Nobody appreciates smokers IMO more than an Alaskan does so I thought i'd post up some pics of one I built this weekend. Moon in the door was the wifes idea so I threw that on it for good measure. Inside measurements are 24" wide by 22" deep, will, hold 4 racks but I may put a few more in there to do more fish.

Stands 6 ft at the front and 5'9" at the back, has 2 vents on the back with metal outlet covers to help control the smoke. I used the burner from my turkey fryer and made some legs for it from some leftover square stock aluminum I had in the garage. Also installed a thermometer on the side to help keep an eye on inside temps. Old fashioned strap hinges, a handle and 2 hasps round out the hardware. I've always smoked using a Big Chief but now that I have something much bigger, any tips on using one this size would be great.

Where do ya hang the Sears' catalog?


Seriously, that looks nice!

Thanks IB, I thought about putting a magazine holder on the door, butt..........

You are going to burn propane inside your smoker????

Yes, that is the plan. I've got a friend that has one very similar to mine that he's been using for years with no issues. The flame is actually very minmal. You thinking it's going to burn down? lol

Great looking smoker. Personally, I think the turkey fryer burner might be a bit of an overkill, but I don't know for sure as I've never seen one done that way. It also depends on if your trying to do a cold smoke or more of a kippered style smoke. A buddy of mine did one similar in size and just used an electric hot plate with a frying pan to provide heat/smoke. It would take almost a couple days (depending) to smoke a batch of salmon.

I don't know if you thought about it but a temperature gauge in the door would come in handy.

I'm more partial to cold smoking but using the right ammount of heat works very well too. Nothing at all wrong with salmon smoking that way.

The one thing worth inquirng about is how tight is it put together? It's not super critical, people use old fridges to smoke with, but ventalation isn't bad either. It helps keep the heat down. I know you have the vents to adjust, just sayin'. Also, maybe an adjuatable vent at the bottom to get the air flowing. ? ? ?

A totally different alternative to use as a heat/smoke source is: Set the smoker on top of a hill or mound and then below it have a wood fire box that's piped up into the smoker using buried clay pipe. They work really well and it doesn't require constant attention.

An alternative to laying chunks of fish on the racks is to cut them in strips and use string tie them to the top rack. That's a great way to smoke fish for canning.

You were asking for ideas so I'm just throwing a few out there.

The smoker itself looks great and I'm sure that it will work just fine however you choose to use it.

Nice job!

I just re-read the the part about your friend using propane. Skip my guesses on that.

Oops.

She's fairly tight, I stood inside it and had the wife close the door and secure it with the hasps, there wasn't much light getting inside except from the edges of the door. I think I can live with that and with the vents I made on the back near the top should help control airflow.

I've tried to come up with some different ideas as far as hanging the salmon filets but a rack system seems to work the best. I got a quote on having some made from expanded metal and angle iron and it was almost as much as what it cost me to build the smoker. Looking for more ideas on that end.

Smoking fish involves removing water... Adding water through burning propane makes no sense to me at all... And the water added is significant.

Having trouble-shot more than a few smokers working with propane heat I can without reservation say it is a mistake... Your friend may be working around the issue successfully, but it is not the best way to get the job done.

For cold smoking it is worse obviously. Electric hot plates are cheap, easy to install, controllable on one or more thermostats at a time, and maybe a tiny bit safer.

That amount of space could be used to smoke a HUGE quantity of fish, with dry heat. With propane you are likely close to maximum with the current shelving.

Not trying to rain on the parade, but I have spent a lot of time working on better smoked fish.
art

feel sorry for the guy with the runs and not enough time to look down first , talk about a hot seat. bet ya that'll hurt.

Art,

Interesting comments on propane. I've never seen it used.

AkMtnHtr,

Refridgerator racks, or if your in Anchorage inquire at the butcher's supply in Mountain View. They ain't cheap but they have all kinds of stuff and IIRC, they do have racks. They don't have to fit perfect. Run some 1" x 2"'s across the smoker to lay the racks on.

If I could find a way to use an electric heat source that I could control and not have to spend 2-3 days smoking fish/meats then that would be a better option for me instead of propane but time is a factor.

I don't want my salmon to be like jerky, I prefer it a little moist. Your not raining on my parade, I asked for advice and you gave it, now I just need a little more clarification.

fish head, I don't have a problem with the racks being wide enough, it's the depth of the racks is where i'm coming up short. I'll check around and see what I can find, should be something out there that will fit. Until then, i'm using 1" x 2"'s to lay the short racks on.

