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, liver are sensitive to smoked meats. There is a way out, and those who can afford to have a homemade smokehouse for the yard or summer cottage enjoy excellent tastes and excellent content that is not harmful to he alth. A stainless steel smokehouse is a great opportunity to cook smoked chicken, pork or mackerel at home. And you can make it yourself.
For those who have their own backyard
The amount of resins and harmful chemicals in smoked meats (benzpyrene and phenols) is contained in a sufficiently threatening amount in the finished product treated with liquid smoke. Another thing is a stainless steel smokehouse, which you can make yourself for home use. Benefits of using itobvious:
- 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 with depends on the type of wood you are using (alder, plum and apple woods are especially pleasing smoke).
- You control the degree of processing, that is, smoke it to brown or golden color - you decide.
- The benefits of the finished product are much higher, and most importantly, you will receive it in the freshest condition.
The shape of the smokehouse and its size, choose depending on how often and in what volumes you will use it. A compact rectangular one is suitable for a small family, and a large barrel or smoking cabinet is for those who smoke the product for sale.
Stainless Steel Smoker Benefits
Homemade stainless steel smokehouse also helps in terms of the safety of the metal itself. Stainless steel is unique in that its composition, which contains chromium, sometimes molybdenum and nickel, provides exceptional durability and excellent wear resistance to things created from it. A special type of stainless steel AISI 304 withstands sudden changes in temperature (this means that it is possible to use stainless steel smokehouses with a water seal, for example, in winter). Food stainless steel is designed to work with acids and s alts, aggressive environments, so its operation will provide the highest quality results.
Cold or hot?
For home smokers, a stainless steel smoker that agrees best with an argon-welded container is a family way to keep their menu interesting. A product that has been cold smoked is stored longer, but also more rigid, and if it is lard or fatty fish, such smoking will make the product taste great, and if it is a whole bird breast or bird carcass, hot smoking will make it beautiful, juicy and soft.
Home smokehouse device
Any smokehouse must comply with a certain scheme, so one basic rule must be observed: there should be no oxygen inside, otherwise sawdust, wood chips, the smoke from which creates an ambient temperature inside of about 120 degrees, will start to burn. For this, a smokehouse with a water seal is used. Water does not allow air to penetrate into the smokehouse in such quantity, as it happens with other types of smokehouses.
The main scheme of the smoking process:
- from the hearth with fire (a rectangular stainless steel smokehouse can be used both on wood and on a gas burner), located under the smokehouse, heat enters the body, where the sawdust, heated on fire, slowly smolders.
- passing through the chimney, the smoke smokes the meat product laid out on the grates or suspended and goes out through the pipe.
How to make your own smokehouse for home
Preference is mainly given to hot smoked products, so the smokehouse fromstainless steel is just the option in which convenience is equal to the quality of the result. You can also make a smokehouse with your own hands. Many amateurs arrange small smokehouses right in a stainless steel bucket or in the body of a former refrigerator, leading (welding) a pipe for smoke to exit, equipping 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 your own smokehouse for yourself, you need to take into account the technology of smoking. It consists in the treatment of meat and fish products with hot smoke. In order for the meat to be smoked with high quality, it is necessary to organize a path for the passage of smoke from the wood-burning 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 stainless steel smokehouse with a water seal
The function that the water seal performs is the complete sealing of the smokehouse. For example, a stainless steel smokehouse with side clips or a regular 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 out. Access to oxygen makes the smoking process faster, but this is only optimal for small products - medium-sized fish, cheese, homemade sausage (it turns out raw smoked). If you need to cook a large bird or smokeham, such smoking is not enough. Therefore, a smokehouse with a water seal will help ensure the correct distribution and intensity of heat, and most importantly, good cooking of the product.
Do-it-yourself stainless steel smokehouse can be of any shape and type (round, square, rectangular), but must correspond to the main design points:
- Firewood is placed at the bottom of the smokehouse (it is important to keep approximately the same size) or sawdust.
- A fat receiver should be installed above the smoldering sawdust, catching drops of fat, juice dripping from the meat.
- On the grate, which is low for hot smoking or high for cold, place meat or fish.
- Close the lid tightly, pour the sealing water into the water seal and cook.
How to make your own stainless steel smoker
It is not difficult to make such a smokehouse with your own hands.
The stainless steel sheet needs to be cut into the desired dimensions (a medium smoker, in which two chickens or two levels of legs or fish can fit at the same time, can be made in the following: length 700 mm, width 400 mm, height 400 mm), then make seam reliable argon welding. In the lid, it is necessary to provide holes for the exit of smoke, and weld the internal gratings from a stainless rod. The grease receiver, which is placed above the containers with sawdust, can be built on legs - this is more convenient than making shelves for the grease receiver, subsequently they will make it difficult to clean the smokehouse. So that the wall does not leadfrom the heat during operation, a stainless steel smokehouse (3 mm stainless steel sheet here will be optimal) must be of high quality welded 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.
