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My smokehouse laid a green egg

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Comments

  • Wow. Amazing setup and great pictures. Thanks for sharing. 
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    SGH said:
    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. 
    He didn't even have a pipe, just a few bricks and sheet metal on top.
  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    Looks fantastic and tasty!  North of London, On here.

    Your neighbours look fairly close, any trouble with any of them? My brother has a neighbour with a wood burning oven and there is one crank that gives him a hard time about it. His setup is up to code and the proper setback from the property line so he is only a pain, not preventing him from using it.
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    gerhardk said:
    Looks fantastic and tasty!  North of London, On here.

    Your neighbours look fairly close, any trouble with any of them? My brother has a neighbour with a wood burning oven and there is one crank that gives him a hard time about it. His setup is up to code and the proper setback from the property line so he is only a pain, not preventing him from using it.
    Neighbors get sausages ;-)
  • Toxarch
    Toxarch Posts: 1,900
    Cool setup and that sausage looks awesome. 
    Aledo, Texas
    Large BGE
    KJ Jr.

    Exodus 12:9 KJV
    Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

  • Sea2Ski
    Sea2Ski Posts: 4,088
    Man those look good.  You nailed the grind, temperature, humidity, fat content for the right amount of time, along with the appropriate fat content. 

    Looks like you have done this a few dozen times before.  Your post count may be low, but are certainly no newbie. 
    --------------------------------------------------
    Burning lump in Downingtown, PA or diesel in Cape May, NJ.
    ....just look for the smoke!
    Large and MiniMax
    --------------------------------------------------

    Caliking said:   Meat in bung is my favorite. 
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    Sea2Ski said:
    Man those look good.  You nailed the grind, temperature, humidity, fat content for the right amount of time, along with the appropriate fat content. 

    Looks like you have done this a few dozen times before.  Your post count may be low, but are certainly no newbie. 
    Thanks. A few dozen times, yeah, that's about right. One of our favorite sausages. Kids love it.
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    edited November 2019
    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!

    As requested, here is the generic design of my smokehouse. Thought I had taken more pictures but, alas.

    I used primarily 2x2s and 'tongue and grove' boards, with 2x4s to support the roof. The wood is all pine, as that's the cheapest I could find and readily available at Lowes/HD.

    Started off with making a frame with 2x2s, about 65" tall. In hindsight, I should have gone with 2x4's to make it more sturdy but I also wanted the smoker lighter and easily portable. My only gripe is the skinny legs that are not very sturdy, but I am planning on putting the smoker on a metal or wooden frame on casters, so that will take care of it.

    Tongue and groove boards on the outside, 1" thick ceramafiber blanket, then another layer of tongue and groove boards on the inside. The ceramafiber blanket enclosed in heavy duty foil to keep micro fibers from getting inside the chamber through cracks.

    Also have a layer of insulation above the ceiling, on and around the the door.
    In the end, came out having 26" x 28" x 37" (depth/width/height) inside dimensions, and 31" x 34" x 41" outside dimensions for the main smoking chamber. Add 25" for the legs and 19" for the roof.

    To connect frame pieces I used pocket holes, for the tongue and groove boards - 2" wood screws.

    Initially had the intake on the side and a 5' insulated 4-inch chimney flue connecting the egg to the smokehouse. Unfortunately, the temp could barely get to 105F. Decided to go all in and insulated the smoker AND moved the egg under the smokehouse. Don't know how insulation alone would have affected the temps but doing both both gave me exactly what I was looking for.

    At the bottom, cut out a 13" x 13" square and covered with a SS plate with a cut out for a 125mm SS chimney flashing. This was done to insulate wood from the heat of the egg. 

    The hole is covered with a removable, table-like heat shield. It disperses the heat and collects creosote. The more obstacles are on the way to the sausages the more any creosote present in smoke will get collected on them. 

    It's removable to allow adding wood chunks (and charcoal, if necessary) to the egg, you simply drop them down the hole.
     
