Cold Smoker

[YetiDave]

I get wood dust from hotsmoked.co.uk - it's £8.50/kg. Not bad considering a full 12-14 hour burn uses less than 100g

[somapop]

I use a medium strength cheese, too strong and we find it conflicts with a light smoke.

Cheers Keith - I'll start with that.
Any experience with some of the more mellower, 'nutty' cheeses such as Emmental, Gruyére, Comté etc? Some of those cab be quite pricy so not sure I'd want to experiment with them if it's simply a lost cause.

Many thanks.

[somapop]

I get wood dust from hotsmoked.co.uk - it's £8.50/kg. Not bad considering a full 12-14 hour burn uses less than 100g

Aye - that sounds good - 10 sessions worth then. Will try them out.
Will definitely look into making my own int the future too.

Cheers.

[keith157]

I get wood dust from hotsmoked.co.uk - it's £8.50/kg. Not bad considering a full 12-14 hour burn uses less than 100g

Aye - that sounds good - 10 sessions worth then. Will try them out.
Will definitely look into making my own int the future too.

Cheers.

Cyderpig is the guy to speak to he does all his own woods, chips etc. Drop him a PM.

[BraaiMeesterWannabe]

I tend to buy smoked garlic, but up to now it seems only the 'skin' of the garlic has absorbed the smoke - the garlic cloves seem to miss out on the flavour.
Salmon is an interesting one. I haven't fully looked into it yet, but is is possible to 'cure' it via the cold smoker (presumably pre brining process first)?
Other than that, I have some bacon hanging in the shed ready to come out...possible stick that on too.

Garlic is not cost effective unless you plan to do loads imo. You need to do it for 20hrs or more.

Smoked salmon is just cold smoked. Salt first rather than brine. Smokey Jo's book is a good place to start for advice.

Cold smoking garlic for 20 hours? And do you genuinely see/taste the benefit in the garlic?

I always presumed smoked salmon was a more complex procedure, but it sounds like it isn't (I've also had a quick look at further guides). Possibly less fuss than hot smoking salmon. Probably most cost effective to buy a whole salmon, then prepare it myself. Not sure whether you know, but is it essential to get hold of a salmon slicer? I have an ok (and fairly longish) filleting knife which might do the trick. Also have a Prosciutto slicing knife which I could possibly use.

Cheers.

I don't think you really get smokey flavour from cold smoked garlic, but it does preserve it. However, I don't think it's worth the hassle.
I have a salmon slicing knife which works a treat. Never used anything else though so not sure I can advise. Not sure what a prosciutto knife is but I love prosciutto and I want one!!!

[somapop]

^^ Like a ham knife I guess! Actually, it's similar to a salmon slicing knife (if not very much the same thing). We purchased one of those 'whole leg' prosciutto's last xmas...came with the holding block and knife. I love it too, but I'd say it's nigh on impossible to cut it into the very thin slices you'd really want your prosciutto to be. They use very expensive machines in Italy to cut this...and you can see why! Cut thick, it's a bit too 'piggy' for my liking.
That knife probably works better with the Spanish cured hams.
Anyway....I couldn't finish the bloody thing off - too much of the stuff!!

[somapop]

I get wood dust from hotsmoked.co.uk - it's £8.50/kg. Not bad considering a full 12-14 hour burn uses less than 100g

Aye - that sounds good - 10 sessions worth then. Will try them out.
Will definitely look into making my own int the future too.

Cheers.

Cyderpig is the guy to speak to he does all his own woods, chips etc. Drop him a PM.

Excellent - will do.
Many thanks.

[keith157]

^^ Like a ham knife I guess! Actually, it's similar to a salmon slicing knife (if not very much the same thing). We purchased one of those 'whole leg' prosciutto's last xmas...came with the holding block and knife. I love it too, but I'd say it's nigh on impossible to cut it into the very thin slices you'd really want your prosciutto to be. They use very expensive machines in Italy to cut this...and you can see why! Cut thick, it's a bit too 'piggy' for my liking.
That knife probably works better with the Spanish cured hams.
Anyway....I couldn't finish the bloody thing off - too much of the stuff!!

Would it not freeze?

[somapop]

^^ We'd hammered it fait bit to be fair (foiling and wrapping each time it was placed back in the fridge) but it had started to turn (we had it nigh on a month) and we were, frankly, getting sick of it.
I think it's the kind of thing I should've purchased before xmas and dishing out to visitors etc. We bought it half price after that (last one left in the supermarket). But really I'm not sure it's the type of meat you can get away with cutting anything other that paper thin...and that's nigh on impossible. Have a relative in Reggio Emilia (food heaven there!) and all his local places use a really expensive slicing machine.
Perhaps the Spanish hams (Iberica etc) would be more forgiving with slightly thicker cuts.

Anyhow - used my cold smoker yesterday. Worked a charm. Just used a few items to start off with:

3 x 350g blocks of medium cheddar cut into half - six blocks smoked. 4 hours as recommend - bagged up for a month

3 x blocks of butter. Do these need time to mature like the cheese?

1 x dry cured bacon (hanging in shed for two weeks). 10 hours (smoke ran out) - smells great and a lovely colour. Will try some tonight - does this also need time to mature (bearing in mind the dry curing time already - 1 week in cure, 2 weeks hanging).

Packet of sausages I had - not sure if these would work? Would the smoke penetrate enough through the skin?

Great piece of kit that worked perfectly. Looking forward to using it more. The instructions state to only use in the winter months, but presume this is for the US market - best too keep an eye on the outside temp - anything above 29c is a no no?
Will definitely pick up one of those recommended smoke/cure books mentioned on these boards.

Many thanks!

[YetiDave]

Anything cold smoked will benefit from a bit of maturing time. Although with bacon just a day or two seems alright For cured stuff anything above 15C is a no no, wouldn't cold smoke anything that hasn't been cured