A-maze-N-Smoker Tutorial

SaintJohnsEgger

caliking said:

Eggcelsior said:

Neighbor's yappy dog?

Neighbor's dogs are actually pretty well behaved. Other neighbor feeds a few feral cats and now they have taken to pooping in our front flower beds. I would love to do something incendiary to those felines...

 Are you saying you want to smoke a cat? 

SaintJohnsEgger

I have the round tube version. Cold smoking and adding more smoke to my electric smoker is what I got it for. Amazon sells combo packs of wood pellets so its easy to experiment with different smokes.

EggbertGreenII

I considered what you suggest, but I was concerned that it would be hard here in Florida to keep the temperature down enough if I put the smoke tray inside the Bradley. I've already ordered the Bradley cold smoke attachment and it will be here on Tuesday. I'll be looking for your advice on smoking the bacon. I'm really looking forward to smoking the bacon and some scotch whiskey marinated salmon. Thanks for your help.

BobDanger

Well everytime I come here I find something new I need...just ordered one as well.

Its stupid cold here so I might as well try cold smoking. 

milesvdustin

I always use the pitmaster blend pellets I get a rural king in my amazen smoker tray. I think its 4 different woods

Kent8621

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

DFW

and now I'm buying an amazin smoker...

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

Kent8621

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

thank you for the info, what is the outdoor temp when you do that? do you have to worry about that? i know your in texas so you have a similar climate to north alabama.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

thank you for the info, what is the outdoor temp when you do that? do you have to worry about that? i know your in texas so you have a similar climate to north alabama.

Anything under 100 is fine and that is more for texture than safety. I do it overnight in the summer and any time of day the rest of the year. the belly is cured and soon to be smoked so the danger of being outside the safe zone does not come in to play nearly as much as a piece of meat left out. This is the best time of year to do it around here. 50's-60's outside. 

GrateEggspectations

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

thank you for the info, what is the outdoor temp when you do that? do you have to worry about that? i know your in texas so you have a similar climate to north alabama.

Anything under 100 is fine and that is more for texture than safety. I do it overnight in the summer and any time of day the rest of the year. the belly is cured and soon to be smoked so the danger of being outside the safe zone does not come in to play nearly as much as a piece of meat left out. This is the best time of year to do it around here. 50's-60's outside. 

Can you please walk us through the process? I’ve never gone the cold smoke route for meat, as the almighty Meathead forbids it!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

GrateEggspectations said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

thank you for the info, what is the outdoor temp when you do that? do you have to worry about that? i know your in texas so you have a similar climate to north alabama.

Anything under 100 is fine and that is more for texture than safety. I do it overnight in the summer and any time of day the rest of the year. the belly is cured and soon to be smoked so the danger of being outside the safe zone does not come in to play nearly as much as a piece of meat left out. This is the best time of year to do it around here. 50's-60's outside. 

Can you please walk us through the process? I’ve never gone the cold smoke route for meat, as the almighty Meathead forbids it!

The almighty meathead is dead wrong on this. 

After the cure, rinse it off real good and let air dry in the fridge overnight on a rack if you can. 

Set your egg up for indirect, light your AMS,
load your belly, shut the dome, walk away for for 12-14 hours. 

Thats it. 

HeavyG

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

GrateEggspectations said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Kent8621 said:

question for @The Cen-Tex Smoker can you go more in depth in this cold smoking thing.  i have some time off around the holidays and might give this a try if santa brings me the right tools?  i typically do the bacon in a cure for a week, rinse and then smoke at 200 until the meat is at 150 IT and then vacuum seal for 2 weeks.  curious if this is better or worse.

