Thread: small goods machines/smoker/mincer/sausages

Originally Posted by planenutz

My two cents worth:

Smokers are awesome. Every home should have one and as I type this I have a salmon being hot smoked for dinner tonight. 40-45 minutes start to finish, slow cooked and melt in your mouth. Unfortunately its hard to get something decent without spending big money in one form or another. Years ago I bought a cheap upstanding charcoal smoker on 1-day. Damned if I could get the thing to work to my satisfaction so I bought a cheap gas ring to go in the bottom. That worked better. Biggest issue is temperature control and with the gas ring I only get a max of 130°C. It's good for biltong and hot smoking fish but not really that practical for making a Ham, for example. A couple of years back I got a Smokai smoke generator... Damn, I should have done that years ago. By attaching the Smokai smoke generator to the side of my Brinkman box I can now hot AND cold smoke, opening up a whole new world of yummyness

In hindsight I'd have been better buying the Smokai first and going from there. My future plans involve going bigger on the smoke box. I need more room... I'm thinking a wooden structure about 1.8 m high and a good 600 x 600 wide/deep. Big hams need a bit of room and with that height I can then do sausages easier.

An important note: There are not enough days left in your life to enjoy the awesomeness of smoked food so don't delay getting into it any longer.

What was the question again? Oh, yeah... right... buy something like a Smokai smoke generator and go from there... get an old fridge, bolt it on the side and see how you go. Experiment with enthusiasm.

Mincer? Yep, definitely. Go electric. Much easier to use and faster when you're doing it on your own. An electric mincer also let's you have two hands free... easier to make sausages that way.

Enjoy.

I might buy a wine barrel and a smokai for a bit of authenticity