Finally bought a Bradley, want to set up for cold smoke

[Stickbowcrafter]

Thanks! The flavor was wonderful, attested by family and friends as well. Not one complaint of too heavy a smoke flavor. I thought it was just about right myself. I used hickory pucks and cold smoked so it seemed to take forever to get the internal temp over 140 F/60 C. Afterwards, I gave them a cold water bath until the internal temp dropped to around 100 F/38 C and hung them in the cool basement for about an hour or so to bloom.

Cold smoking for 6-8 hours is not uncommon in a lot of cured sausage recipes that I have.

-Brian   

[HCT]

Thanks for the site. Great information on it.

[icerat4]

Were all here to help.In all our owe ways.lOTS OF GOOD INFO here.And sauce see ice for that lol.Dont hesitate to ask someone here will help pretty quick.Thats just the kind of family this is.

[Wildcat]

Wow!  My BS has not looked that shiney in a long time!

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Stickbowcrafter,

Is that an emulsified sausage or just very fine grind? Also, did you use inedible casings then peel back?

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Stickbowcrafter]

Yep, it doesn't take long to lose that shine. The interior is very amber looking already, only after one long smoke.

Not emulsified, just double ground fine and mix throughly by hand. Non-edible fibrous casings. Cut a chunk off, peel and eat.

-Brian

[coyote]

Giz , I start smoking right off the bat. And since it's late Nov.thru Dec. it's cold. I start the smoke and
set the heat when I load the BS. Takes 3-4 hours to really get the heat rollin'. So I'd say 75% cold smoke.


Coyote

[MarkW(UK)]

OK, here's my first attempt at building a combo cold smoke box/stand for the Bradley. I have not tested it yet as it was just pouring down rain. I may not have enough length of pipe to dissipate the heat from the generator below. I'll let you know how it works out. I'm hoping the important thing is having the smoke generator outside of the Bradley.

Hi Brian/Everybody!

I have just got a BDS and have read various postings on how to set up an external smoke box to cold smoke...

In particular, I liked Brian's setup with a combined stand smoke box...but I could not find a posting on how it went...??

Questions:

• Is the real issue just getting the burner outside of the smoke tower?
• or do you need a longer vent pipe to keep it cool...? (eg 2-3m)

I am going to build something soon...and would appreciate any thoughts on this...

Cheers

Mark

[Wildcat]

Welcome to the forum.  Although I am not the expert in cold smoking, based on what I have done and the postings of others on this forum that are experts, I would say that getting the generator out of the smoker is the primary objective for ease of cold smoking.  You can cold smoke (to a point) as the BS is set up but if you take the heat out of the box, then it is easier.  Obviously, the longer the vent pipe, the cooler the smoke will be, but if it is too far away you may run into problems like not enough draft.  Generally speaking, the smoke is not really that hot, it is the burner plate that has enough heat to raise the box temp.  Therefore, just getting the plate out of the box is all that is really needed IMHO.

[LilSmoker]

Hi and welcome MarkW(UK)

I do a fair bit of cold smoking, and i use the cardboard box chamber, and alluminum ducting method, it works a treat!

Here's some info shown with plastic ducting:

http://www.johnwatkins.co.uk/personalpages/coldsmoking.htm

I was going to build a more permanent chamber, but the cardboard box lasts a fair while, so i'm happy with it.

I always try and stay below 80F for cold smoking, even if it means a bowl of ice in the bottom of the cabinet

LilSmoker

[Stickbowcrafter]

Thanks Mark. I've cold smoked with my set up over a dozen times now and I still love it. Part of the reason it ended up the way it did because I had to take into account keeping the tower close enough to the generator so I could still plug them into each other. There are times in the winter when I will NEED heat from the tower heating element to get the temperature up into the 80s to cold smoke. I also installed a digital temperature switch to help regulate the temps better as well. Of course you could always cut and splice the cord if need be.

The box itself is simple to build and dissipates the heat well enough even to cold smoke in the summer time. I just cold smoked some almonds at 85 degrees when the ambient air temp was in the 80s. Plus by having the smoke generator below the tower, the warmer air naturally rises through the pipe and into the smoker, taking the smoke with it. Never had a drafting problem, smoke bellows out of the top vent during cold smoking.

I don't know if you looked at al the pictures on this thread but there are a lot. They should be pretty easy to follow. If you need measurements, I could get you some. Good luck!

-Brian   

[ThomasMN]

I built a box similar to Stickbowcrafter's after looking at his posts here. While the cord wont reach on my version I really was not concerned with that. I cold smoked some malt to make beer with at 65F on wednesday while brewing beer at the same time.  ;D

[Stickbowcrafter]

Nice job Thomas!

-Brian

[iceman]

Didn't catch the picture till just now. Very clean set up ThomasMN.

[manxman]

Very neat job ThomasMN.

Also welcome to the forum to both you and MarkW(UK)  :)