I have a cold smoker, but I'll toss my experience in for you to mull over. Over the years the most challenging conditions I've had to learn to work with is heat and condensation. Too much moisture will destroy the pellicule that most prefer to build, prior to smoking. Too much moisture in the house has ruined a batch or two. If you are going to smoke only on days when temps are above freezing and low humidity then this issue is pretty much a non issue. In my house I prefer to let the smoke pass through in order to reduce the heat and moisture accumulation. I have the ability to really open up the house to allow the smoke through. The vents also allow me to keep the temp in the house, in the cold smoke range, usually less than 85-90F. Actually, I don't care what the temp is along as it isn't cooking the fish or melting the cheese.
Since your house will be a hot smoker I might suggest more adjustable venting and depending how the fish will be placed in the house maybe more racks. More racks will allow more product on a common heat range. If your product is too spread out vertically then you have to deal with a wide heat range(bottom over cooked etc.)
A couple of thoughts on smoke: A lot of people oversmoke, IMO. I think smoke is more for the nose than the tongue. The sense of smell is way more powerful than taste. Additionally, smoke is an incredibility powerful and complex substance. It is also carcengenic so I think it must be handled with care. All of the products I smoke have these thoughts in mind.
Smoking stuff is a hobby of mine and if I can help out just ask. Enjoy the process it is a lot of fun.
Pete

What pak is saying is dead on about the smoke intenisty and ventalation. Using a hot plate, for example, it doesn't require that it's smoking the entire time. Smoke it at the start and then the drying process takes over. The one way I've found to really judge the brine and the smoke flavor is to take a small piece and microcrave it for 30 seconds to a minute to fully cook it then taste test. It will give you a real good idea on how the final product will turn out.

I'll add this. There is most definitely a science to smoking anything. But at a certain point it becomes an art. There are so many variables that it's difficult to define what always works best. Cold smoke, hot smoke, constant low intenisty smoke, lots of smoke, a llittle heat, more heat, cook it more than smoke it, add infinitem.

I've had smoked fish cooked in every concievable manner that's been everything from nasty to excellent. It all depends on.................................

That's half the fun in smoking fish. Figuring all out.

I had a work buddy back in the day that took care of their own beef. His dad had a large walk-in cooler and they would let a 1200 calf hang in halves for 14 days. One year they decided to leave a pan of smoking hickory with the beef to add a little taste. My buddy said he never got so tired to smoked beef in his life. Hickory steaks, hickory roasts, hickory soup, and hickory burger.

That smoker looks a lot like Cheesy's from the Food, Cooking threads 3/02/10. Check it out.

That smoker looks very familiar.

A couple packer briskets and rack of ribs in mine, sunshine made the picture wash out.






I use the turkey fryer with a cast iron pan on top full of hickory or mesquite for smoking pork shoulders, chickens, briskets, bacon wrapped pheasant filets, ribs, etc. I try to keep 225 degrees at the meat level and with the regulator on the propane line that is very easy to do. If the wood starts burning rather than smoking the temp will go up, but its easy to adjust back down. I've done 16 hour cooks on one can of propane and didn't run out, never weighed to see how much it actually did use.

Over time the boards will dry out some and give you more ventilation (at least mine did), but I didn't find that to be an issue, I couldn't tell much difference in what was going on with the vents open or closed.

I have a 'mechanical' temp guage permanently installed in the side of unit, but rely more heavily on a digital unit with a wire that I dangle at rack height. Use two of the digital units, one for monitoring air temperature, one for monitoring meat temperature. I built a little shelf at about eye level that I rest the thermometer bodies on.

My brother in law smokes a lot of sausage in his, I think he is going for 150-160 degrees. For this he uses a single 110V hot plate and said he has no trouble maintaining those temperatures. For smoke wood chips go in a pan on the hot plate.

Neither one of us have ever cold smoked anything so can't elaborate on that. Don't let it get out that you've got that, the requests to 'cater' parties never seem to stop. People (and by people I mean my wife) don't realize the amount of work that goes into prepping to smoke 80 or 100 lbs of meat. One party I did got two 15lb briskets and 80 lbs worth of boston butt pork shoulders. I only used the two top racks for that. Good luck.

Smoker has a touch of class! I do cold smoke method for 7 days,a couple of years ago I started using brickquets for heat to ignite alder it works well. You may have to put some form of vent in the front as the heat will start at the low point of roof and trap at the high,wont be even heat for your product.

Also put some form of cover over your heat source so fish oil won't drip down and ignite. I also put freezer paper on the floor to catch oil,and in case a fish falls its clean,course I use strips on string.

Your heat source looks pretty close to your bottom rack,you may have to rotate your racks rather frequently.I don't let my heat get over 78 degrees for cold smoke.If Ma wants to kipper I leave fish in for two days.

I also put fish stips in the Micro-wave after a few days but i've found that the taste is not that of the final product.This is more of a finish cook in lieu of a smoke product.

Fair Winds And following Seas.

fish head
There are definite differences between cold smoking and kippering. Controling variables allows one to reliably produce quality product... Guessing has ruined tons of salmon.