Im on a plane at the moment but I’ll be glad to share what I know. Im all cold smoke when it comes to bacon and I do it all with the AMS either in a BGE or my KBQ if I need more room. . 

awesome thank you, when you have time if you want to drop me a message i would appreciate it.

when I make bacon and use the BGE to smoke it, I clean out all the lump and put the AMS down in the fire box. I have an adjustable rig so I put in an stone and 1 or 2 racks of cured belly. I use the stone to mix the smoke a little and to shield the belly from what little heat the AMS gives off. Light it and it runs 14 hours overnight. Bottom is wide open, Smokeware cap is either off or wide open if raining. I Use Traeger apple wood pellets; I found the AMS pellets tended to go out more than Traeger. I'll probably buy fancy pellets next time that use 100% wood for the flavor- Traeger uses a base wood and flavored oils to flavor their pellets. I like the quality of the smoke but I'm all about using real ingredients so I'll likely change it up when I'm ready to buy more. I bought 20# of Apple pellets last time and that is a lifetime supply. 

It's really simple and cold smoke bacon blows hot smoked away. I would prefer to get the smoke from a clean burning wood fire pumped into a cold smoke chamber but even I have limits on what I'm willing to do. I can say that this method produces the best bacon I've ever had. Way better than any store bought; even the fancy stuff. 

thank you for the info, what is the outdoor temp when you do that? do you have to worry about that? i know your in texas so you have a similar climate to north alabama.

Anything under 100 is fine and that is more for texture than safety. I do it overnight in the summer and any time of day the rest of the year. the belly is cured and soon to be smoked so the danger of being outside the safe zone does not come in to play nearly as much as a piece of meat left out. This is the best time of year to do it around here. 50's-60's outside. 

Can you please walk us through the process? I’ve never gone the cold smoke route for meat, as the almighty Meathead forbids it!

The almighty meathead is dead wrong on this. 

After the cure, rinse it off real good and let air dry in the fridge overnight on a rack if you can. 

Set your egg up for indirect, light your AMS,
load your belly, shut the dome, walk away for for 12-14 hours. 

Thats it. 

To be fair, Meathead doesn't forbid it. He just thinks that cold smoking meat and fish (fish in particular) shouldn't be done by the average bear. Just like the average bear shouldn't try to drive in Formula 1.

He says that if you are going to do it be sure you know what you are doing and follow expert advice to the letter and recommends Ruhlman's book Charcuterie as a good reference.

lkapigian

AMAZN Pellet Set Up

BobDanger

I like it...building one like it is going to be a winter project now.

lkapigian

BobDanger said:

I like it...building one like it is going to be a winter project now.

I love this thing...plenty of real estate , you find yourself cold smoking things you would not have thought of 

BobDanger

I’ve been looking for an old 1950’s refrigerator, the ones with the porcelain interiors. Those are hard to find so I’m thinking of making one like yours.

blasting

BobDanger said:

I’ve been looking for an old 1950’s refrigerator, the ones with the porcelain interiors. Those are hard to find so I’m thinking of making one like yours.

@BobDanger. Recently I picked up a new 85 gallon salvage drum.  I'm going to make it into a dedicated cold smoker.  It seems huge compared to my 55 gaon UDS.

BobDanger

blasting said:

BobDanger said:

I’ve been looking for an old 1950’s refrigerator, the ones with the porcelain interiors. Those are hard to find so I’m thinking of making one like yours.

@BobDanger. Recently I picked up a new 85 gallon salvage drum.  I'm going to make it into a dedicated cold smoker.  It seems huge compared to my 55 gaon UDS.

I’ve got a smaller one...smaller than a 55 gallon. Please post your plan...u have me rethinking now lol.

lkapigian

Brilliant idea...^^^^^^^

Woodchunk

lkapigian said:

BobDanger said:

I like it...building one like it is going to be a winter project now.

I love this thing...plenty of real estate , you find yourself cold smoking things you would not have thought of 

Have you tried
black salt-really takes on the smoke- 10hrs
cheese its- 2 hrs
gold fish- 2hrs
chex mix- 2-3
nuts
white salt-10
wrap some logs of mozzarella with prosciutto -3
deviled eggs

lkapigian

@Woodchunk salts , SPG various rubs yes....chex mix and gold fish...Brilliant !!

blasting

BobDanger said:hi

blasting said:

BobDanger said:

I’ve been looking for an old 1950’s refrigerator, the ones with the porcelain interiors. Those are hard to find so I’m thinking of making one like yours.

