Ruedeleglise

After 24 hrs with salt then after 24 hrs having been rinsed off.....cold smoking.

Ah, badly phrased question by me.....I am very new to this alchemy! I meant, really a container to house a side of salmon in the fridge once you have applied salt and sugar to it for 24 hrs.

Can you use Tuppaware containers for sousing ? David.

I smoked some cheddar a couple of weeks ago and stored in in the fridge as advised to let it mature. My wife has chucked it out as it appears to have made other things in the fridge smell of smoked cheese. I must say I agree. I sealed it in a ziplock. What do you wise men and ladies use?

I have just survived a tirade from, I am sure, a misinformed and I hope ignorant but well meaning fellow. He approached me as he was aghast that I had given some home cold smoked salmon to a friend of ours. In effect he was saying that I was risking killing our mutual friend and his family with listeria and botulism! I tried to reason with him but to no avail. His parting shot was “let it be on your conscience if they are seriously ill or die”! I have been an avid eater of smoked food both hot and cold prepared by myself and shop bought for over 70 years. Hasn’t killed me or anyone I know yet! Have any of you been “attacked” like this? If so do you just ignore them or do you have any good authorative put down that you use?

Many thanks.

Sorry a very basic question. I havent been able to find an answer here but I am sure there must be somewhere. How long can I keep smoked salmon, 1. In a fridge, and 2. frozen?

Yes. I see what you mean. Thanks for your advice. As I like to tinker about I will be fitting a fan with variable speed control. Probably the one you have, but running on 6 volts, in a tube with a hit and miss sleeve on the “chimney “ for more control. I am just about to smoke a side of salmon today without the fan, so I will find out ! I will report back later!

All that glistens is not gold, or caveat emptor! In a bout of enthusiasm I bought a “reasonably priced” cold smoking cabinet. It looked the goods in the illustration so I anted up the money and awaited delivery. When it arrived I must say I was impressed. It all slotted together well and appeared sturdy enough. Before I even used it I added two handles either side to make it possible to lift and move about without having to hug it. The instructions were sparse to say the least and when I asked a question I got told “oh no don’t take any notice of that, we now advise ..... Ah well I thought not much can go wrong with a metal cabinet. Now I have to admit I had never cold smoked before, only hot smoked and was used to billowing smoke emanating from every joint etc. Cutting a long story short once I had got a smoke generator that worked efficiently and fired it up, I found smoke billowed out of either side of the vertical sliding front. Yes the illustration shows a hinged door, but the specifications had changed and it was a loose fitting vertical sliding door. Damn all came out of the rather small vent at the top. I have now made a totally different close fitting front from ply which is held on with clips. Smoke now hardly leaks at all and comes out in a steady stream from the vent and a hit and miss vent I put on the top. I haven’t as yet fitted a small extractor fan. I must now smoke something! I hope my impulsive buy has now been converted into a functional unit! Photo 1 the very efficient smoke generator. photo 2 the smoker as illustrated on eBay and photo 3 my set up now.

Purely for family and friends consumption. There are ancient rights apparently if you have a certain number of trees. Apart from that and in addition to that, there is a matter of obeying the 11th commandment. “They shalt not be found out”...!

Yes names keep recurring. Our first home was church street! We return several times a year....we are there now! Only came back as a result of a severe back injury and surgery thus not then being able to continue being a market garden and orchard keeper...plus family pressure. Should have added another skill....helping in the distillation of calvados!

Vous etes francophone?

My forum name is after the road I lived in in France for 12 years in a tiny village where we were the only brits and nobody spoke English. We were adopted totally and became a part of the village. The locals taught me so much about shooting, growing our own vegetables, spit roasting wild boar, hot smoking, collecting food from the wild.....and to appreciate good wine.

Yes. Smoking, Curing and drying by Turan T. Turan. Wade suggested it and it is ace!....£10.

Good advice. I will put my mind to that and the new door once I am back in the uk. Ah yes...thanks for the advice on the book. Got it in 12 hrs through Amazon. What a great read and so much advice.

Ah my smoker is only about 72 litres, so a much smaller fan could be needed or quite a lot of restriction. I have now using draught excluder , ply and a bit of ingenuity cured about 75% of the smoke escapement but it is too Heath Robinson for my liking. A totally new door on the front will be needed. I think I will start a thread on the perils of buying (some) smokers on eBay....looks good but leak smoke like a colander. No good instructions at all and in my experience either no meaningful or no correspondence at all to questions. I will not definitively identify the product for obvious legal reasons.....see my photo!!

That is terrific. What cubic capacity is your smoking chamber as I imagine fan extraction rate must be related to this? In my metal box smoker the door is a vertical sliding unit and the smoke billows out either side, so I have now managed to pull this door forwards to almost stop escape of smoke. This smoker bought on eBay looked so good but it had so many design faults I wish I had built my own.

I would be most grateful for your advice on the type of fan needed. I am probably going to increase the diameter of the holes in the bottom of the smoking compartment which is directly above the compartment that the smoke is blown into from the smoke generator. Again see that photo.

Thanks. I have already made a crude hit and miss extra vent at the top by the small chimney. A small fan sounds a great idea. I will investigate that ......eBay a possibility.

Having read with interest some comments on air flow I have come to the conclusion that my set up (see the photo) needs some alteration.The bottom compartment which I have put a door on, only has 10 or so 15mm holes in its roof which vent the smoke up into the smoking chamber. There are 5 small holes in the side walls but I have taped them over because when the smoker is going most smoke belts out of them and doesn’t go upwards into the smoke chamber. I have already made an extra hit and miss vent in the roof of the smoker behind the chimney but even so not a lot of smoke comes out of there. So my idea is to enlarge considerably the 10 or so 15mm holes in the roof of the bottom compartment to increase the smoke passage upwards. Then I may be able to untape some of the small holes in the side walls to allow more air into the unit from the bottom. There are illustrations of my smoker on eBay. What do any of you think of this idea....crazy or possible? I am thinking of doing this as when the unit is going full chat, smoke belches out round the front vertical sliding door but not a great deal in comparison comes out the top!

Just ordered the book via Amazon.

Thanks again. I have also caught up with the wood question....hickory or oak.

Wow! You reply to my cold smoking post is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks so much. I will be off to Asda in the very near future! One further question....what wood do you favour for salmon. Miraculously my last efforts have met with medium approval from my wife although I am not 100% happy. I think the olive oil repeated rub was a step too far.

The set up is now so that I can just remove the generator then get my trailer out! My hot smoker is totally different, 30 years old and never missed a beat. This smoker I bought on eBay and have adapted it a bit as you can see. The original instructions were pants and I am sorry to say the responses I got from questions were totally inadequate. I have blanked off the bottom with some ply and coupled the smoke generator via copper tubing to keep the temperature down. In fact almost no rise in temp at all. The generator again eBay. Again instructions inadequate and NO replies to questions at all! Yes it has a small air pump. It seems to work a treat with wood chips. My first efforts were with a maze smoke generator.......disaster. I couldn’t see across the garden, Stansted Airport thought a plane had crashed on take off and as the washing got smoked as well, there was nearly a divorce! Salmon totally inedible. Even the dogs screamed and ran away! Hence the small tower generator. Second attempt: a bit better but too salty. Third attempt under smoked so re smoking now. Unfortunately I have used different recipes so can’t compare like for like. This last one advised olive oiling and rum rubs. I think the finished product is going to be too oily.....a odd background taste. I am now going to revert to a simple no frills recipe I have see on google. Just salting to cure, washing off after 24 hrs or so and after a time of equalising, smoking. Sorry this has been such a long post!