    Removed the daisy wheel from the cast iron top for better air flow. Removing the top altogether caused the temps shoot up way too high.


    On top goes a 100mm x 125mm SS Chimney Flue Liner Reducer (from eBay) that fits the cast iron top (125mm) on one end and loosely fits the flashing on the other end (100mm).


    There is a gap as a result but that doesn't prevent me from getting the needed temps and provides additional air flow (very much needed especially for initial drying).

    The chimney has a 4" damper (from eBay) to control air flow.

    That's about it in a nutshell. Let me know if you need more information.
     
  • WOW!! That is an awesome job and I can't thank you enough for the information and photos. 

    I would not have done the insulation and the wrap on my first go so I can't thank you enough for just that piece of information let alone the rest! 

    The figured there was a lot that went into the dispersion of the smoke to get it even, another HUGE time and money saver piece of info so thank you again.

    I am surprised at the pine though.  It's not that it's a bad choice but with this board I was kindof expecting something handcut from a brazilian rainforest, cured in some mixture of monkey crap and herbs,  blessed by the gorgeous 20 year old virgin daughter of the Chief of the tribe that only talks to three outsiders ever and who insisted on marriage or adoption of her so that he was insured that the wood would be properly cared for and not fall into the wrong hands.  

    Thank you again!  Although my pocket book may disagree...

    Home Depot here I come!  

    Anyone have a used mini or small for sale?
  • I need to build something like this for cold smoking 

    2 LBGE, Blackstone 36, Jumbo Joe

    Egging in Southern Illinois (Marion)

  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    edited November 2019
    I need to build something like this for cold smoking 
    For cold smoking all you really need is a box of some kind and a long 4" chimney flue. It will look something like this, but without the insulation on the flue:

    (This is one of my initial designs that didn't work well for hot smoking, as it would only reach 105-107F max).

    No need to insulate the box either, or get fancy with it. You can, of course, but there is no need. The one that I built specifically targeted the ability to reach and maintain temps in the 110F to 200F range.

    I would use my existing large BGE for cold smoking too. You can probably substitute SS chimney flue (expensive! unless you get a deal on craigslist) for an aluminum duct pipe too, as you won't be running the BGE higher than 250F or so.
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    edited December 2019

    Made more sausages in my MiniMax smokehouse. Loving its ability to hold low temps and the quality of smoke.

    Kabanos - https://tasteofartisan.com/kabanos/

    Swojska kielbasa - https://tasteofartisan.com/best-polish-kielbasa-recipe/

    Garlic kielbasa - https://tasteofartisan.com/garlic-sausage/

  • bobroo
    bobroo Posts: 143
    What fuel(s) are you using? 

    Please don't tell me Royal Oak.


    If it's brown, it's cook'in....If it's black, it's done ---my Grandfather     Medium BGE
  • Eoin
    Eoin Posts: 4,304
    What a great project, well done.
  • CPFC1905
    CPFC1905 Posts: 1,849
    Eoin said:
    What a great project, well done.
    Jewson delivery around yours on Tuesday morning?

    Share with the group why you are interested (unless you've stuck it on the 'buying' thread already).   
    Other girls may try to take me away 
    But you know, it's by your side I will stay
  • bobroo said:
    What fuel(s) are you using? 

    Please don't tell me Royal Oak.


    I use maple wood lump charcoal and mostly cherry and hickory wood chunks for smoke. Sometimes oak, pecan, and alder.
  • Eoin said:
    What a great project, well done.
    Thank you.
  • vaszeit
    vaszeit Posts: 22
    Early this spring I did quite a bit of cold smoking and I have to say I am quite happy with the performance of my Green Egg Smokehouse. I could hold the temperature at about ambient, e.g. smoking at 56F outside the temp inside the smokehouse was about 58-60F. But I noticed that higher than ambient temps are better as that facilitates upward airflow. Otherwise, the smoke tends to linger at the bottom.


    Cold-smoked this Speck for 3 days at 4 hours per day... now it's in the curing chamber. Can't wait to cut into it...