People asked me to post some pics a while ago of my frig turned into a smoker. Well here you go.
(http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag355/SoCalAngler1/IMG_0566_zps6nxpk8z2.jpg)
(http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag355/SoCalAngler1/IMG_0567_zpstmfqfmmu.jpg)
(http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag355/SoCalAngler1/IMG_0568_zpswyyrzjmw.jpg)
(http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag355/SoCalAngler1/IMG_0569_zps2avs5fst.jpg)
(http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag355/SoCalAngler1/IMG_0570_zpszrvcplmt.jpg)
This smoker only has been used around 4 times so it has not had a chance to build up that brown patina yet of a well used smoker but soon enough it will look like my last one.
Have you ever heard the thing about not using fridge racks for smokers, to use oven racks instead, something about the coating on fridge racks and heat ?
I have not but thanks for the heads up. As far as I can tell these are just stainless steel without any coating. I have scrubbed the racks with steel wool to clean them and just hose them off after. I have not seen any type of coating on the wire racks and they don't rust either, their heavier than aluminum so my guess is that their just made of stainless wire. I have seen some frig's with coatings on their racks that are white in color but these are only bare metal as far as I can tell.
I smoked salmon for many years in a similar set up. The main difference was my fridge was an older all metal one. And my burner had no thermostat--it was either plugged in or it wasn't. Never had the "smoker" get too hot and never had any problems with the fish. Not really related to this type of smoker, but we always smoked the "bones" too. They went back out on the boat for snacks. Seemed like the bones always were better than the rest of the smoked fish. Probably because it was thinner and had spice rub on both sides. All smoked fish is Good Eats!!
TomT
That looks like it should work just fine. Plenty of capacity for most jobs. This reminds me of my favorite home built smooket which utilized 2 old steel pressure tanks (1 for wood burning stove, 1 to allow smoke to cool if cold smoking), and an old firehose cabinate with removable racks. They were connected with steel tubing and I had baffles which allowed me to control heat, smoke, and airflow.
That is a good idea and has been done before, I'm not sure of what safety issues there may be using a Refrigerator, I have several smokers three are the small Little Chef type, and another that is larger with a temp control that is great for cooking and smoking meats.
The best type of smoker is one that is considered a cold smoker, where the smoke is produced from a separate area and piped to the smoke house.
Anyone interested in smoking meats or fish may want to look into the Sausage Maker Catalog on line, they have everything you would need to make brine or season your fish or meat.
Smoked hot peppers are great dried and used as a condiment on pizza or any other dish that may call for hat pepper flakes. I use it on everything except peanut butter and Ice cream.
Quote from: seaeagle2 on July 01, 2015, 01:47:44 AM
Have you ever heard the thing about not using fridge racks for smokers, to use oven racks instead, something about the coating on fridge racks and heat ?
Cadmium plated, oven racks are chrome.
Nice setup. It gives "Smokin Reefer" a whole new meaning. I've always wanted to make one of these but I don't have the space.
Check those racks with a magnet. If it doesn't stick it's a pretty good chance they're stainless. Some stainless alloys are magnetic though.
I read the previous post about cad-plate and that could react badly with brine.
-Mike
As long as it has no plastic coating. I would Take my chances. My smoker Has a variety of racks most steel with a protective layer of fish oils and Feo2 some had plastic on them once. I will have to post pics one day. The fridge smoker is very common in New Zealand. Tried and tested Design
To help it get the coating I spray olive oil on the inside , it helps the smoke stick to the walls and prime it. Mines a drying cabinet which is about the same size as a fridge, I use a gas ring because gas is a wet heat and help keeps the fish moist. You might want to put foil on the bottom shelf to stop fish juices falling into the smoke, the smoke it produces is pretty acrid and can taint the flavour.
Also if you are smoking and have room left over put in cocktail sized onions, garlic or steamed sweet potato on the top shelf they taste fantastic after a good smoke .Lemons cut in half and put on the top shelf also add fantastic flavour to fillets of fish when you squeeze the juice over fish fillets.
Quote from: raumati01 on July 01, 2015, 09:32:07 AM
To help it get the coating I spray olive oil on the inside , it helps the smoke stick to the walls and prime it. Mines a drying cabinet which is about the same size as a fridge, I use a gas ring because gas is a wet heat and help keeps the fish moist. You might want to put foil on the bottom shelf to stop fish juices falling into the smoke, the smoke it produces is pretty acrid and can taint the flavour.
