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Many manufacturers make smoked meats using "liquid" smoke and other chemicals that do not really smoke meat, but only give it a specific smell and taste. This method has little to do with traditional smoking. For the preparation of delicacies, high-quality raw materials and time-tested technologies are used.
Cold smoked products 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 installation. Such an installation is not cheap, you can save a lot by collecting smoke generator do it yourself.
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 smoke generator for cold smoking is powered by gas. The jet of fuel is supplied to the smoking cavity under high pressure.
Smoker devices differ in the size of the smokehouse, the duration of operation and the amount of smoke produced. If you are planning to produce delicacies for yourself and your family, a small installation will suffice. The smoke generator can be loaded with up to five kilograms of meat or fish 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 metal body. Solid fuel is placed in it, where it smolders. It is due to the slow burning of the chips in the body that abundant smoke is formed. 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 material, a hole is mounted in the lower part of the body.
Smoke forms in the firebox 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. A damper on the window of the structure allows you to regulate the level of oxygen supply.
- Two cameras are arranged in the design. 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. Filling with smoke, the tank and the products in it are saturated with smell. It is important to monitor this process carefully. Gas and electric furnaces will help to facilitate smoking.
Generator cooling methods
Cold smoking, as the name implies, requires cold smoke. However, initially warm smoke is formed during combustion, so it is cooled. You can build a smoke generator for a cold-smoked smokehouse with your own hands pretty quickly. For this, a drawing and instructions are drawn up in advance.
Water cooling
To make a water-cooled smoke generator for do-it-yourself smoking, you need two tanks. In this case, one of them is located inside the second.Water flows in the outer vessel; to reduce consumption, the feed rate is reduced.
The inner water container cools the smoke. Touching its cold walls, the stream cools down. For high-quality uniform smoke, a regular pressure of water is required.
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 its low cost and simple device. The smoke generator coil can be of any length and diameter.
To save money, the installation coil is placed around the firebox. A good circulation of air masses is needed, otherwise the hot case will not allow the smoke to cool.
Smoke generator assembly
To design a smoke generator for cold smoking with your own hands, you will need drawings.
For the construction, you will need to choose materials:
- profile steel pipe for supplying smoke with a diameter of 2-5 cm;
- square or round pipes;
- corrugation or metal sleeve for the outlet pipe;
- tee adapters;
- compressors;
- wiring.
For assembly, you need welding equipment and a grinder. When installing a smoke generator, you need to take into account the following nuances:
- If the bottom of the structure is removed, the doors on the sides of the case are not made;
- The lid on the upper part of the case is not equipped with ventilation and other openings; special refractory structures are mounted on it;
- A smoke outlet is installed at the top of the unit 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 branch pipe.
- The fan is replaced by a computer cooler.
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. In this case, some of the parts are purchased in the store, some are made from scrap materials. Such an installation can be stored in a 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. This is usually a concrete slab.
- The structure heats up pretty quickly.
- About 0.8 kg of sawdust is placed in the container.
- The cover of the structure is closed.
- A compressor branch pipe is connected to it, and the chimney is connected to the smoking chamber.
- The fuel is ignited through the side opening.
- The fan is turned on.
A thermometer can be used to 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 can be useful. The chimney is made from any pipe that is at hand. Such an installation can be operated without a fan. In this case, the thrust will be weaker.
If there are many materials at hand, as well as experience in creating such structures, it will not be difficult to build a smoke generator for cold smoking.
Features of the assembly of the smoke generator
To ensure that air is constantly supplied to the device, a pump is installed. If not, the 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. The element can now be considered ready. The device of the smoke generator is quite simple, however, it requires special attention.
The main difference between the smoking device 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 are does not matter.However, if sufficiently small sawdust is used as fuel for the smoke generator, the structure should be supplemented by installing a spring through which the smoke will pass through the layer of sawdust.
For the end result, the temperature of the smoke in the smoke generator is very important. The aroma and appearance of products depends on this indicator. Many models of smoke generators allow you to adjust the temperature at your discretion. It is possible to decrease or increase the length of the branch pipe. There are various products to choose from for the main smokehouse. 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 the smokehouse of the smoke generator. A metal barrel is also useful. An idle refrigerator can be adapted for cold smoking. This is due to the fact that such structures close quite tightly. They are perfectly insulated and can maintain a certain temperature inside themselves.
As you can see, building a cold-smoked smoke generator with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem. You only need free time and your own imagination. Such structures are made practically from scrap materials.
To understand the process of creating a smoke generator, it is better to watch a video in which the already made demogenerator is presented.
