cold smoking

[sparky]

a good friend of mine gave me a book (thanks deb).  Charcuterie, the craft of salting soking, and curing.  spend the last 4 hours reading it in the back yard.  for cold smoking you suppose to use temps below 90°.  i like cold smoked salmon (lox right?).  do you need to use any temp?  can you use a amaze smoker tray to just use smoke but no heat?  i know that smokin-it has a #3 that goes from 100° - 250°.  w/ a cold smoke plate and ice easily could get it below 90°.  smoke, can you get your cookshack below 90°.  don't you cold smoke cheese too?  the book is cool.  i think i can make maple cured bacon, smoked ham hocks, home cured sauerkraut, cured cold smoked salmon or just about any fish.  you can't get a pellet grill or charcoal to get into lower temps.  ok, so i guess i need to sell my snowboard & binding (not using them anyway.  i fall to much.  how do you heal stop?) for a electric smoker.  ya, a new adventure.   

[ACW3]

Sparky,
That Oryx summer sausage I made recently was cold smoked for several hours with just the tube filled with apple pellets.  I used my MAK, but did not turn it on until it was time to finish smoking it.  Then I only turned it on to the smoke setting until the cook was done.  When I do fish (like salmon or steelhead trout) I use a dry brine with them first to draw off as much liquid as possible.  The recipe I have been using with great success is the Alton Brown Smoked Salmon recipe.  Check it out on the web.  He gives some good hints.

At this rate you will be buying a grinder, stuffer and all the tools to start making your own sausage, soon.  I just finished putting two versions of my elk and Russian boar into casings.  They need to sit awhile before I get the MAK out and fire up the tube again.  All my summer sausage recipes used cure No. 1.

Good luck.  There is a lot to learn.  There is also a lot of fun to be had.  Besides, you have access to the world renown sausage maker, Rick!!  I'll help where and when I can.


Art

[nepas]

Sparky

Cold smoking with the AMZNPS.







Dont use ice when cold smoking cheese (trust me)

[TMB]

Love cold smoking cheese.  But I don't have a fancy set up like Rick's  I just set it in the Bradley and leave the door cracked a little. It does work and temps stay around 90 to 95 even better in the winter

[sparky]

i got that same tray rick.  so i don't need a electric smoker.  couldn't i use my 22 WSM w/ a amaze tray in the bottom?

[RickB]

Spark don't know if you still have a 2 star but if you do put your amazing smoker in the warmer drawer and your food in the main chamber. Leave the unit off. Your temp will never get above ambient and the smoke will migrate to the main chamber.

[sparky]

Spark don't know if you still have a 2 star but if you do put your amazing smoker in the warmer drawer and your food in the main chamber. Leave the unit off. Your temp will never get above ambient and the smoke will migrate to the main chamber.

don't have a 2 star rickyB.  only 1 stars. 

[nepas]

spark

as you know i did many a cold smoke on my MAK

Just put the item to be cold smoked opposite the amzns. easy peasy

and yes you can use the amzns at the bottom of your wsm, natural draw is upward

[Keymaster]

Here was my cold smoke of cheese from last weekend in a ceramic cooker.

click to see cheese

[LostArrow]

You can cold smoke with a sawdust or pellet maze or tube in any box that allows airflow.
I usually use my barrel grill & my sawdust maze in non summer months.
Don't spend anymore money you've got everything you need.

[sparky]

I usually use my barrel grill & my sawdust maze in non summer months.
Don't spend anymore money you've got everything you need.

ty very much i will take your advice.  sending daughter to costco now.  i'm thinking apple pellets in the 22 WSM for 4 hours?  i don't have a shrink wrap machine.  ziploc bags and cellophane will have to do.   

[TentHunteR]

you can't get a pellet grill or charcoal to get into lower temps.

Sure you can, no problem! I've cold-smoked lots of stuff on my old Weber kettle and offset stick burner both.  The A-Maze-N smokers make it easy.

Another option is to do it the old-school way: just a few charcoal briquettes and a chunk of wood (or pellet pack). That's exactly how I cold-smoked the picnic hams on our Weber Kettle just this past holiday season.

[fishingbouchman]

I did some cheese a sew weeks back on the mak 1 star. Put the tube on one end and the cheese on the top rack as far away as I could. turned out great. Just got yelled at by the wife a couple minutes ago because I got more cheese to smoke before it starts getting to hot.

Don't have a vacuum sealer myself. Used saranwrap and ziplock and cheese is holding up great. Been 4-5 weeks now.

[Phil LaMarche]

Many thanks for the inspiration. Just ordered the Amazing Smoker and will look forward to using it.  Phil