My smokehouse laid a green egg

vaszeit

I wish. I had to buy it.

But here it is, my modest urban smokehouse that uses a MiniMax as a fire pit. I had a heck of a time making it work how I wanted it to, went through 3 redesigns but now it works like a charm.


Why green egg? I wanted something portable and requiring little tending. I also love the smell of the thin blue smoke from my BGE so I wanted that exact same smoke quality in my smokehouse.

My grandpa used a big drum and had a hole in the ground for the fire pit. He made incredibly tasty kielbasa but that set up wasn't portable, looked ugly and required constant tending.

This setup is exactly the opposite. It's tidy and requires little tending. It's portable. It uses little fuel. I use wood chunks to generate clean, nice smelling smoke. All in all, I am very happy with how it turned out and I am using every excuse to fire it up and smoke something.




So far I've made Swojska kielbasa, Krakowska, Andouille and Lisiecka kielbasa. Beef sticks and smoked cured bacon are on the do do list this coming weekend. Recipes and my experience with some of these I posted on my blog, check them out. You may find something new and helpful there.

Any feedback will be appreciated. 

Smoked Krakow Sausage
Lisiecka Smoked Sausage
Smoked Andouille Sausage

lkapigian

Bitching

WeberWho

That's awesome!

Matt86m

Very cool!  Can we get some inside pics?

20stone

So, so massively awesome. The sausage looks great as well. 

ColbyLang

That’s awesome. I’d love to see the inside as well

vaszeit

Matt86m said:

Very cool!  Can we get some inside pics?

 Here is the view inside, without the baffle.


And with the baffle.

SciAggie

That's really cool

WildmanWilson

Is this for only cold smoking? What’s the max temperature you can hit?

lousubcap

Impressive operation right there.  Congrats.

vaszeit

WildmanWilson said:

Is this for only cold smoking? What’s the max temperature you can hit?

This is for traditional smoking (at about ~110F - 140F).

With the bottom damper open about 1/3 of the way I get about 130F-140F inside the smokehouse. 1/2 way to 2/3 way gives me about 165F - 200F. This is all I need for smoking and finishing (baking) sausages, bacon, etc.

I can push it to about 220F but the temp inside the egg gets too high for my liking (close to 1000F).

The smokehouse is fully insulated so I get about the same temps on both hot and cold days. Can't wait to try it in winter.

For cold smoking, below 80F, I use a 6-8 ft SS chimney flue. By the time the smoke gets from the egg to the smokehouse it cools down to pretty much ambient temperature. I also have an opening at the bottom to let some cold air in if the smoke gets above 80F.

I also run the egg low and slow when cold smoking (about 225F-250F at the dome) so the egg puts out a lot less heat to begin with. 

nolaegghead

Nice job.  You can always put a cheap 5000 btu window unit in it and do some sub-ambient smoking.

vaszeit

@nolaegghead @lousubcap @SciAggie @20stone @ColbyLang @Matt86m @WeberWho @lkapigian

Thanks for the kind words guys.

HeavyG

Nice, informative blog post also - https://tasteofartisan.com/smoked-kielbasa/

Well done mate!

vaszeit

HeavyG said:

Nice, informative blog post also - https://tasteofartisan.com/smoked-kielbasa/

Well done mate!

Thank you. This one is indeed informative. I learned quite a bit along the way.

sumoconnell

Very cool! Once you think you've seen all the innovation...

lkapigian

That's a great smokehouse ,makes mine pale in comparison

marysvilleksegghead

Where are you located?
Very interesting post, Thanks

vaszeit

marysvilleksegghead said:

Where are you located?
Very interesting post, Thanks

I am in Toronto, Ontario

unoriginalusername

vaszeit said:

marysvilleksegghead said:

Where are you located?
Very interesting post, Thanks

I am in Toronto, Ontario

Party at your house it seems lol (Burlington)

SGH

Great looking setup my friend 👍

GlennM

unoriginalusername said:

vaszeit said:

marysvilleksegghead said:

Where are you located?
Very interesting post, Thanks

I am in Toronto, Ontario

Party at your house it seems lol (Burlington)

I’m coming for the awesome sausage (Cambridge)

vaszeit

unoriginalusername said:

vaszeit said:

marysvilleksegghead said:

Where are you located?
Very interesting post, Thanks

I am in Toronto, Ontario

Party at your house it seems lol (Burlington)

Always welcome ;-)

KiterTodd

That's very cool looking. Thanks for sharing.