@BobDanger. Recently I picked up a new 85 gallon salvage drum.  I'm going to make it into a dedicated cold smoker.  It seems huge compared to my 55 gaon UDS.

I’ve got a smaller one...smaller than a 55 gallon. Please post your plan...u have me rethinking now lol.

I'll build it next week and post pic here.

blasting

blasting said:

I'll build it next week and post pic here.

@BobDanger  This is as far as I got last week.  Castors on, shelf standards installed, vent holes in, smoker holder and deflector, and painted.  I'm going to use pizza screens - 4-5 levels supported by the shelf brackets.  Then, when smoking sausage the screens and supports come out, and a 3/8" stainless hanging grate sits on the tops of the vertical shelf standards.  The A-Maze-N smoker tray sits off the ground with an ash catcher, and heat deflector above.  I can lower it in with my fire tool.  Once it's done I'll do a post of it's inaugural smoke.

lkapigian

^^^^^^^^nice @blasting^^^^

BobDanger

blasting said:

blasting said:

I'll build it next week and post pic here.

@BobDanger  This is as far as I got last week.  Castors on, shelf standards installed, vent holes in, smoker holder and deflector, and painted.  I'm going to use pizza screens - 4-5 levels supported by the shelf brackets.  Then, when smoking sausage the screens and supports come out, and a 3/8" stainless hanging grate sits on the tops of the vertical shelf standards.  The A-Maze-N smoker tray sits off the ground with an ash catcher, and heat deflector above.  I can lower it in with my fire tool.  Once it's done I'll do a post of it's inaugural smoke.

WOW...That looks awesome. Love the pizza tray idea.

jccbone62

I've tried every suggestion that Cen-Tex and others have provided and I'm still having trouble keeping the pellets burning. Maybe it's the type of pellets that I'm using, so I will start the search for the brand that will burn consistently.

Note, I'm using my XL and airflow shouldn't be an issue, so it must be the pellets. I've even tried the suggestion of putting pellets in the microwave before using them and they still didn't burn for an extended time like others have gotten them to work.

I wonder what pellet brands others have tried that have burned properly?

NDG

2 lb wild Salmon should be ready for Cold Smoke tmrw at 6am.  I followed Ruhlman's book Charcuterie for cure recipe/technique.  It has been a few yrs since I have cold smoked, but just dusted off my A-MAZE-N smoker. 

Last try, I had trouble keeping the pellets lit (I used ones made by A-MAZE-N smoker) when I cold smoked Bacon, so I plan to borrow some traeger pellets from my neighboor and see if it works better.  It is friggin cold here (high 30, low 5) so hoping I dont have to babysit.  

This post was great and I saved as Bookmark, so quick BUMP since its cold weather and maybe others wanna try a cold smoke.  I will post pic of fish after smoke.  Nice bc Ruhlman says it can last few weeks in the fridge wrapped in butchers paper.

NDG

First had to use torch to get egg open- then to light pellets - old man winter was laughing at me - good times.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

An oldie but goodie! I have learned a lot about pellets since i initially posted this and have moved away from Traeger pellets.  Traeger uses a widely available cheap base wood (mostly poplar) and then flavor the pellets with oils. There are many good 100% hardwood pellets out there that use only the wood specified (apple pellets are made from 100% applewood etc). Green Mountain grills uses 100% hardwood like this so i have been using those. I do like them better. I noticed the Traeger applewood pellets were leaving my bacon with a jaundiced yellow tint that was unappealing. I assume that was coming from the oils. That went away when i switched to the 100% hardwood pellets. 

Cant wait to hear how the salmon turns out.