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Many manufacturers make smoked meats using “liquid” smoke and other chemicals that do not really smoke the meat, but only give it a specific smell and taste. This method has little in common with traditional smoking. For the preparation of delicacies, high-quality raw materials and time-tested technologies are used.
Products prepared by cold smoking are stored for a very long time and retain their unique smoky taste. You can make such delicacies at home, the only thing you need is a smoke machine. Such an installation is not cheap, you can save a lot by assembling a smoke generator with your own hands.
Purpose of the device
A smoke generator is a device in which fish and meat are saturated with smoke for a long time. Most often, a cold smoke generator is driven by gas. A jet of fuel is supplied to the smoking cavities under high pressure.
Smoking devices differ in the size of the smokehouse, the duration of operation and the amount of smoke produced. If you plan to produce delicacies for yourself and your family, a small installation will suffice. Up to five kilograms of meat or fish can be put into the smoke generator at a time.
Do-it-yourself smoke generator
In order to make a smoke generator for cold smoking with your own hands, you can see the finished drawings.
They will help you while you work. The smoke generator circuit will serve as an assistant throughout all stages of the construction of the structure.
All of them have a cylindrical body made of metal. Solid fuel is placed in it, where it smolders. It is due to the slow burning of the wood chips that abundant smoke is formed in the body. Various wood inclusions are used as fuel for the smoke generator: apple, pear and other species.
In order for the chips to burn slowly, they must be laid in a special way. To ignite the raw materials, a hole is mounted in the lower part of the housing.
Smoke is generated in the furnace of the smoke generator. The process can proceed in two different ways:
- A stream of air slowly enters the body of the smoke generator, due to which the fuel smolders. The damper on the design window allows you to adjust the level of oxygen supply.
- The structure has two chambers. A place for fuel is installed under the smoking chamber, and fuel is placed on a metal pallet from below. Due to this arrangement, smoke enters the upper chamber of the housing.
In the smoking chamber, the meat is placed at different levels. Filled with smoke, the tank and the products in it are saturated with smell. It is important to carefully monitor this process. Gas and electric furnaces will help facilitate smoking.
Generator Cooling Methods
In the process of cold smoking, as the name implies, cold smoke is needed. However, initially during the combustion process, warm smoke is formed, so it is cooled. You can build a smoke generator for a cold smoked smokehouse with your own hands quite quickly. For this, a drawing and instructions are drawn up in advance.
Water cooling
To make a do-it-yourself water-cooled smoke generator, you need two tanks. In this case, one of them is located inside the second. Water moves in the outer vessel, to reduce consumption, the degree of supply is reduced.
An internal water vessel cools the smoke. Touching its cold walls, the stream cools down. For high-quality uniform smoke, a regular pressure of water is necessary.
Air cooling
The cooling process itself is carried out due to the heat exchange of the smoke generator. The advantage of such an installation is low cost and a simple device. The smoke generator coil can be of any length and diameter.
To save the installation coil is placed around the firebox. Good circulation of air masses is needed, otherwise the hot case will not allow the smoke to cool.
Assembling the smoke generator
To design a smoke generator for cold smoking with your own hands, you will need drawings.
For the construction you will need to select materials:
- profile steel pipe for smoke supply with a diameter of 2-5 cm;
- pipes of square or round section;
- corrugation or metal sleeve for the outlet pipe;
- tee adapters;
- compressors;
- wiring.
Assembly requires welding equipment and a grinder. When installing a smoke generator, you need to consider the following nuances:
- If the bottom of the structure is removed, the doors on the sides of the case are not made;
- The cover on the upper part of the body is not equipped with ventilation and other openings; special repulsive structures are mounted on it;
- At the top of the installation, a smoke outlet is installed by welding the fitting perpendicular to the wall.
- Cut the threads of the smoke generator fittings.
- As soon as the chimney part is installed, the tee element is connected.
- The compressor line is attached to the nozzle.
- The fan is replaced by a cooler from the computer.
The tee must be mounted on the cover. It is important that the integrity of the walls is not compromised.
The design can be combined. Some parts in this case are purchased in a store, some are made from improvised materials. Such an installation can be stored in the basement or garage. The volume of the container directly affects the amount of products that can be smoked in it.
The device works like this:
- The device is mounted on a heat-resistant base. Usually it is a concrete slab.
- The structure heats up pretty quickly.
- About 0,8 kg of sawdust is placed in a container.
- The lid of the structure is closed.
- A compressor pipe is connected to it, and the chimney is connected to the smoking chamber.
- Fuel is ignited through the side hole.
- Turn on the fan.
Using a thermometer, you can determine the temperature in the smoke generator. During the construction of such a structure, materials that are at hand are used. To make a smokehouse with your own hands, pots and similar cylindrical containers may come in handy. The chimney is made from any pipe that is at hand. This unit can be operated without a fan. The thrust will then be weaker.
If there are many improvised materials, as well as experience in creating such structures, it will not be difficult to build a smoke generator for cold smoking.
Smoke generator assembly features
In order to constantly supply air to the device, a pump is installed. If not, an aquarium compressor can handle the task. A home fan can also be used for this purpose. It is only necessary to connect the air source to the plastic bottle. Now the element can be considered ready. The device of the smoke generator is quite simple, however, it requires special attention.
The main difference between the device for smoking is that wood of almost any species is suitable for fuel. Pine and spruce will have to be abandoned, since they contain a lot of resins that interrupt the smell of the dish. How large the chips will be does not matter. However, if sufficiently fine sawdust is used as fuel for the smoke generator, the structure should be supplemented – a spring should be installed through which smoke will pass through a layer of sawdust.
The temperature of the smoke in the smoke generator is very important for the final result. The aroma and appearance of the products depends on this indicator. Many models of smoke generators allow you to adjust the temperature at your discretion. You can reduce or increase the length of the nozzle. For the main smokehouse, you can choose different products. Do-it-yourself installation and connection of a compressor for a smoke generator is a rather complicated process that should be entrusted to a specialist. You can figure out how to make a smoke generator in the process of preparing materials.
Often, a gas cylinder is used for a smoke generator smokehouse. A metal barrel will also come in handy. For cold smoking, you can adapt a non-working refrigerator. This is due to the fact that such structures are quite tightly closed. They are perfectly insulated and can maintain a certain temperature inside.
As you can see, building a cold smoked smoke generator with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem. All you need is your free time and your own imagination. Such structures are made practically from improvised materials.
To understand the process of creating a smoke generator, it is better to watch a video that shows an already made demo generator.
