[nicneufeld]

So I bought one of these:

http://www.macsbbq.co.uk/CSG.html

With cold weather coming on soon this guy combined with my WSM should allow me to cold smoke a lot of stuff.  I'm thinking cheeses, nuts, coarse salt....fish if I get really, really daring.  Any other suggestions lads?

This probably would also be great for rauchmalt....no worries about overcooking the malt.

[bluesman]

This looks like a candidate. 

Cold Smoked Salmon Recipe

Use frozen salmon because it has lost some of it's moisture during the freezing process, and it will accept the Brine solution quicker.

Preparation:

1. Cut the Salmon filets into 3x6 inch pieces.
2.Prepare a brine solution of salt, brown sugar, and water. The salt to brown sugar ratio is 2:1. With 2.5 gallons of water, you will need 7 cups of salt, and 3.5 cups of brown sugar. The water will be about 80% salt, and to test if the water is salty enough, and egg should float.
3. Place the fish in the brine solution. Make sure the fish filets are completely submerged.
4. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours. If the filets are thin, the time will be shorter.
5. Before removing the fish from the brine solution, slice one filet open down the middle to see if the brine has fully penetrated it. If the brine has not fully penetrated the filet, place leave the rest in the solution for a little longer, and then test again.
6. When the filets are done, remove them from the solution and place under cold running water for 1 hour. 7. Place the filets on a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 12 more hours. This will allow the salt to even out.

Smoking:

1. Place in a smoker at 70-85 degrees F for 12-16 hours. I use charcoal and add mesquite or hickory chips to produce the smoke.
2. When the fish are done, vacuum seal the filets and freeze for3 days for parasite control.

The Smoker King

About the author: Aaron Ralston, also known as The Smoker King

I take it this gadget fits right into your Webber kettle?

[nicneufeld]

It could probably fit in a kettle but I'll be using my WSM, with the water pan to prevent drips from dousing the smoldering sawdust.  I may have to do the cured coldsmoked salmon, I've seen several recipes.  It weirds my wife out a lot, and me just a tiny bit, but logically I understand its generally pretty safe.

If you used a kettle the key would be offsetting it, I think...food on one side, CSG on the other side, vent holes over the food.  In warm weather ice might be a good idea.

[capozzoli]

Cant wait to hear how that thing works. Been contemplating it my self ever since you showed it to me. Sounds really interesting.

Do some test runs with it to get a feel for the temps. Just remember you should be well bellow 100 degrees for cold smoking.

Dont by grocery store salmon for cold smoking. You have to be sure to get really really fresh fish.

Do you know any fisherman?

I go to the Chinese Grocery and buy live striped bass or something. Works great.

[nicneufeld]

See I heard someone say on a cooking show that frozen salmon worked better than fresh salmon for cured, smoked salmon.  Andreas Viestad maybe? 

[capozzoli]

Not sure about the frozen salmon trick. But just be sure that the salmon was very fresh when it was frozen. I dont trust grocery stores at all. They will let stuff sit and thaw on the loading dock and then put it in the freezers to freeze back up.

I haven't had any problems using fresh salmon. Just cure it as per gravlax. Only without the sugar and dill. Just use kosher salt and black pepper.

If you weight the fish with a pot of water or something it will compress the flash and remove a lot of excess moisture.

Someone told me that the Morton tender-quick works great for curing fish but havent tried it yet.

The technique that bluesman posted sounds interesting too.

[nicneufeld]

Re the salmon fresh vs frozen, the advocate of frozen (still don't recall who it was) was, now as I recall, basically stressing that the fish should either be VERY fresh...something not likely for us to come across in Missouri...or its better frozen.  Fish frozen on site or shortly after catch is safer for this stuff than unfrozen fish that isn't particularly fresh.

But anyway...

