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Cold smoking with a transmission oil cooler

smokinbadger

smokinbadger

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Hi all,

A few mornings ago as my son and I were enjoying bagels with smoked salmon, he asked why I didn't smoke salmon in addition to all of the other meats I smoke. We got into a discussion about the cold smoking process used in making the smoked salmon we were eating, and why this would be really difficult in the Bandera, but perhaps less difficult in the Klose MasterChef which should be arriving around Christmastime.

Later, while in the lab at work, I happened to look at a transmission oil cooler which was sitting on a workbench and got an idea. The TOC was about the same size as the opening between the firebox and smoke chamber on the bandera. I had the idea to mount the TOC in the opening, and adapt it to run water from a garden hose through it. This would allow the smoke to be cooled before it hits the salmon, and would allow (hopefully) all of the nasty tasting organics to precipitate out of the smoke onto the TOC and not onto the salmon.

Has anybody done anything similar? I am probably going to try this in the next couple of weeks unless somebody gives me a good reason not to.
 
How about hot plate and small tray for chips like little cheif?
 
The Badger Man,

"all of the nasty tasting organics to precipitate out of the smoke"

Isn't that what gives smoked food its great taste?
PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoke On" (the meat)
ed
 
kickassbbq said:
The Badger Man,

"all of the nasty tasting organics to precipitate out of the smoke"

Isn't that what gives smoked food its great taste?
PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoke On" (the meat)
ed
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I meant all of the stuff you don't want to drop out of the smoke and onto your meat/smoker walls like creosote, etc. If you are going to smoke at 80F, somehow the nasties need to get separated from the smoke before the food, or the initially cold food is going to do the job for you.

The idea behind using the heat exchanger is mainly to cool all of the air to near the temperature of the water, which probably can't happen with just a bowl of water in the smoke chamber. I know some people accomplish this with a really long duct between the firebox and smoke chamber, but I think this would accomplish the same thing.

Any group knowledge on cold smoking would be highly appreciated. Thanks.
 
cooler

well working as a dynamometer technician doing R&D work for the auto industy, I have quite a bit of experience with heat exchangers. The only problem I see is that with a setup like that, you aren't going to get as much heat transfer as you think. I would be willing to guess 10 deg max? I know the heat exhangers at work (water to water) can get about 20-25 max, and they are more efficient than air to water ones. You might even try taking a piece of copper pipe, drilling a bunch of small holes ( and I mean small) in it and putting it right over the top of the air inlet and connecting water to it. Let it produce a fine mist directly into the air flow. The evaporation method is quite effective at cooling things, of course you are going to have to figure something out for a drain and splash shield so the water doesn't get all over everything you cook, and you don't want the water putting the fire out either. This is just my .02 worth. If you do get something to work, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Chris
 
I'n theory, if you cool the smoke down too fast it will condensate and will basically turn into liquid smoke.
 
Here's the bacon post cold smoking. Sliced it thin-ish, put it on a rack, and threw it in the oven at 400* until crisp.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
All cold smoking is is less than 180 or 160*. I saw Alton Brown do it in a tall metal locker with a hot plate to make the smoke.

When the old guys smoke ham in a smoke house thats cold smoking or curing the ham. Its all in the temp. Im not sure I could make my Bandera run at 160*. So seems the trick would be find a bigger smoking cabinet that will run cooler.
 
Brauma said:
All cold smoking is is less than 180 or 160*. I saw Alton Brown do it in a tall metal locker with a hot plate to make the smoke.
Click to expand...

He did the same thing with a cardboard box for salmon. You could do the same thing as SmokeInDaEye by running the exhaust to a box. The longer the connecting hose, the cooler the smoke. Might be a good conversion for an el cheapo R2D2 smoker.
 
When I was a kid I would help my grand-dad and my uncle in the smoke house.....had hams, bacon, all the really good pig parts hanging from the rafters.......would build a small fire in a ( for lack of a better word ) pit underneath the smoke house....wonderful smell came from it....many a great breakfast came out of there......it still stands today although it is used for storage you can still smell the hickory in there.
 
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