HI EVERY WE LIVE IN UK AND TO BUY BRADLEY BISQUETS COST TOO MUCH HERE + DELIVERY
WE KNOW IN CANADA AND USA IT CHEAPER BUT DELIVERY AND TAX REALY NO POINT >:(
COULD ANY ONE HELP WITH ADVICE HOW TO MAKE BISQUETS AT HOME WHAT KIND OF WOOD TO USE AND WHAT TO USE TO HOLD WOOD CHIPS TOGETHER
PLEASE PLEASE HELP
Quote from: persik13 on February 09, 2010, 04:03:19 AM
HI EVERY WE LIVE IN UK AND TO BUY BRADLEY BISQUETS COST TOO MUCH HERE + DELIVERY
WE KNOW IN CANADA AND USA IT CHEAPER BUT DELIVERY AND TAX REALY NO POINT >:(
COULD ANY ONE HELP WITH ADVICE HOW TO MAKE BISQUETS AT HOME WHAT KIND OF WOOD TO USE AND WHAT TO USE TO HOLD WOOD CHIPS TOGETHER
PLEASE PLEASE HELP
If you can get smoking wood chips at the store or BBQ place just use a handful on the end of the slider. I know its a pain because you have to go out brush the ash off and put more on but its a quick backup if you dont have pucks.
If you could find a tin can that is small enough to fit on the burner and then cut the top and bottom out so you just have a ring and then put your chips in that might help. Something like a pate can or even a well cleaned cat food tin would be just right.
You can either use a cold smoke adaptor or make you one and put a heating element (like a hot plate) in it and burn any kind of wood chip you want to.
Habs can probably explain this better as he has done it. (I think)
There are a couple of threads that explain how some members have made their own. I believe the most successful person that has done so is from Great Britain.
As CRG mentioned, I use a cold smoke setup to smoke with wood chips and sawdust, for wood flavors that Bradley does not make.
Using Different Wood Flavors (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showpost.php?p=819&postcount=36)
Here is a link to give you a better understanding of how to build the cold smoke setup.
Cold Smoke Setup (http://www.johnwatkins.co.uk/personalpages/coldsmoking.htm)
Hope this doesn't sound too stupid - I've not even bought my Bradley yet as I'm still working on finding a place for it to live.
I've seen a number of threads go on about bubba pucks - machined disks the size of a smoking puck. Has nobody ever tried to machine something of similar shape to the bubba - but with a solid bottom i.e. the shape of a small dish - so that they are still essentially the size of a standard puck - but could have any type of chips put in them. You could also put the chips into these containers before hand - soak them in water, compress them with a weight and let dry ready for burning in the container at a later date.
I understand that because the metal would have to heat up first, you wouldn't get as much smoke and would have to make it as thin as possible - so smoking times may be longer - but are there any engineers out there that think that this would work ???? I'm no engineer, I work in computers - so call me an idiot at your will :)
bassarisk, I've had that same thought..
A machined aluminum bowl to hold chips/sawdust or even Traeger wood pellets. (that's where I first got the idea - from a post Nepas did) You could place three on the smoke generator, and use traditional bubbas to push them along. If 20 minute isn't enough time to get them hot/smoking, you could always interrupt the cycle but turning the smoke gen on/off every 10 minutes.
I've even toyed with getting the Auber puck savers (they are just the cylinder - no bottom) and carefully piling some Traeger pellets in each one.
QuoteI'm no engineer, I work in computers -
Ditto here.
Try:
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=4368.0
I have seen these pucks and they work well.
Here is a tip.
Get a clean non used freeze plug for a diesel engine (a tractor trailer engine) they are 2 1/8" round and 1/2" high flat on the bottom and will hold wood chips, sawdust or pellets and they stack well in the tube.
I understand that the pucks cost more over there, but the time it is going to take is a factor in this too. You can't make pucks with any production level to speak of. When I calculate my time verses my income I would have to make 62 pucks an hour to equal my income. If you don't factor your time in the equation you could do anything you want. But I only have to work 45 minutes to buy a box of pucks.
This is my first post. Although I have access to bisquettes, as Bradley calls them, I try to avoid them. I crossed this path when I smoked my first salmon and the price of the pucks at 50 cents CAD a piece cost me more than the whole salmon did. Something didn't seem right about this so I started to make my own pucks just as you smokers are discussing. However, I took a completely different approach than any of you are discussing. It is very simple and actually costs nothing.
When travelling or driving around I keep an eye out for available hardwood, such as something that was pruned out of someone's yard or in the case of my cousin's place in Nanaimo, red alder grows as a weed on the hill behind the house. I cut sections of 2 - 2 1/2 inch raw branches from any small tree such as Red Alder, Maple, Cherry, apple, crabapple or even green birch – the list is endless. Due to taper within the branches, the section I cut is usually only 2 – 3 feet long.
I take a 3/16" drill and pop about 10 holes down the end of the cut branch.
Then the branch goes on a WorkMate clamp and I use a bow saw to cut ½ inch pucks. After 4 cuts I re-drill the holes in the end and start all over again. It takes about 15 minutes to cut enough pucks to smoke a whole salmon all day.
The holes in the pucks allow the heat to burn the entire puck evenly. Solid pucks don't burn, the holes are needed.
The pucks fit in the sleeve of the smoker and advance every 20 minutes.
The tally here is that I do not pay a cent for my wood. Timewise, I enjoy a walk to cut a few branches and use it as exercise. When the branches are home it only takes about 15 minutes to turn them into pucks. Does my salmon taste better made this way – I believe it does because I have invested in this food and made it personal throughout the whole process.
