If you don't know where to put your obsolete refrigerator, turn it into a smokehouse and enjoy your favorite delicacies. So you will save on dubious store-bought smoked meats and not waste your health. Unlike purchased delicacies, which only harm health, hand-made smoked meats are absolutely harmless and suitable for the most “delicate” stomach, including a child's. Decide what you like best: juicy hot-smoked fish or aromatic cold-smoked delicacies that have retained useful properties, and start creating a homemade smokehouse.
What is needed to create a smokehouse
Many people transport the old refrigerator to the dacha, after which it is used very rarely or is turned off. But this does not mean that it cannot be useful. Such products are ideal for creating a small home smokehouse. In addition to the refrigerator, you need to have other parts and materials:
- a pipe about 4 meters long;
- refractory bricks;
- metal firebox cover.
The firebox can be created from various metal products of a suitable capacity. Old washing machines are often used. Before starting work on creating a home smokehouse, it is worth removing all additional parts of the structure from the refrigerator. In this case, it is important to remove all plastic, since under the influence of high temperature it will begin to melt. You only need the body of this device.
If you create a smokehouse from the refrigerator with your own hands, it is important to draw up a drawing of the entire structure in advance along with the firebox. To do this, it is enough to consider the drawings of ready-made smokehouses. When creating a scheme, it is important to calculate the length of the chimney between the smokehouse and the firebox (if a structure for cold smoking is being created).
Hot smoking
It is also not difficult to smoke products with a hot method, but it is more expensive. If a craftsman has a large supply of various parts and unnecessary burners, then this method is very simple for him.
The first thing worth paying attention to is that a smoke generator is required for hot smoking. This device is easily implemented from available tools. Why is an old frying pan with thick walls and a lid taken? Holes are punctured in the bottom. An armored hose cuts through the flange in the cover. For him, it is better to use material from 0.5 to 1 m long. Then it is placed in the refrigerator, crashing instead of the old compressor.
Smoke generator
Naturally, as in the first method with the cold method, all unnecessary parts are removed from the unit according to the same principle. A used electric heater (from an old heater) with a capacity of 1000-1200 watts is installed below. They must withstand temperatures of 60-80 degrees C. They can be replaced with a conventional electric stove.
Placement of the shade
The product is placed in the finished smokehouse for several hours, depending on the recipe. The sliver is placed in a generator, which in turn is placed on a fire or stove. The shadows are activated and the process starts. A pleasant result is obtained in a matter of hours.
Smokehouse instructions
After disassembling the body of the old refrigerator and removing unnecessary elements, it is necessary to make several holes, which are needed for the smoke to escape from the refrigerator during smoking. To create a do-it-yourself hot-smoked structure that will use electricity, you need to place an electric stove from below. On top of it, a sheet of steel with a thickness of at least 5 mm is laid.
To create a smokehouse that does not depend on electricity, you need to make a hole in the refrigerator for a pipe that will be led from the firebox. If the pipe diameter is less than 10 cm, insufficient amount of smoke may come out of the firebox. The pipe must be positioned diagonally downward towards the firebox.
The pipe must be laid in the ground. This will further reduce the smoke temperature. The opposite end of the pipe to be laid should be located in the firebox located in the pit below the refrigerator level. The pit should be laid out of refractory bricks.
Before the smoking process, food is hung and laid out in the refrigerator, after which the door is tightly closed.
Important! If products that have been in the refrigerator are used as food grids, they must be burned to remove the paint.
Many site owners who own their own smokehouse know that using incompletely dried wood can lead to condensation and an unpleasant crust on the food. To avoid this, you can make a two-chamber firebox, in which case it will have two chimneys. In the first chamber, it will be possible to stack firewood, regardless of their quality, and in the second, coals for smoking will be located.
Important! Do not use softwood sawdust for smoking, as this will lead to the appearance of a bitter aftertaste.
In the summertime, the temperature in the smokehouse is maintained without the use of additional materials. In winter, it is necessary to use fireproof fabric or other materials that are not afraid of high temperatures and are able to retain heat.
Before making a smokehouse from an old refrigerator, you should consider a photo of such structures. This will help you avoid mistakes. For example, many people forget about creating smoke vents at the top of the refrigerator.
