My buddy and I are looking to build a smoker on the cheap...and the directions we came across use a metal trash can and an electric burner. My question is....

Aren't metal trash cans galvanized? Are there ones that aren't? Do you have a better idea of something to cook in?

I believe that we're going to keep the heat down to 225* F.

 

Better yet, keep the heat to about 200-210. Raising the heat above the boiling point of water causes the juices to boil out of the meat, drying it out. Searing can work, but in my opinion is of limited value because while it may close some of the outer pore structure of the meat, it also dries the exterior, causing it to shrink and crack, thus allowing the exit of moisture (much like the way cracks on cut green wood begin to form--from the outside to the inside, radially).

"If the smoke is white, the fire's right. If the smoke is black, add some draft."

Jason

 

You could use oil drums, make sure they are clean, burning them clean works.

A friend of mine made an excellent smoker with an old refrigerator. The insulation allows you to use less heat and you can have a cooler smoke, be sure your recipe allows cooler, some meats aren't safe if smoked too cool. The insualtion also allows you to use normal heat and not have to worry about wind etc.

Good Luck, and you will enjoy this.

Jim Henderson

 

Use an old refrigerator - people thow them out all the time....
Put a fire pan in the bottom, and make a draft hole. The chimney at the top can be a four inch hole cut in the top.

(My Poppa smoked fish like that for years, and when it stunk too bad threw it away)

Just make sure to strip out all the plastic....

~Wolf

 

My dad bought an old fridge to make a smoker at an auction last summer. This fridge is metal, inside and out (probably the thing to get if you can find one). Anyway, he has not yet finished it so he can smoke with it, but he has dehydrated jerky in it. Right now, it just has a burner in the bottom of it.

 

Greywolf has it her folks . The old metal lined refrigerators or freezers are the way to go and a burner can be fashioned from the old hot plate burners that allowed only part of the coil to light up .

I have built several of these and they work great . The racks can also be welded to legs to create something that can be taken out and cleaned properly so the throw it away part is dispensed with

We now have a smoker made from a double sided Stainless ice cream freezer
so I installed the chimmney on one side and put the burner in the other which allows for regular smoking on the burner side and with the original fan between the two seperate sides slowed down some does cold smoke on the other side if so desired .

This is a big sucker though that allows us to smoke all the culls from a Rainbow Trout Farm here that we have a sharing deal with . It will do about 160 lb of fish or a quarter of moose in one shot .

My first smoker was a commercially sold one from Cabella , a Big Chief that I used for 5 or 6 years and gave to a friend . It is still working fine after 16 years for him but it was only about 16" X 16 " X 24 " and a little small for our purpose . Nothing like cold smoked fish but it takes a lot more time to do without the heat . Native American traditions can show one the best technics
we have found to cold smoke anything without the risk of illness .

 

Many garages will give away fifty five galloon oil drums just to be rid of them. Wash it out with dish soap after ripping out the top completely.

Hang brackets at three places around the sides all the way up = as many layers of grills as you want! Grills come from Walmart, fairly cheap - just the metal grill, not a whole barbeque.

If you cut a six inch round hole in the bottom of the drum, and cut a dirt ditch under it for air flow, you can use rocks, bricks, or whatever to control air inflow THIS is what keeps your temperature down (the burning rate, based on oxygen availability).

Set three bricks at equal distances around the bottom and use a "FIRE PAN" to prevent your air inflow hole from being blocked with ash. Old galvanised oil drain pans work excellently for this purpose! Put your coals in there...

Hardwood chips (hickory, mesquite, etc...) soaked in water should be on the closest rack to the bottom in some kind of shallow metal dish (got another drain pan?).

Make the top out of a tin sheet big enough to cover the open end of the barrel, with a six inch hole cut in the middle and bricks to weight it against wind. This is your "Smother Hole". Make one more sheet of metal to cover it with. You can rivet a hinge on it, or weight it with a rock or a brick - it don't matter...

There you go, brother!


~Wolf

NOTES (on edit)

The Japanese have a high-end barbeque called the something or other egg...
It is a barbecue that is like a smoker, and is heavily insulated with concrete. Once it is warmed by the fire inside, it retains heat for a very long time and cooks so evenly it is absolutely phenominal!

CLAM BAKES used to take advantage of the ground insulating a fire and things cooking in the sand at the beach - though it is likely illegal to have such a buried fire anymore. PIG ROASTS ( in the ground) also take advantage of the ground retaining heat.

I NOTE:

A BURIED smoker of the type described above, one using pipe and elbows to deliver air up under it, could be doable with what I mentioned so far and a pick & shovel...

I'd leave at least a two inch lip of the barrel aboveground to keep rainwater out of it, and put it on high ground!