Tried it out.  Love it.  You have to get one of these things if you like cold smoking, its amazing how effortless and consistent it works!  You can get sawdust for it here:

https://www.psseasoning.com/index.cfm/act/products.view/category_id/20

And a little goes a long way...the 40lb bag of sawdust would (as I compute it) burn for almost 2000 hours in this unit.  The smoker stayed at the ambient temperature of outside (low 30s F), the sawdust burned slowly and consistently as it worked its way around the track, and the thin stream of smoke was consistent and pure smelling.  I smoked 4 lbs of cheese (sharp cheddar and pepper jack) and a couple dozen jalapenos (which I will be drying today).  The cheese is awesome...mostly for christmas gifts.

[capozzoli]

Im definitely gonna get one.

I was thinking of trying the old world Nordic method of building a small igloo for cold smoking, cause we just got 20+ inches of snow.

The trick is to make a fire box far enough away from the smoking chamber igloo so not to melt it. Then channel the smoke under the snow and sometimes ground till it reaches the igloo smoking chamber nice and cool.

The trick is to do this and cold smoke for days on end to both smoke and dry the surface of (a little dry) the fish.

nick, do you think that smolder box would work well for long unattended smokes? How do you think it would work with a hot plate?
 

[nicneufeld]

Long unattended smokes...well, that's what I used it for.  Didn't touch it for 11 hours...never once touched a vent, it ran smoothly and never jumped a track or caught fire.  Left the house for a few hours, came back, still functioning fine.

The hot plate would strike me as unnecessary and counter productive.  The whole idea is to apply just enough focused heat at the "ramp" at the beginning of the track (with a small little candle) to get the sawdust to start smoldering.  Once that is accomplished, you remove the candle and hey presto, you're done.  No more heat need be (or should be) applied.

Edit...unless you're looking for more than 11 hours, in which case, yeah, you're gonna have to refill it once it runs out of its track.  Of course, if you're able to fabricate one of these, there's nothing that would prevent someone from doubling the track size, say, making it twice as big and with double track length to get you over 20 hours of smoking per fill.  Might be worth talking to the company owner about, he's an inventive guy and has been helpful in online discussions.

In terms of BBQ accessories, this and the Smokenator (smoking baffle for the Weber kettle, the inventor and seller just passed away recently, another good and helpful guy) rank as my best purchases.

[bluesman]

What did you end up cold smoking? Salmon?

[capozzoli]

Fabricating my own is a great idea. Though I do have a few questions about it.

Yes I am thinking about longer than 11 hour smokes, but I am not sure that shorter 11 hour smokes are a problem. Mostly I would be worried about leaving for work and coming home to find that at some point in the day it has stopped smoldering.

I like the saw dust idea. I used to have a stove top smoker that worked great. It was awesome for a quick hot smoked salmon or pork but. It used the saw dust and there were a variety of woods available.

I have also seen people do a cold smoke set up like this  with saw dust in a box using one of those electric charcoal starters to create the smolder.

[nicneufeld]

What did you end up cold smoking? Salmon?

No...I'm thinking of doing a smoked gravlax (I like the flavor of dill) eventually but this first time I just did cheese and jalapenos.  The pepper jack cheese in particular was great, I've never seen commercially smoked pepper jack but its something that should exist, at least!

[nicneufeld]

We have a foot of snow or so, and its really cold and windy, but I'm still trying this...cold smoking a dry aged rib roast a few hours (or whatever my leftover sawdust will give me) and then roasting in the oven after seasoning.  Hard keeping it lit with all the wind, but worst case scenario, it sits outside in the grill and slightly starts to freeze.  No worse than the refrigerator really.

[nicneufeld]

Well, after seasoning it I didn't taste any effect on the prime rib, but a fun experiment nonetheless.

Two bags of sawdust coming now...mesquite and apple.  The mesquite I will save for more strongly smoked things, as its a very unique smell.  I think pepperjack with mesquite smoke would be awesome.  The smell of mesquite burning has this clean, dry smell that I've only ever smelled in the southwest (can't explain it, but the air down there just smells different).  Apple will be my go to for more traditional things like smoked salmon and milder cheeses, or cured pork.

[bluesman]

Did you ever think about smoking some grain?