types of game, and make old beef softer. The author of this article knew a fisherman who got the hang of smoking even coots and cormorants in this way. It was unaware that the fresh meat of these birds was unbearable with rotten fish.

Further, the smokehouse of Yu.Chmyr was independently improved by several authors at once: the chimney was slightly lengthened and made tapering to the smoking chamber, on the right in Fig. With the resulting dimensions in terms of approx. 1x3.5 m such a smokehouse can be built in a dacha of 6 acres, taking an infertile area under it. In this case, if the soil is loose and permeable, the hearth chamber and the chimney must be coated with a layer of 5-10 cm clay. it is porous, will strongly absorb PAHs and give them back when heated; for more information on brick smokehouses, see below.

Note: The popular Finnish Apetit aboveground smokehouse-grill is arranged according to the same principle, see its dimensions in fig. Instead of a smoke seal made of burlap or twigs, a hipped roof of the smoking chamber is used in this design. The solution is certainly more efficient and simplifies the maintenance of the unit, but also more time consuming.

Semi-hot and hot

These types of smoking are carried out at a temperature of 60-80 and 80-120 degrees for 1-3 and 0.5-1.5 hours, respectively. Neutralization of PAHs mainly by the "breakthrough" method: a rather dense crust is formed on the products quickly, after a few minutes, and it is easier for harmful components of smoke to fly out into the pipe than to be absorbed into the product. Light useful components through the crust and pass more easily, i.e. the raw material itself creates a protective barrier. Therefore, the requirements for the material for hot smoking are less stringent, wood with tannins and gums can be used, which gives the products a special taste.

During hot smoking, raw materials are heat treated, so the product comes out tender, with a more delicate taste and aroma. Fat is partially melted during hot smoking. The shelf life of finished products is up to 36-72 hours, depending on the product. No preliminary preparation of raw materials is required, which is good for products with an exquisite natural taste: poultry, delicious fish. In addition to the well-known mackerel, blue bream and white fish, fresh frozen (not salted!) Sea bass and shrimp herring are very good for hot smoking. Cheese and homemade sausage are also smoked only hot and semi-hot.

During hot / semi-hot smoking, burnt fat is added to possible sources of PAHs and other harmful substances, so its entry into the hearth is unacceptable. A stationary hot-smoked smokehouse must be equipped with a tray for fat in the smoking chamber or be designed in such a way that the ingress of fat into a smoke generator of any type is excluded, see below for samples of smokers.

For smoking small completely fresh fish, which will take 20-40 minutes, it is possible to use a hot-smoked smokehouse without a pallet with a closed-type smoke generator on alder chips, such as, for example. in a bucket smokehouse (see fig.) and similar structures. You should linger a little at the smokehouse-bucket, because information about it in many sources is distorted. As for stationary hot-smoked smokehouses, they will be considered further in the order of enumerating the images of finished products.

First, the bucket must be made of stainless steel. The coating of the galvanized bucket will burn out very soon, but the point is not that the vessel will become unusable. Burnout of galvanized steel means zinc oxidation. Zinc oxide sublimates, i.e. sublimes without melting, and its vapors are a carcinogen and a toxin no worse than PAHs.

Secondly, it is necessary to put the nets in the smokehouse-bucket exactly at the levels according to the scheme and not lower in any way. The smallest and, most importantly, the skinny workpiece is laid out at intervals on the lower grid, and the larger and fatter one on the upper one.

Thirdly, putting juniper chips into a bucket and drowning them with alder, as shown here and there (let's not poke a finger), is generally nonsense. The alder flame is not very hot; if it heats the juniper through the partition to smoldering, then the PAH content in the product will be almost lethal in the literal sense. Juniper chips, like last year's conifer cones, are conditionally suitable for fumigation in a natural draft smokehouse with a chimney at least 10 m long, and only resin-free smoking materials are suitable for hot smoking.