Little tricks
To save some of the sawdust, you can place all the products on the lower shelf, and fix a tin reflector on top. If the rear panel of the refrigerator is replaced with heat-resistant glass, it will be possible to observe the smoking process without opening the door.
If a structure is created for smoking with your own hands from a refrigerator and an electric stove, this device often does not fit due to the fact that the body narrows from below. The solution to this problem is quite simple - you just need to turn the refrigerator over.
Thus, you can create a smokehouse from materials that are already on your site without purchasing expensive equipment.
Regular smokehouse from the refrigerator: device and advantages of use
Fans of pampering themselves with smoked fish with beer or delicious meat will surely appreciate such a device as a smokehouse. And if you do it yourself, then eating such products will be doubly more pleasant.
The advantages of such a smokehouse:
- Ease of use and ease of creation;
- The speed of cooking without additional processing of products;
- A small amount of required materials;
- Minimum cash costs.
True, in addition to such advantages, there are several disadvantages:
- Such equipment is too small for smoking products for sale;
- Due to the rather large size, you cannot take such a smokehouse with you to nature;
- Unassuming appearance.
Before starting the process of manufacturing the unit, you should figure out what the smokehouse consists of.
The main elements of a homemade smokehouse:
- The body of the device - in other words, the refrigerator itself;
- Smoke outlet;
- Grease tray;
- Smoking lattices;
- Sawdust container and heating element, if the smoker is created for hot smoking.
Considering that all insulation will be removed from the refrigerator, and the door will not be able to hold, a special hook can be attached to it.
If desired, a homemade smokehouse can be painted or decorated.
Firebox
The smokehouse firebox from the refrigerator should be located in a recess and at a sufficient distance from the smoking chamber so that the smoke has time to cool. If a structure for hot smoking is being created, you can create a firebox directly above the chamber. But this should be done only if the bottom of the refrigerator is made of a thin metal sheet. When choosing this option, the sawdust is stacked in the smoking chamber itself. It should be remembered that they must be moist so as not to catch fire from the rise in the bottom temperature.
If a cold smoked smokehouse is created, the sawdust is placed in a firebox at a distance from the refrigerator. When creating a structure, the foundation is not laid. When creating a firebox, the bottom is laid with brick or steel sheet.
The pipe leading to the refrigerator can be elbowed or straight, but located diagonally. In order for the smoke to come out of the refrigerator in small portions, several holes need to be made in the upper part of it.
Recommendations
If you are going to create a smoker from a refrigerator, it is better to choose an older model. This is due to the fact that such devices have much less plastic, so it will be easier to clean it of unnecessary components before installation.
For smoking, you should use cherry and alder sawdust. Apple, plum and cherry sawdust is used to create the scent. To save fuel, it is worth installing the smokehouse in a draft-free location.
Place a container under the food in which fat will accumulate. If this is not done, it will drain onto the sawdust.
Using different smokers
In order for the smoked product to turn out soft and juicy, it must be properly prepared, however, the recipes are not of interest to us now, so we will have to skip this step. The electric smokehouse is connected to the network and while the spirals are heating up, a container with sawdust is installed, a tray is placed on top, in which fat will accumulate, sieves are placed.
To exclude the possibility of ignition of the material, chips or sawdust are moistened with water.
The appearance of smoke indicates the beginning of the smoldering process. At this time, the products are laid out on sieves so that there are gaps between them. This condition must be observed so that the smoke covers the entire surface.
The smoking process does not take long. Usually, in small smokehouses, it is recommended to open the lid slightly to remove excess moisture. In our case, the large volume of the refrigerator will not allow the humidity to reach that undesirable level, so the food will be cooked continuously. Only after the required time can you open the door and assess the readiness of the product.
The difficulty of carrying out cold smoking is that this process must go on for the first eight hours continuously. To do this, you need to stock up on enough firewood. The fire is made in the firebox, and after the firewood is burned out, sawdust soaked in water is poured onto the coals.
Care should be taken to ensure that they do not ignite. Each master uses his own technology. Some constantly wet the sawdust, while others pour the sawdust onto a metal tray. Some burn small branches of raw fruit trees.
Cold smoking can last for several days. The exact time of the process depends on the raw material and the way it is prepared. It is important to choose the right temperature regime, therefore, it should be taken into account that different types of wood emit different amounts of heat.