A good pellicle and dry heat are right at the very top of my list of "Must Haves" when smoking.

Every Propane molecule burned produces three molecules of carbon dioxide and four moluecules of water. Twenty pounds of propane produces over thirty pounds of water vapor...
art

Wiring in a T-stat or two with a plug-in for hot plates is dead simple and I would be happy to give you a hand with that, either by drawing it up, or doing it in person if needed. It is simply a switch in the hot side of a plug. You should include a fan to move the air around, a lot.

Kippering fish should be far shorter than a day; in good weather 4 hours is plenty. There is no comparison between smoking meats while cooking at 225 and kippering fish which is ruined at 140F. I will put my kippered fish against any.

pak runs his smoke through a furnace filter and he makes the best cold smoked fish I have ever had, period. His comments about smoke are spot-on. I am not a fan of the typical cold-smoked, week-in-the-smokehouse fish... It is usually extremely acidic from smoke with lots of hotspots.
art

Art,

No disagreement here on my part.

Like I said, I've never known anyone that used propane. That's exactly what I said. I'm agreeing with your thoughts. Did you read my posts? I'm not trying to guess wrong.

I have learned a little bit since I started fishing fifty odd years ago. We have far more in common than differences.

I reluctanty posted my thoughts and I even worried that you would disagree.

I'm not a fuggin' idiot when it comes to fish. BTDT.

I thought I was pretty successful in smoking fish with my old refrig. smoker. Then my double burner electric quit and would not regulate. Bought 4 different electric hot plates
that would not smoke chips? Tough to find a old coil style electric hot plate in AK. All the new ones are plate style and do not work as well.

On the fifth try I found a solid hot plate at Fred Meyer in Soldotna that gets hot enough to smoke chips. Was trying to hold heat by limiting ventilation, IMHO higher DRY HEAT and more ventilation to control temp. worked wonders.

Found a remote read thermostat at Wall Mart to monitor temps. that really paid for itself. Outside humidity also
greatly increases time required to smoke fish.

I have tasted Paks Smoked Salmon and am a beginner compared to Pak sure could use some more samples!!

Lots of good info here and I appreciate you sharing it with me. After talking with another friend of mine who does a serious amount of smoked salmon each year with his fil, I think I am going to turn this into an electric smoker.

Art, that would be great if you could share that schematic of the thermostat and plug-in I would appreciate it. I work as an electrician so this should be simple to do. Any idea where I can get a burner for this thing? My goal is to be able to smoke all my salmon in one shot. Smoked turkey is on the list also.

How about using the coil from your big chief?

I'm not sure it will get hot enough inside this bigger smoker to be able to smoke stuff without having to take a few days to do it.

I like Art's idea of the thermostat and plug in for the electric burner, figuring out where to get a good burner is my next issue.

It's probably going to take me some time to get use to this thing and get it to work efficiently. I've got 60 or so red filets in the freezer I need to get done this weekend and I don't want to ruin them.

The info on the peddicle is interesting, I had no idea it was that important in smoking salmon. How long do you usually let it set up before you start smoking?

Freddys in Soldotna had a adjustable 2 burner hot plate that gets to temp. and works well for $20. Only place I saw one from Anch. to Soldotna. For some reason most of the new style
solid top hot plates will not get hot enough? My old upright
freezer smoker is big like your smoker and the proper 2 burner
electric hot plate works great. You need to shield the hot plate from dripage. I use a couple of charcol briquets for additional heat.

I wiil say this and it's a problem I've ran into before. Use the thinnest cheapest skillet you can find for the wood chips. Too thick a pan and it makes it impossile for it to get hot enough to light the chips on fire.

The right amount of drying to form the pellicle depends on how warm or cold it is and ............. A couple two or three hours, sometimes more, can be enough if it's warm and dry enough and there's enough air circulation. It really important to dry the fish off with paper towels prior to letting it set up.

Call an appliance repair store and see if they have an electric stove you can canabalize... Heat coils are available as replacement items at all kinds of wattage levels.

Kurt's ready-built model from Fred Meyer's would be easier if you can find one.

A big point in my opinion is that smoked fish is fantastic straight out of the smoker and goes downhill from there. Freezing it after smoking produces mediocre fish from the best quite quickly...

I prefer to smoke in smaller batches through the year as needed. If I am sending a bunch out I would do a big batch, but not just to get it done to freeze. YMMV

The pellicle is everything in good smoked salmon! If you have no pellicle the fish will dry faster, and as you noted the moisture is important. It will also help to seal in the white fat if you have a high temperature excursion.

For cold smoke it has more to do with appearance and texture, I believe, but pak may have a different idea... And his idea would be better.