Do-it-yourself smoke generators

Smoke generators for smokehouses are made of open (hearths) and closed types, with pressurization and natural draft. Sometimes semi-open smoke generators are used - braziers. In the first, the heat required for the thermal decomposition of the smoking material is obtained due to its smoldering, i.e. the smoke material is also a fuel. In a closed smoke generator, smoking material is heated from an external heat source in the chamber through a metal partition; the air in the chamber is pressurized or sucked in through the duct.

Supercharged smoke generators allow you to make the smoker more compact and facilitate the establishment of smoke. As a rule, pressurization is given from low-power sources: aquarium compressors or fans of 12-25 watts. However, in addition to the fact that the smokehouse becomes volatile, supercharged smoke generators have a serious drawback: the zones of deposition of harmful smoke components are shifted towards the products. Simply, the pressurization blows everything indiscriminately towards the smoked, interfering with the natural distillation of the smoke.

Hearths

The simplest smoke generator-hearth is a fire made of wood of smoking material of high humidity (40-70)%. But the smoke from it does not satisfy modern medical and sanitary requirements: the firewood dries up, flares up. The hearth has to be covered with fresh leaves, grass, turf, which will give PAHs a place to roam.

This circumstance was noticed in the old days: people who were forced to eat for a long time on smoked foods cooked on improvised material (explorers, warriors, sailors), were weakened and sick with seemingly sufficient food. Therefore, even in ancient times, through trial and error, smoking centers on sawdust were developed. It was on these that samples of smoked meats were obtained that fit into Russian standards.

The device of sawdust smoking centers for cold and hot smoking is shown in Fig. Firewood and sawdust are from the same type of wood. The secret of sawdust centers is that the thermal decomposition of smoking material occurs at a sufficiently high temperature, over 600 degrees. This is enough to "tear to shreds" and benzo (a) pyrene, and the resulting radicals are chemically active and are immediately neutralized by atmospheric oxygen and water vapor.

Some of the PAHs are formed in the layer of sawdust, slightly shifted outward, where the temperature is less than 400 degrees, but they settle in colder layers. A salvo of PAHs is observed when the sawdust jacket is almost completely decayed, but most of them slip into the pipe past the product that has already been covered with a crust. In any case, the hearth can be extinguished and a reserve one can be ignited, see below, when the sawdust shirt has not yet completely settled.

The disadvantages of open smoke generators are, firstly, high fuel consumption, and smoking materials are much more expensive than firewood from the same tree. Second, the duration of the action of the foci in Fig. higher - 1-4 hours, that is, if one person is looking after the smokehouse, he will not be able to sleep more at once, and this can continue for up to a week or more if the product is smoked by fumigation. In this case, and with cold smoking, the pit - the smoke generator chamber has to be made larger, it has to be partitioned off with a vertical partition and there is a spare hearth ready for ignition to replace the exhausted one.

You can get rid of the last drawback if you are not too lazy and make a smoke generator for smoking from a gas cylinder (see the diagram in the figure). Household gas cylinders of different capacities provide continuous stable operation of such a device for 6-24 hours.

As you can see, this type of smoke generator for smoking is something like a long burning oven turned upside down. The perforation of the smoke collector pipe 5 begins at least 10-15 cm above the bottom of the fuel bunker 4; its bottom is mesh or perforated. Smoke filter 7 - 1-3 layers of steel mesh with mesh from 1x1 to 2.5x2.5 mm. The initial setting of the smoke is carried out by damper 2 to the maximum of its outflow. Using gate 9, the supply of smoke to the smoker is precisely regulated. Through a tee with gates, this smoke generator is capable of serving 2 smoking chambers. The dampers of the gates should have idle windows with a diameter of 3-5 mm so that the generator does not suffocate; then not only will the product spoil, but the generator will have to be restarted. its re-ignition is not possible.

Note: it is unacceptable to use non-polar organic solvents (gasoline, kerosene, solvent, toluene, etc.) to ignite this smoke generator; it is best to ignite it with ethyl alcohol.

