WELCOME TO BLUE DOG BREWING

BUILDING A SMOKER FOR BACON

The world's a funny place and we all like different things

At Bluedog we don't like thick 'Aussie' bacon with the big eye of meat in it.

We like crisp, tasty streaky bacon sliced thin and it's hard to buy so there was only one thing for it, we had to make our own.

We found recipes and methods on the internet and settled on something we thought we'd like. It sounded easy enough, just buy pork belly and marinate it for a week in a mix of maple syrup, brown sugar and salt [turning every day]. Dry it for a day in the fridge and smoke it for around 6 hours.

Too easy, let's get to it!

Like all good projects it started out quite simply, buy a good quality 200L [44gal] drum which hadn't been used for chemicals. Burn a fire inside it to remove the paint, (this was to prevent the internal paint coating breaking down and releasing chemicals into the smoke later in the process).

Then it was off to Bunnings to buy a very cheap kettle style BBQ. We only wanted the two round metal racks and the lid to fit into the top of our Drum.

Next we made a hinged door in the bottom, large enough to take old electric frying pan. This pan held the burning wood chips and made the smoke.

The result was this wonderful slab of maple syrup flavoured bacon which was then sliced very thinly as per the photo below.

When slicing we lay out the bacon in meal size glad-wrapped portions and freeze. It keeps well and is ready to unwrap and throw on the BBQ or into a frying pan when you want it.

bacon1
Slab of smoked pork belly. Marinated for a week in Maple Syrup, brown sugar etc and no chemical colouring or nitrates

bacon2
Sliced streaky bacon in meal size portions, wrapped in glad wrap and frozen

Smoker #1 was a Success.... but it could always be improved....

So Smoking Drum #1 was a success but things could be better. Loading up the frying pan is a pain and the temperature at the top of the drum was too hot. It was a hot smoking temperature which actually cooks the meat... we wanted to cold smoke our bacon.

It was time to re-think the smoke idea to have it piped in somehow so we could maintain a lower temperature and have it waft cold smoke over the bacon.

What we need is an external smoke chamber. And this is it..........

An aluminium tube to be filled with wood chips and set alight

smoker020
Smoke rises in the aluminium cylinder, passing through the thin cross tube into the drum, cooling along the way
The entry point is low enough to get a good amount of smoke into the drum below the two circular racks

Here are some photos of the build, please ask if you have any questions....

A drum which had contained Orange concentrate	A hinged door in the bottom wide enough to accommodate the electric frying pan	Pretty drum now looks ugly but at least the paint is gone so that no chemicals can get into the smoke
Two circular racks from the kettle style BBQ. Hole cut iin drum lid to fit modified kettle bottom	Temperature probe at the top of the drum to monitor the temp. Old electric frying pan in the bottom for the chips to smolder in. With new cold smoker set-up we only need a heat source in the bottom could use frying pan or gas 3 ring burner to 'hot' smoke	It's ugly but it's only a temporary set up... a trial run was needed
On to Smoker #2. These pieces make up the wood chip aluminium tube. Screen goes in the bottom and thinner tube at top directs the smoke into the drum	Close up of the tube. Has air holes to create a venturi action and keep the chips alight and making smoke	The bottom cover with ball valve to increase or restrict the air from the bottom of the cylinder
	Tube is filled with wood chips, shavings, chunks of wood. Remove the lower cap and set alight through the bottom screen with a gas torch. Reinsert the bottom cap and adjust the ball valve air flow.	It's a thing of beauty, smoke fills the air
Temperature is right on the money. We wanted cold smoke... we got it	The finished unit	Pork Belly begins it's life changing transformation into Bacon... yum!
Marinating pork belly in large plastic box in fridge	Pork belly is turned every day. This slab started at about 2kg	Forgot to weigh the final slab of smoked bacon but it's obviously less as it dried out