I will draw up a schematic as I need to do the same thing on a new smoker I stole from Dan...
art

I'll throw in one more fish head tip. It doesn't apply to fish that's already been processed and frozen.

If you plan on smoking reds that your not going to scale, add just a litle white vinegar to a bucket or cooler full of water and it melts the slime off. 1/2 cup per 5 gallons of water is about right. It won't affect the flavor and it's a lot easier than trying to scrape or wipe the slime off or scale the fish.

FWIW

A couple of thoughts on pellicle. What is it? A couple of things 1) the salt in the brine reacting with the proteins on the surface and 2) a drying process both of which seal the surface. This step has a lot to do with what your trying to make. For cold smoked salmon strips, jerky and the like the pellicle adds to the texture and appearence of the finished product. For hot smoked kippered the pellicle seals the surface and prevents the fat from oozing to the surface in the form of a white goo. This white goo may be an indication of the fish getting too hot. Edible, but not real pleasent to see, at least for me. It also may alter the product while canning. Cold smoked lox do not have much of a pellicle and is more of a brined product with a touch of smoke than a traditional smoked product. There are a lot of good references around to futher describe.
Now there will probably be a chat about brines, woods for smoke and duration of smoke etc. All of which is fun. With all due respect, 60 fillets at one time for a first time out is an ambitious goal. I used to smoke a lot more than I do now and in the process of my big batch days before I had my process down I wasted plenty of good fish. May I suggest that you experiment a couple of times first.
Pete
PS: Fish head's suggestion of washing the fish in vinegar solution is one of the best suggestions here. I ALWAYS slime and wash my fish in lemon juice and water prior to freezing and also wash and rinse the fish again in the same solution prior to placing in the brine(I wet brine). The acid neutralizes the bases on the surface of the fish that can produce an odor. This also works with shellfish and any fish prior to cooking.

I use a barrel stove and a slope with about 20 degrees of up hill The smoke house is as big as a privy, with screen around the bottom and a roof with a vent whole. I have a Tee just in front of the barrel stove. You would not believe how simple it's all is to make it right.

The pan I used was a coffee can the new style hot plates would not even smoke chips in a coffee can! Shocked me and cost me $200 to find that out!

Man I wish I had known about the vinegar trick for removing the slime of those reds, it was tough doing it under cold water and by hand. I'll give that atry next time around.

I'll start out smoking a dozen filets first to make sure I get this started in the right direction. Still working on a burner and racks for this thing.

I mentioned it in the How to freeze salmon thread.
eta:

I never saw the thread because I was on my way to Chitna to score on some reds. Now I know for the next time. Thanks IB.

After doing a bit more research on getting this smoker thing right, i think i'm going to get a Bradley Smoker Controller from Auber Instruments and i'm seriously contemplating a Bradley Smoke Generator for it as well.

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=72

http://bradleysmoker.com/smoke-generator-with-adaptor.asp

Looking at their example of smoked salmon where they finish at 175F scares me... Check with any commercial outfit... That may be pretty, but it will be anything but good...

Never smoke salmon above 140F. Cooking is a whole other thing...

The smoke generator looks pretty cool! The only thing I would like different would be the option of using other woods. It does make a big difference.

7 different wood choices seems pretty good to me, don't really care for hickory or mesquite on my salmon and much prefer a milder wood like alder or apple. What other wood flavors do you prefer that aren't mentioned?

The only thing i'm not crazy about is having to buy their flavor bisquettes but $40 for 120 they should last a while.

If you can get it apple wood works mighty fine for smoking fish.

I agree with your hickory/mesquite comments. I far and away prefer alder for salmon. Cherry is one of the most delightful aroma wise but I found with aged products such as mild cheddar it gets bitter over time. With stuff that will be eaten soon, as with most salmon cherry is exceptional. I've used maple also, but personally it is not a favorite. Just personal as a hell of a lot of bacon sold is smoked with maple.
Pete

I agree with the basic summaries, but I like adding different woods together. A hint of hickory and mesquite is plenty on salmon, but I like it better for it...

Might have to smoke some reds using a different flavor of wood with each batch. I was going to try and knock it all out this weekend but I think i'll just do 1 small batch and wait for my smoke generator and controller to get here before I go hog wild with it all.

Anyone ever try pecan wood with salmon? Will have to try the cherry, it does sound good.

How'd your fish turn out?

I did about 13 reds on Saturday. Brined them for about 3 hours and smoked them for 7. They came out great, probably close to the best I have ever made! I let them sit for about 2-3 hours after I pulled them out of the brine and pat dried them and I believe that was the key, which was stated by a few here, in making my salmon turn out the way they did.

I have to do another batch next weekend and will try a different brine, one that i've made before. Thanks for all your help guys, you've taught me the proper way to smoke salmon and I appreciate it.