I tried to attach pics taken last week during a smoking session but this forum doesn't allow it. I can send pics if you want. Mail me at
[email protected]Uncle Al(//)
Hi Uncle Al;
Welcome to the forum.
You have taken a very innovative approach. To post pictures you have to upload them to a host site, then provide a link.
Here is an easy tutorial.
How to post pictures. (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showpost.php?p=768&postcount=11)
Thanks Habanero,
I did try that site to upload images but I received a virus warning when I entered the site so I did not proceed. But that's OK. If anyone reads this I don't mind sharing via email. I did the same thing with my Indian Candy recipe on the Cookshack site and made many friends in doing so.
Or, I could send to you and you could post? No, too complex.
Say, have you tried using green birch before? When I lived up north we smoked a lot of fish but had no access to good woods in the '80's. So we used birch and it was great.
And I never mentioned this in my post but if one takes old oak boards they can be cut into 2 1/2" squares, drill lots of holes in the wood as I do with the branches and manually load them on the slider with 3 pucks behind to push them forward every 20 minutes. I don't buy much wood at all.
Uncle Al
That is a safe site, so it may be that your anti virus software was giving you a false positive. Some of the programs on Photobucket are probably acting in a way that is considered suspicious behavior. If they are not that many you can send them to me and I'll post them, I still have plenty of space on Photobucket. My email is listed in my profile.
Also if you are nervous about using Photobucket, you can go to the Recipe Site (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/index.php), go to the bottom of the page and click on "Contact Us"
or click on Community -> Member' List -> and look up Raye Minor to get his email address. Send him an email requesting space to host your pictures on his server.
I've never tried birch, but if I going to I better do it soon. Most of the birch trees are dieing in my area. I have tons of oak and black walnut trees growing. My favorite wood is peach, but since my peach tree die it is hard to find. I have a few orchards in my area, but I saw a post about wood from orchards may have too many pesticides. I need to see if there are any organic orchards nearby.
Here are Al's pics.. Pretty slick idea!
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgvtGeloI/AAAAAAABEk4/Pfl1TljcnEw/s800/DSCN1479.jpg)
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgvhRw_zI/AAAAAAABEk8/qfO7FCgC5t8/s800/DSCN1480.JPG)
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgv7hzvZI/AAAAAAABElA/jvS3zDeO9mI/s800/DSCN1481.JPG)
(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgv_W4B1I/AAAAAAABElE/xWmMD5Emj7I/s800/DSCN1482.jpg)
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgwXcQmdI/AAAAAAABElI/dV18E0_sC3A/s800/DSCN1483.JPG)
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_CbvAIVzmFFM/S3hgvvRzbXI/AAAAAAABEk0/Z1PfMqs4M5w/s800/DSCN1484.JPG)
I have a black walnut tree I may try that out on.
I bet it doesn't work on palm trees....
For those, you put the lime in the coconut and shake it all up.
Hey Al, this method of making pucks looks great. A couple of questions on the homemade pucks:
do you dry the branches before cutting up, or just use fresh cut wood?
Do you remove the bark before smoking or not worry about it? I would think that bark would start on fire...but maybe not?
How important have you found the circumfrence of the puck to be?
I am going out to cut some maple branches off my tree to try this right now. Thanks for the idea!
I'll be quick as the Olympic Hockey game is looming...
I do not dry them. But if green they burn slower so drying seems to be a good thing.
I don't remove the bark. It stays whole and then drops in the water.
The circumference can vary within a half inch. If smaller they just don't fall off when the next puck slides forward and sometimes only half a puck is on the plate and burning but none of that seems to matter. In 20 minutes it pushes forward and then burns completely.
Go Canada Go...
I gave this a try with some mulberry that I had and couldn't get the wood to smoke. It would turn a little black, but no smoke was visible in the cabinet and only a very little was comming off the puck. I thought that I would let them dry for a month or so and try again (the branch that I used was freshly cut off the tree the same hour that I tried this). I did drill about 10 holes in the branch just as shown in the pictures and when that didn't work I drilled about 5 more in each puck, but it didn't help at all. Maybe Mulberry just shouldn't be used like this?
I live in the prairies and have not had access to Mulberry. If the wood is that green the 20 minute cycle may not be long enough to both dry the wood and cause it to smoke. When I burn green wood I will turn the generator off and on as I walk by to cancel the 20 minute cycle so that an individual puck burns longer.
I have used Chokecherry but found it was quite acrid when layed on too thick (Hmm, just like the berry). Saskatoon works. So does semi-dried birch with the bark removed. Any crabapple or apple is good too.
Lately I have been experimenting with old oak boards but they too seemed to need a lot of holes to start smoking before they get dumped. I guess for me I have found a wood that works consistently as a substitute for the pucks. Red Alder, dried, cut 1/2" thick, 7-10 holes.
Have fun finding what works for your area. When you find a system stick with it and you will always be a happy smoker...
Uncle Al
I think I have found a way for me to make pucks that appears to work. I took muffler pipe that was 2 1/4 in diam. and bronzed a plate on the bottom. I have access to a large amount of saw dust (off a router, mainly) and I pack the disk full of saw dust. The length of time the puck smokes on the Bradley is perfect, but now I have to make some more disks and fill them with saw dust to make sure that they advance. I will get some pictures if this works and post them here (or maybe in a new thread).