Closed

The advantage of closed smoke generators, firstly, in fuel economy: 2-4 handfuls of wood chips are enough to smoke a boiled ham or a large piece of brisket. Secondly, in greater stability of operation and less dependence on the weather: the supply air duct can be made longer and some of the heat of the heating source can be used to heat it, thus drying the incoming air. Thirdly, in the independence of the settings: by adjusting the heating and air supply separately, you can quickly and without experience get a white translucent smoke at the exit, which almost does not eat the eyes, which is what is required for smoking. Finally, closed smoke generators can be loaded not only with sawdust, but also shavings and wood chips.

The disadvantage of closed smoke generators is that the temperature of the smoldering smoking material does not exceed 400-450 degrees, which is not enough for the complete disintegration of PAHs released from wood. Therefore, using them for cold smoking, it is possible to keep within only the European standards. The taste of products smoked in the smoke from closed generators, according to subjective estimates, is noticeably inferior to those smoked in the smoke of the hearth.

In general, the designs of smoke generators for smoking are quite plastic, see the video below; more important is their correct setting from personal experience.

Video: homemade smoke generators for smokehouses

Braziers

In a smoke generator-brazier, the smoking material is heated by a flame through a divider, a mesh or perforated bottom of an open tray, or by electricity; then the bottom of the tray is made deaf. Smoke generators-braziers are somewhat more economical than open hearths, but otherwise they combine the disadvantages of open and closed generators, lacking the advantages of both, therefore they are rarely used, most often in electrically heated smokehouses.

In fig. for example, diagrams of the device for hot-smoked electric smoke from an old refrigerator and a gas cylinder are shown; only the steel body remains from the refrigerator. The disadvantages of both, in addition to the very mediocre quality of products - heating elements or cast-iron pancake of an electric stove burn out very quickly. Modern metal-ceramic air heating elements last longer, but if you focus on the cost of long-term operation, "cast iron" are still cheaper. But not cheaper than ready-made chips for a closed smoke generator.

Smokehouse samples

In terms of its properties, the best material for a smoking chamber is solid deciduous wood. But the wooden chamber has to be periodically, and not so rarely, changed: the tree is saturated with harmful components of smoke, and with hot and semi-hot smoking it can crack faster than it is soaked. Also, the wood is impregnated with the volatile secretions of the smoked, therefore, separate boxes must be kept for meat, fish and poultry. For these reasons, smokehouses are built / made mainly from metal, bricks and other mineral building materials in whole or in various combinations.

Brick and stone

Brick, as you know, is a porous material, so a brick smokehouse is plastered inside with lime plaster on quartz sand or marble chips with the addition of vermiculite. The plaster also has to be changed, but less often: if the filler is sandy, its 5-6 mm layer is enough for 1.5-2 years, and the plaster on marble lasts up to 5 or more years. The soot from the walls of the plastered smokehouse is periodically cleaned off, and to switch to another type of product (meat, fish and poultry), the walls are passed with a stiff brush and the smokehouse is “fried”, heating for half a day at 150-200 degrees inside.

How a compact outdoor hot-smoked brick smokehouse works is shown on the left in Fig. The base is concrete, steel, stone, etc. durable impenetrable. A layer of stones (10-25 cm) on the grate serves as a grease trap and smoke filter. Stones should be taken not very porous, but with sufficient moisture absorption: limestone, dolomite, shale, sandstone. The lid is made of wood with slots. An outlet of a separate smoke generator can be introduced into the firebox, then cold smoking is possible.

Smokehouse on the right in fig. universal, homogeneous products in it can be smoked simultaneously hot and cold; in fact, this is a modified smokehouse by Yu. Chmyr. The bottom and walls of the hot smoking tunnel are coated with clay (if the whole smokehouse is not in greasy clay); tunnel cover - clay coating on the poles and on top of it to reduce the heat loss of the sod. The cold smoking chamber can be built of aerated concrete (not foam concrete!) D200-D400; in this case, plastering of the walls is not required, but it will last for 2-3 years or more.