Also if you are smoking and have room left over put in cocktail sized onions, garlic or steamed sweet potato on the top shelf they taste fantastic after a good smoke .Lemons cut in half and put on the top shelf also add fantastic flavour to fillets of fish when you squeeze the juice over fish fillets.
Some nice tips there.
Quote from: jonnou on July 01, 2015, 09:46:52 AM
Quote from: raumati01 on July 01, 2015, 09:32:07 AM
To help it get the coating I spray olive oil on the inside , it helps the smoke stick to the walls and prime it. Mines a drying cabinet which is about the same size as a fridge, I use a gas ring because gas is a wet heat and help keeps the fish moist. You might want to put foil on the bottom shelf to stop fish juices falling into the smoke, the smoke it produces is pretty acrid and can taint the flavour.
Also if you are smoking and have room left over put in cocktail sized onions, garlic or steamed sweet potato on the top shelf they taste fantastic after a good smoke .Lemons cut in half and put on the top shelf also add fantastic flavour to fillets of fish when you squeeze the juice over fish fillets.
Some nice tips there.
Cheers, if you have the classic kilwell smoker try what I do and put it on top of the bbq. I put pork chops on mine and they taste superb afterwards, lamb chops are good too. Corn on the cob is another option and tomatoes too and if you do enough you can make smoked tomato sauce. If you put dark chocolate in a dish and smoke it and then put it in the fridge it turns out pretty nice.
Try some pohutukawa next time, its alot nicer than manuka imho and use fruit trees -plum in particular on meat.
SoCalAngler - first, thanks for sharing the smoker with us. Heard and thought about one for years but am still using my tiny gas grill smoker which holds 4 Coho fillets and that amount maxes is out for one session.
And now- 1) do you smoke in the garage or wheel the fridge out of doors?
2) do you find it necessary to rotate the racks for even smoking?
3) what wood chips are you using for your fish?
I use Alder and Cedar plus fruit woods when I have them. My fav brine is low salt and teriyaki/brown sugar or sometimes coconut milk mixed with pineapple juice. No bowl of liquids in with the smoker.
Mine is only 2 cubic feet so it does the job quickly at temps from 120 to 200F.
Lunch today = smoked salmon, mango slices, avocado with TruLime sprinkled on it and a cold beverage. ;D
TIA-Steve
Quote from: Steve-O on July 01, 2015, 07:48:00 PM
SoCalAngler - first, thanks for sharing the smoker with us. Heard and thought about one for years but am still using my tiny gas grill smoker which holds 4 Coho fillets and that amount maxes is out for one session.
And now- 1) do you smoke in the garage or wheel the fridge out of doors?
2) do you find it necessary to rotate the racks for even smoking?
3) what wood chips are you using for your fish?
I use Alder and Cedar plus fruit woods when I have them. My fav brine is low salt and teriyaki/brown sugar or sometimes coconut milk mixed with pineapple juice. No bowl of liquids in with the smoker.
Mine is only 2 cubic feet so it does the job quickly at temps from 120 to 200F.
Lunch today = smoked salmon, mango slices, avocado with TruLime sprinkled on it and a cold beverage. ;D
TIA-Steve
You southern boys sure know how to cook.....I mean smoke food. ;D I like to use a combination of apple and Hickory wood for most of my smoking and cherry or pecan wood for hot peppers. I always start with Hickory. Ive smoked the last several Thanksgiving Turkeys and everyone has loved them. Brine and smoked Pork Tender Loin is the cats meow!! With apple juice and brown sugar. ;) 8)
Quote from: Steve-O on July 01, 2015, 07:48:00 PM
SoCalAngler - first, thanks for sharing the smoker with us. Heard and thought about one for years but am still using my tiny gas grill smoker which holds 4 Coho fillets and that amount maxes is out for one session.
And now- 1) do you smoke in the garage or wheel the fridge out of doors?
2) do you find it necessary to rotate the racks for even smoking?
3) what wood chips are you using for your fish?
I use Alder and Cedar plus fruit woods when I have them. My fav brine is low salt and teriyaki/brown sugar or sometimes coconut milk mixed with pineapple juice. No bowl of liquids in with the smoker.
