SMOKE, LITTLE AND BIG FISH!

As is known, food products are smoked in the smoke from burning hardwood. The smoke generator is usually placed at some distance from the cold smoking chamber and connected to it by a flue, so that most solid particles, tar, and a number of other substances formed during combustion and considered carcinogenic do not reach the future delicacies, but settle on the flue walls. If all this is done at home, using improvised means, the smokehouse becomes bulky, and the preparation of smoked products in it often proceeds in violation of sanitary and hygienic standards.

A different matter is the high-quality smoking installation I propose. The basis of the smoke generator is a metal container (combustion chamber), loaded with wood (even coniferous species), under which an electric ignition spiral is located. It is designed for a safe voltage of 12 V, since the smoke generator is subsequently immersed in a water tank (with the loading opening facing down) and slightly pressed down with a weight to prevent it from accidentally floating up.

Homemade device for cold smoking of products:

1 — 12 V electric spiral; 2 — fuel for the smoke generator (spruce, pine, fir, and other “aromatic” wood); 3 — metal combustion chamber; 4 — “water” filtering flue; 5 — weight; 6 — tank; 7 — heat- and moisture-resistant electric cord; 8 — stand made of “rod stock”; 9 — steel wire hook; 10 — products to be cold smoked; 11 — smokehouse body

Products to be smoked are hung on hooks above the tank. A 12-volt voltage is supplied from a step-down transformer to the ignition spiral… And as soon as bubbles of fragrant smoke begin to bubble through the water, the products and the structure are covered with a housing, which can serve as a box, barrel, or even a cardboard box of suitable capacity.

Advantages of the proposed smoking method:

a) smoke is effectively cooled in water, so there is no need to worry about a long flue and create a bulky structure—a smokehouse;

b) the process resembles smoke purification in the hookah of Eastern smokers: when passing through water, the fragrant smoke is freed from suspended particles, tar, soot, and other seemingly inevitable but unnecessary and even harmful impurities;

c) smoking can be done anywhere, even on the balcony of a city apartment;

d) wood smoldering without air access on the electric spiral turns into charcoal suitable for artists, use in folk medicine, or—as a means for purifying homemade beverages.

R. KRAVTSOV