Metal and stone

Channel-chamber smokehouses of joint smoking are often made welded from steel with a thickness of 2-4 mm. Labor costs in this case are much less; a welded smokehouse can be made for sale or transported from place to place. Steel conducts heat quite well, therefore, in the case of making a smokehouse with the possibility of hot smoking from metal, it is especially important to maintain a stable temperature distribution along the entire length of the working stroke: the zones of deposition of the harmful should not move either to the hot or to the cold sides. From the hot end, this is achieved by facing the tunnel with bricks, and from the cold end, by sizing the smoking chamber and arranging a hipped roof on it. A less time consuming alternative is the sizing and location of the chimney. An additional measure to prevent excess PAH concentration in products is to separate the cold smoking chamber with a mesh bottom with a mesh from 5x5 to 12x12 mm. The mesh creates micro-vortices that "squeeze" PAHs down and more evenly distributes the smoke in the chamber.

A drawing of a welded transportable combined smokehouse is given in Fig. The smoke generator is external. Hot smoking zone - the first 80 cm of the tunnel; marked with color.

Metal

All-welded are mainly smokehouses with barbecue. In fig. 2 common patterns are shown. On the left is a stationary grill with a hot smoking chamber. Its stable temperature regime is maintained, firstly, by the flow of hot smoke from below. Secondly, by the heat radiation of the grill. Thirdly, the gap between the smoking frame and the outer walls. The displacement of the zone of settling of harmful ones into the smoking zone prevents an extended exit from the smoking chamber into the chimney, but there she walks as she wants, therefore, it is impossible to smoke in a cold way in such a grill-smokehouse.

Fully universal brazier-smokehouse "5 in 1" (grill, brazier, barbecue, hot and cold smokehouse) - a well-known brazier-steam locomotive, shown on the right in fig. The main structural material is household gas cylinders of various capacities and calibers. It is possible to smoke in 2 ways at once; in this case, it is advisable to fence off the bottom in a cold chamber (module 1) with a net, as in a channel-chamber smokehouse, at the level of the top of the barbecue / barbecue / hot chamber (module 2).

More metal

The construction of the smokehouse made of metal allows for the required retention of smoke in the chamber, instead of a semi-permeable cover, a water seal can be used. The quality of products from such a smokehouse can be achieved above average, but not elite. But it is possible to smoke at home on gas: so little smoke comes out that it is caught by an ordinary hood over the stove.

How a home mini-smokehouse works is shown in fig; on the right is a top view without a cover. Please note that the thermal decomposition of wood in this product is anaerobic, without air access from the outside. This rather rare way to keep PAHs within the limits of at least the European norm requires selected smoking material: alder or fruit without gum sawdust or chips of the highest quality and room dryness, up to (6-7)% moisture. When the humidity of the smoking material rises above 8%, acidification of the products is very likely!

About distilling smoke

Electric smoke cleaning is widely used in industrial smokehouses. For this, the smoked is surrounded by an electrically insulated metal mesh, to which a negative potential of approx. 20 kV; the positive pole is connected to the steel raw material hangers.

In an amateur environment, such a design is unfortunately not feasible, and it's not just the danger of high voltage. Ions of harmful components immediately settle on the grid, which causes a leakage current. By the end of the smoking process, its value increases to 10-30 mA or more, which at a given voltage corresponds to a power of 0.2-0.3 kW; usually high-voltage installations for industrial smoking are made for a power of more than 1 kW. At a voltage of 20 kV, this is not only a complex and very expensive, but without special precautions and deadly construction.

However, there is a way to clear the smoke of a homemade smokehouse. A diagram of an electric distiller for smoking smoke, available for making with your own hands, is given in Fig. In this case, the smoke generator is generally original, frictional: a spring presses a wooden chock against a steel shell of a drum that is poorly heat-conducting (in the figure - a pulley), but that is not the point.

Magneto from an old tractor or moped gives out pulses of different polarity of different amplitudes, so the mesh is often, as it were, shaken off, throwing off adhered particles of soot. Sooner or later, it still gets clogged, but the operating time of this distiller is enough for hot smoking of not very large fish or pieces of meat / poultry, respectively. size. The degree of mesh clogging is judged by the glow intensity of the neon lamp.

