Apple Wood

[Quirkyfarm]

Hello,
We are saving our pennies for our first smoker.  We would like to cold smoke some chillies we grow in our polytunnels here in Scotland.  We have a small orchard and I had a romantic notion to use the apple wood we save after pruning as a fuel for smoking.  I'm not sure if this is possible with a Bradley Smoker which looks like it only works with the "Bradley Smoker Bisquettes".  These are really expensive this side of the pond (especially with the current weak British pound £).  As a newbie I'm thinking the "Bradley Smoker Bisquettes" consumables are an integral part of the business model - a bit like ink cartridges are to ink jet printers - am I right?  Or perhaps there are some clever ways to modify the fuel supply for using ones own wood.  Any advice would be most appreciated.
Kind regards,
QF

[Edward176]

Greetings Quirkyfarm from Canada, and welcome to the Forum. I am in no way an expert in anything, let alone my Bradley Smoker :) I have heard someone once mention that he used or heard of someone cutting the Apply tree branches into slices and pre-drilling holes into the "pucks" to fit his Bradley Smoker, but that seems like a either a lot of work, or an urban legend. If you Google "making your own Bradley Bisquettes" you will find several good YouTube entrepreneurs making their own pucks from purchased flavoured wood chips, and a "How To" video on how they make their own puck. The procedure is pretty straight forward and appears simple enough. As for myself I have only used the original Bisquettes but am intrigued with the process of making your own pucks. Either way, the joys of smoking meats and making your own sausages is rewarding and keeps me off the streets. Enjoy..   

[Quirkyfarm]

Hi Edward,  many thanks for your advice.  I did see one Youtube video posted from a guy in Denmark and his technique looked quite labour intensive.  I will have a look at some more and see if that's a option.  Our first step is to buy the actual smoker.  It's an item that is rapidly moving up my wish list and from what I can see Bradley are easily the market leaders.  I want something I can switch on and leave for several hours.

I've never been to Manitoba - looks like a lovely part of the world!  I lived in Ontario as a youngster for a few years back in the mid 60's and we still have family friends over there.  Cheers!

[Edward176]

LOL, Never been to Manitoba???  Not to worry, majority of people have never been to Manitoba either. Most think its Montana spelt incorrectly.
Just keep in mind that a Bradley is a LOW and SLOW smoker and not your kitchen oven. You smoke/cook at low temperatures for long periods of time. Too many think that you set the temperature and it heats up instantly like your kitchen oven. I've had mine now for 3 years and love it. If I"m pressed for time I smoke normally and transfer to my kitchen oven. Otherwise I enjoy the peace and time that it cooks in the Bradley, sometimes for hours and hours. I can spend an entire day just sitting and drinking coffee while my smoker cooks my food.   

[Wildcat]

I do not know how much you have researched, but you will never need any more than 4 hours of smoke to be applied during any cook. Even though the cook may take 24 hours. That equates to 12 wood pucks. Some things only need 20 minutes of smoke (like cheese) and some things need 1 or 2 hours of smoke.

[Hamlet 77]

There are videos on YouTube on how to make your own, but it looks massively time consuming. As a new Bradley smoker myself I've just had to budget bisque totes into the coatings of my food smoking.

When you look at other smoking woods the cost is not that much greater

[Quirkyfarm]

Thanks folks, very useful info.  It will be mainly chillies that we are smoking.

Cheers,
QF

[Smoker John]

Welcome aboard

[cherrybergher]

Welcome to the forum