I always pass smoke houses when driving in the country and wasn't sure if they are "cooking" or "smoking".  I guess most are smoking.

So do you have to par-cook most items before you put them in there?

vaszeit

KiterTodd said:

That's very cool looking. Thanks for sharing.

I always pass smoke houses when driving in the country and wasn't sure if they are "cooking" or "smoking".  I guess most are smoking.

So do you have to par-cook most items before you put them in there?

Usually it's the other way around - smoke then cook, or bake as it's often referred to. Meat is cured, ground, stuffed in casings then smoked, followed by baking at 175F - 195F to bring the internal temperature to 154F-158F, which makes sausage ready to eat at that point. 

Baking can be done inside a smokehouse but can take hours and may dry sausage out. Often we poach in warm water (165F or so) for 20-30 minutes. You can also steam or finish in a convection oven. 

But you can also cook then smoke for aroma/color. I recently cooked chicken breasts sous vide then smoked for a couple of hours. They turned out quite good.

MNEggerandStuff

WOW, that is impressive.  I can often blown away by members capabilities in creating these cool setups. 

Would you be willing to share the plans or generic layout to give others that are inspired a starting point to build something similar?  I can totally understand a No answer but I can always hope.

Questions I have are along the lines of the types of wood you used inside and out and why you choose those types...How you settled on the number of and size of the holes in the floor.  Is a fan needed to get the smoke to move through the structure?  Size of the exhaust pipe?  

impressive backyard engineering that is!

vaszeit

MNEggerandStuff said:

WOW, that is impressive.  I can often blown away by members capabilities in creating these cool setups. 

Would you be willing to share the plans or generic layout to give others that are inspired a starting point to build something similar?  I can totally understand a No answer but I can always hope.

Questions I have are along the lines of the types of wood you used inside and out and why you choose those types...How you settled on the number of and size of the holes in the floor.  Is a fan needed to get the smoke to move through the structure?  Size of the exhaust pipe?  

impressive backyard engineering that is!

Thanks. I am not going to say no. Will be more than happy to share what I have. I took some pictures along the way. Will need a few days to organize and write up. Stay tuned.

SGH

vaszeit said:

My grandpa used a big drum and had a hole in the ground for the fire pit. He made incredibly tasty kielbasa but that set up wasn't portable, looked ugly and required constant tending.

Question my friend. Did his setup have 4-10 foot section of pipe buried in the ground to channel the cold smoke into the drum? I ask because that is the setup my grandfather used to make incredible smoked mullet. That is all he used it for but it excelled at that purpose. 

MNEggerandStuff

vaszeit said:

MNEggerandStuff said:

WOW, that is impressive.  I can often blown away by members capabilities in creating these cool setups. 

Would you be willing to share the plans or generic layout to give others that are inspired a starting point to build something similar?  I can totally understand a No answer but I can always hope.

Questions I have are along the lines of the types of wood you used inside and out and why you choose those types...How you settled on the number of and size of the holes in the floor.  Is a fan needed to get the smoke to move through the structure?  Size of the exhaust pipe?  

impressive backyard engineering that is!

Thanks. I am not going to say no. Will be more than happy to share what I have. I took some pictures along the way. Will need a few days to organize and write up. Stay tuned.

I totally understand.  It's really cool.though.  any issues from the neighbors lining up at the door for free samples when they smell it being used?

Sundown

Very clever! Makes darned good sense if you want a long term smoke. I've an old Mini that I just might put to work. Thanks for the idea.

Sammi

Awesome post @vaszeit. nice to see local talent and innovation.
This will have to go on the watch and wish list.