There are a lot of lovers of smoked products, and this is easy to explain. The unusual taste of smoked bacon, fish, chicken, cheese overshadows even the taste of grilled products. Nutritionists do not recommend such a product to those who have problems in the digestive tract: the stomach, pancreas, and liver are sensitive to smoked meats. There is a way out, and those who can afford to have a home smokehouse for a yard or cottage enjoy excellent tastes and excellent contents that do not harm their health. A stainless steel smokehouse is a great opportunity to cook smoked chicken, pork or mackerel at home. And you can do it yourself.
For those who have their own yard
The amount of tar and harmful chemicals in smoked products (benzpyrene and phenols) in a rather threatening amount are contained in the finished product processed with liquid smoke. Another thing is a stainless steel smokehouse, which can be made independently for home use. The advantages of using it are obvious:
- The quality of meat and fish, as well as the quantity depend only on the desire of the owner.
- The type of smoke your product will be processed depends on the species of trees that you use (especially pleasant smoke comes from burning alder, plum and apple firewood).
- The degree of processing you control yourself, that is, smoky to brown or golden color - you decide.
- The benefit of the finished product is much higher, and most importantly - you will receive it in the freshest condition.
Choose the shape of the smokehouse and its size depending on how often and in what volumes you will use it. Compact rectangular is suitable for a small family, and a large barrel or smoking cabinet for those who smoke a product for sale.
Advantages of a Stainless Steel Smokehouse
A stainless steel smokehouse helps out in terms of the safety of the metal itself. Stainless steel is unique in that its composition, where chrome is present, sometimes molybdenum and nickel, provides exceptional durability and excellent wear resistance to things created from it. A special type of food stainless steel AISI 304 withstands sudden changes in temperature (this means that using a smokehouse made of stainless steel - with a water seal, for example, can be done in winter). Food stainless steel is designed to work with acids and salts, aggressive environments, so its operation will provide the highest quality result.
Cold or hot?
For those who smoke different products at home, a stainless steel smokehouse, reviews of which agree that it is best to use a container welded with argon welding , becomes a way for families to make their menu always interesting. Cold smoked products have a longer shelf life, but are also tougher, and when it comes to fat or fatty fish, such smoking will make the product taste great, and if it is a whole poultry breast or poultry carcass, hot smoking will make it beautiful, juicy and soft .
Smokehouse device
Any smokehouse must comply with a certain scheme, therefore one basic rule must be observed: there should not be oxygen inside, otherwise sawdust, wood chips, smoke from which creates an ambient temperature of about 120 degrees, will start to burn. For this, a smokehouse with a water lock is used. Water does not allow air to enter the smokehouse in such an amount as occurs with other types of smokehouses.
The main scheme of the smoking process:
- from the hearth with the fire (a rectangular stainless steel smokehouse can be used both on wood and on a gas burner) located under the smokehouse, heat enters the housing, where sawdust, heated over a fire, slowly smolders.
- passing through the chimney, the smoke smokes the meat product laid out on the grates or suspended and leaves the pipe out.
How to make your own smokehouse for home
Preference is mainly given to hot smoked products , so a stainless steel smokehouse is just that option in which convenience is equal to the quality of the result. The smokehouse can be made with your own hands. Many lovers arrange small smokehouses directly in a stainless steel bucket or in the case of a former refrigerator, supplying (welding) a pipe for smoke exit, arranging levels for a small product: fish, layers of meat, suluguni. But it is worth noting that a stainless steel smokehouse with a water seal has good potential at low cost. Its appearance is very neat and compact, and the quality of the product is excellent.
To make a smokehouse for yourself, you need to consider the technology of smoking. It consists in the processing of hot smoke of meat and fish products. In order for the meat to be smoked efficiently, it is necessary to organize the path of smoke passing from the wood compartment through the food compartment, where sausages and cheeses, carcasses and its individual parts are located, and exit through the pipe to the outside.
The principle of operation of a smokehouse made of stainless steel with a water lock
The function that a water seal performs is to completely seal the smokehouse. For example, a smokehouse made of stainless steel with side clamps or an ordinary lid allows air to pass through - this is obvious. In turn, this is the cause of burning sawdust, which means that the product will also burn and dry. The access of oxygen makes the smoking process faster, but it is optimal only for small products - medium-sized fish, cheese, home-made sausage (it turns out raw smoked). If you need to cook a large bird or to smoke a ham, such smoking is not enough. Therefore, a smokehouse with a water trap will help ensure the correct distribution and intensity of heat, and most importantly, good preparation of the product.
A do-it-yourself smokehouse from a stainless steel can be of any shape and type (round, square, rectangular), but it must correspond to the main structural points:
- Firewood is placed at the bottom of the smokehouse (it is important to observe approximately the same size) or sawdust.
- Above smoldering sawdust, you need to install a grease receiver that traps drops of fat, juice, dripping from meat.
- On a wire rack that is low for hot smoking or high for cold, place meat or fish.
- Close the lid tightly, pour water, acting as a sealant, into the water seal and cook.
How to make a stainless steel smokehouse yourself
To make such a smokehouse with your own hands is not difficult.
The stainless sheet must be cut to the required size (the average smokehouse, in which two chicken or two levels of chicken or fish are mixed at the same time, can be made in the following: length 700 mm, width 400 mm, height 400 mm), then make the seam reliable argon welding. In the lid you need to provide openings for the exit of smoke, and weld the internal grilles from a stainless steel rod. The grease receiver, which is located above the containers with sawdust, can be built on legs - this is more convenient than making shelves for the grease receiver, subsequently they make it difficult to clean the smokehouse. In order to prevent the walls from causing heat during operation, a stainless steel smokehouse (a 3 mm stainless steel sheet is optimal here) must be welded in good quality from good metal. Then the smokehouse will last a long time, and on your table there will always be a beautiful and fragrant tidbit of smoked bacon, chicken or sausage.