making your own pucks

martinedwards · June 23, 2005, 02:26:33 PM

I tried 3/4 inch discs cut from a two to two and a 1/4 inch stick with the bark stripped of with a bench circular saw thickness of disk is important, have used both ash and alder seems to work just fine even if the wood is a little green the discs start smoking nearly as quick as proper pucks not quite such a dense smoke, but plenty for a box the size of the bradley. My preference is to cold smoke for sometimes days, so there is and enormous cost saving. Exact diameter is not that important neither do they have to be perfectly round! anthing between one and 3/4 inchs and two and a 1/4 seems fine. dont worry if discs are not neatly on the end of the hotplate, they seem to sort themselves out if left alown!! A larger water dish is a good idea if left to run unattended for long time, discs can be fished out the water bowl left to dry for a bit and reused other way up. You then end up with nice round chunks of charcole so save buying that as well[:D]
Sounds to good to be true? try it you will be pleasantly surprised.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by outbackjack
 has anyone tried using a tree limb the same diameter as a puck, and cut to the same thickness then used that in the bradley ss generator ?

everything tastes better outback
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

TomG · July 19, 2005, 04:41:03 PM

Half buck puck. Found a simple and inexpensive substitute for solid metal pucks at my local plumbing supplies dealer. I bought 2 feet of 2 inch copper tubing for $1.50 and 6 2" copper "test" caps for $2.00. Cut the tubing in 1/2", I used a tube cutter, but a hacksaw would work almost as well, then pressed the short lengths of tube in to caps with light taps of a wood mallet, making a 2" in diameter, 5/8" high copper cup. These are very close to being the same size as wood pucks and have the additional potential for holding wood chips in flavors which might otherwise not be commercially available. The cups can be filled with Bradley crumbs, loaded in the puck magazine and seem to work fairly well producing smoke.

tsquared · July 20, 2005, 12:54:04 AM

Very cool idea, Tom. I' going to try it as I've got a bunch of oak and cherry wood to use. Welcome to the forum--we can always use more inventive types!
T2

nsxbill · July 20, 2005, 01:45:49 AM

Great idea. A unique way to generate smoke from different wood.

Bill

There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.

bsolomon · July 20, 2005, 07:44:15 PM

Wow, that sounds like a really good option for those wishing to experiment with other woods. Do I sense a possible addition to the Chez Bubba product line???

nsxbill · July 20, 2005, 08:12:56 PM

TomG

The only thing that I think would improve on your design would be the addition of holes to the bottom so they would sink into the water when the reach the end of the smoke generator. The Bubba pucks were designed as place holders and push the spent pucks out at the end of the smoke. Only one of them would actually be used for applying smoke at the end of the time for smoking. Maybe additional ones could be used to put in different types of wood, but there would have to be something for them to drop into that wouldn't have them piling up in the bowl. I suspect a larger bowl would be in order were more used so there would be room in the bowl.

Bill

There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.

TomG · July 21, 2005, 01:44:58 AM

Hi Bill

They sink without holes and don't seem to displace very much water. But the holes might be a great idea to increase ventilation around the chips and improve smouldering.

Tom

JJC · July 22, 2005, 04:32:52 AM

Welcome, Tom--great idea, though it sounds like too much work for a lazy guy like me . . . Chez, any interest in producing this, perhaps with a "holy" bottom so you could add wood chips?

John
Newton MA

wcparker · December 01, 2005, 02:10:50 AM

I found a less expensive source for sawdust. Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, etc.

www.butcher-packer.com/pg_smoking_hickory_sawdust.htm

Perhaps the gellatin binder mixed with this sawdust pressed tightly in a cookie sheet. Then cut into disk with a round cookie cutter.
Just spitballing.

JJC · December 02, 2005, 01:27:58 PM

Welcome to the Forum, Chris! Keep the thoughts and experiences coming . . . we all like to share here!

John
Newton MA

manxman · December 29, 2005, 01:14:44 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">My electric smoker is a Bradley unit. I cut disks from straight hardwood boughs about 2 1/4 inches diameter and 1/2 inch thick .These feed automatically onto a hot plate and are ejected into a pan of water when thay have burnt.
You can buy different flavours of sawdust disks from Bradley, but this costs about a pound an hour to run<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I found this quote on another (general food) forum that I have a look at occasionally, this person seems to be using his home made pucks successfully.

Manxman.

thostorey · December 30, 2005, 07:22:48 AM

This fellow's idea may have potential to replace the dummy pucks. One possible draw-back is if the solid puck was to start to burn[:0]. I guess you could soak them in water and use a timer to remind yourself to turn off the smoke gen. I think a 'dry run' may be in order to try the theory as a smoker puck and as a dummy puck. [8D]

Tom in Qualicum Beach

JJC · December 30, 2005, 12:09:27 PM

Tom, the other problem with shutting off the smoke gen might be the reduced/uneven heat output. Seems like a lot of work to avoid using Bubba Pucks!

P.S.--Kummock, are you keeping track of my commission in salmon treats for the Bubba Puck plugs [:D]?

John
Newton MA

Oldman · December 31, 2005, 12:34:45 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My electric smoker is a Bradley unit. I cut disks from straight hardwood boughs about 2 1/4 inches diameter and 1/2 inch thick .These feed automatically onto a hot plate and are ejected into a pan of water when thay have burnt.
You can buy different flavours of sawdust disks from Bradley, but this costs about a pound an hour to run
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Come on folks think about this... The original poster is spoofing you all here and some of you are going for it. Does anyone here really think that 20 minutes on a hot plate is going to give you a good even smoke off of a solid piece of wood???

Olds

manxman · December 31, 2005, 11:45:04 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Does anyone here really think that 20 minutes on a hot plate is going to give you a good even smoke off of a solid piece of wood???<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Personnally I have no intention of even trying going down this road but the quoted post was on a general cooking forum here in the UK from someone who was actually posting in praise of the BS, had no axe to grind about anything other than the cost of the pucks and it worked for him.

Whether he has to smoke for longer, the quality of the smoke or anything else I have no idea but the point is that he was happy to use his BS in this way.

I seem to remember he was talking about cold smoking for long periods.

In my view it is about personal choice and some people like to experiment, if it works for them then great, if not you try something else!

The vast majority of people are always going to be buying pucks! [;)]

Manxman.