The motor for this installation requires a collector motor with series excitation, i.e. with a very soft external characteristic, for 200-300 watts. In the case of using an asynchronous motor, its power will have to be increased to 1.5-2 kW. Magneto produces voltage pulses with an amplitude of more than 6 kV, so the capacitors must be 20 kV. These can be found in the line scan of old color TVs - "coffins" of the era before monoblock TDKS.

Smoking materials

Much has been said about the requirements for smoking materials above in the course of the presentation. It should also be added, firstly, that smoked on cherries, oak and juniper gives the most refined taste. Contains no resins, no gums, no tannins alder, apple and pear. Oak and beech emit quite a lot of tannins, which gives the taste of products a pungency and piquancy that not everyone likes. The wood of other trees of the order of elm (maple, hornbeam, elm) is not rich in tannins, but the overall taste is so-so. As a substitute for cherries, with a slight deterioration in taste, wood of other fruit trees with gum of the order of pink is suitable: plum, cherry plum, apricot.

Sawdust for smoking is best cut with a hand-held circular saw with a pneumatic waste collector or, much more slowly, with a jigsaw on the lined film. It is impossible to rake sawdust from under the yard circular; contamination of smoking materials is unacceptable! Smoke shavings are easier, for example. on an electric plane or planer, see video:

Video: sawdust for smoking

Homemade wood chips for smoking are more complicated. There are many ways to obtain wood chips at home on the Internet, but in fact it turns out that it is intended for "ennobling" moonshine alcohol. Smoke chips, on the right in the figure, should be more or less calibrated in all 3 sizes. It's not so much about their size (chips for cold and hot smoking of different calibers), but about the fact that the pieces are needed approximately the same and not elongated in length. If not, the material will smolder unevenly, leading to a sharp increase in the PAH content.

A crushing (cutting) machine for wood chips costs somewhere from 65,000 rubles. At first glance, it seems that it can be replaced with a cheaper garden crusher, but the author of this publication, when analyzing more than 30 samples, did not manage to find a single one that would exclude oil from the chain or gearbox from entering the wood chips.

It also seems that it is possible to crush wood chips for smoking with a grinder (angle drill), replacing the disc in it with a homemade hammer (knife) made of spring steel. However, the grinder's gearbox is not designed for long-term series of frequent and strong shock loads and also an expensive tool will not last long in this mode.

Perhaps the best way is to chop wood chips for smoking using a homemade lever cleaver made from a pair of pipes connected by a bolt, to one of which a knife is welded. In half a day, with such a device, it is possible to chop wood chips for smoking, laying raw materials up to 10 kg, and the calibration of the chips is even more accurate than in a factory by sieving through a sieve.

Last secret

In some sources claiming authority, for example. Wikipedia, smoking methods include liquid smoke treatment. Yes, the smoke is distilled before thickening, but all the same, the content of PAHs in the products processed by it goes through the roof and according to European standards. This is evidenced by a number of intra-European benzo (a) pyrene scandals in recent years. This is especially true of cold smoked products: due to the length of the process, production costs are high, high prices are justified, and falsification by unscrupulous manufacturers is very tempting. So we will tell our readers how to immediately distinguish a truly smoked product (on the left in the figure) from “soaked in smoke”, on the right in the same place.

Real smoked meats on the cut are closer in color to raw pink-red meat, times. The crust on it is dense, glossy, two. The cut clearly shows the natural fibrous structure of the raw material, three. Under the crust and on the cut, streaks of fat with a striated surface are visible, four.

Before "smoking" meat with liquid smoke, it undergoes heat treatment, because liquid smoke has almost no bacteriostatic properties, therefore, on the cut, the product "smoked" in this way is pale, with a weakly expressed fiber. The crust is dull, soft; often sticky. Leaks of fat, if present, are barely noticeable, which distinguishes this fake from hot smoked products, as well as the smell.

But an absolutely reliable sign that allows you to immediately recognize from a distance a product "smoked" with liquid smoke is vacuum packaging. Real smoked meats are not packaged in a vacuum, they immediately suffocate. As you can see, it is not so difficult to distinguish real smoked meats from fake ones.