Mine is only 2 cubic feet so it does the job quickly at temps from 120 to 200F.
Lunch today = smoked salmon, mango slices, avocado with TruLime sprinkled on it and a cold beverage. ;D
TIA-Steve
1) Yes the smoker is wheeled out of the garage to smoke. You could do it inside I guess but anything above, well anywhere in the garage but mainly above the smoker will turn brown over time and the garage will smell like smoke.
2) No need to rotate racks if all the fish is close in thickness. If not all the thinner pieces go onto one or two racks and thicker ones go on other racks. This way when the thinner ones are done I just slide out those racks and leave the thicker pieces in the smoker until done.
3) I like Alder wood for my chips but you can use what ever wood you like such as Hickory, Mesquite, Apple or whatever flavor is to your liking.
Growing up my dad used an old steel drum with a piece of tin roofing. I've seen pits dug and covered with wet blankets and fern fronds. Wooden boxes, doesn't matter as Long as you get smoke your good to go. I'll smoke just about everything. Fish, fowl, or game. Sausages I love me all. Trying to fill my fridge with smoked salmon lately but slow fishing has me lagging. Smoked up beef ribs yesterday for son in laws birthday, mmmm gonna have to eat the leftovers for a couple days.
Thanks for the answers.
Kinda obvious you would roll it out ...but it looked tight and at home between the tubs and stuff.
Alder is my choice wood. I get the salmon smoking planks and split them into chips or bring a chunk of it home from Alaska each year from the Lodge.
Appreciate you sharing. I would have done this on the farm in NC...however this uppity urban environ in Utah would frown upon such redneckery. But I do have great neighbors.
I just left my ref/smoker outside---probably why I had to replace it. For fish, I prefer mild wood such as alder, or fruit woods like apple,cherry, pear etc. When smoking pork, beef or chicken I prefer a little stronger like some oaks. I almost always add one chunk of Hickory or mesquite as these woods really impart a stronger flavor. Right now I don't smoke as much fish anymore and when I do pork, etc I use a Weber WSM. These units are easy to use and hard to beat the quality. A friend of mine is a wheeler/dealer and a few years ago he came up with the used wood slats of oak barrels used for wine. The barrels are made from white oak and then flavored with red wine--hard to get better than that.
TomT
Tom I used to have a source for those red wine infused oak barrels smoked my pork ribs with it for several years, then I ran out and I can't get it anymore, it was the absolute best for pork.
David,
Aren't you a west coast guy?? Maybe I can get enough of the used wine barrel slats for both of us to use.?? I agree it is really the best for pork. In fact, going to smoke a pork butt tomorrow and will be using the barrel slats to bring this smoke to perfection. :D :D
TomT
I am here on the left coast! South Bay, San Jose. Got a big truck too.
Make sure when hot smoking that you get the Fish internal temp to 145F and hold it there for 30 minutes and don't vacuum package any smoked fish unless you know that the WPS (water phase salt) is 3.5 or higher OR if you are going to freeze it upon proper rapid cooling.
Cold smoking is another issue where you have no kill step for surface pathogens and spoilage microorganisms are relied up to provide an indicator of potential Clostridium botulinum (botulism) toxin formation. For that you need an ambient smokehouse temp max of 90F. When using antimicrobials to control surface pathogens, spoilage microorganisms can be destroyed leaving you without a necessary consumer indicator of potential CBOT toxin formation.
Best to stick with hot smoking for safety.
Also it is ESSENTIAL that your home refrigerator maintains an ambient temperature of 38F or less.
Being that 99.999 percent of people don't have a lab at home to determine WPS or aW (water activity), I would suggest you freeze your smoked fish, eat it immediately or make sure that it is held at ambient temperatures of 38F or less and eat within several days.
Burning sawdust will make it easier to control temperatures and control the flavor profile of the smoke because of the uniformity of its burning. It is less likely to start burning instead of smoking.
Man...Cool fridge...All these years I was struggling to smoke my fish by rolling it into a newspaper ;D Happy 4th.!!! I like pecan wood for smokin, but I had a neighbor that cut down 2 very large pecan trees and gave a stack of wood, besides Alder and all the usual suspects I have found that pomegranate wood works exceptionally well.
...one of my many Ray Troll tee shirts from my Alaska trips.