I tested a different design today. It is designed to cold smoke meat below 95 degrees F, that will be cooked afterward, like hamburgers etc., and additionally, fresh caught salmon after proper preparation for this cold smoking. When cold smoking is finished, salmon will be placed in a hot smoker for the final safety 160 degree stage. The smoker is built from a modified barbeque. All internal heating elements and controls are removed. The barbeque is fairly well sealed but will have gaps around the big windowed lid which will allow smoke to vent. The smoke is generated by a remounted side burner placed down low on the barbeque frame. A 8" tall stainless steel container with a lid contains the Hickory wood. The lid has a 50 cent size hole in the center and has 3" ducting elbow (swiveling) permanently mounted and a 3" ducting pipe going to the underside of the barbeque where it is joined with another swiveling elbow going up into the barbeque underside where a normal air vent is located. Todays test put a good brownish color on the TOP of the frozen patties. I need to find out why only the top got smoked. I suspect the de-thawing ice may have kept the bottom of the patties too wet, or (maybe) I need to place a diverting shield over the smoke INPUT vent to slow down the smoke velocity entering from the underside. We'll see.....
