Smokehouse from the old fridge do it yourself

Smoked products, in addition to excellent taste, retain all the beneficial substances of the original product and have a long shelf life. Traditionally, there are two types of smoking - hot and cold. In this article, we will tell you how to breathe new life into an old fridge, turning it into a home smokehouse. To do this you need a minimum of tools and a few hours of free time.

Preparation for the manufacture of smokehouse from the refrigerator

The refrigerator is an excellent basis for making your own smokehouse. The most preferred are old models made in the USSR. They feature a more durable metal casing and a minimal amount of plastic elements.

The key to a positive result is thorough preparation. Regardless of the type of smokehouse, the first thing to start with is to dismantle and remove all plastic parts and rubber seals from the refrigerator. This simple operation will save your culinary masterpieces from an unpleasant smell and harmful substances that are able to release these materials at high temperatures.

After dismantling the rubber seals, it is necessary to solve the problem of how to fix the door in the closed position. Some models of old refrigerators have a regular door locking mechanism. If you are a happy owner of this modification - feel free to go to the next item, if not - you need to attach an additional device to the case that ensures that the door fits snugly to the case.

Then you have to decide how you will stir the products when smoked. Traditionally, they either hang them or lay them on grilles. Most smokers prefer to hang products, believing that in this way space is used more efficiently. We also advise to stay on this option: just fasten the grille from the refrigerator under the ceiling and place some wire hooks on it.

The preparatory stage has been successfully completed, before the next one you have to decide exactly what type of smoking products you want to receive.

Traditionally distinguished:

  • hot smoked devices;
  • cold smoked devices;
  • universal (depending on the configuration, they are able to work both in one and another mode).

Advantages and disadvantages of homemade smokehouse from the refrigerator

The use of an old refrigerator for smoking is an excellent variant of a stationary smokehouse, which does not require much time and money for its manufacture. Provides the ability to cook at the same time a significant amount of smoked meat. With proper operation, such a device can serve you for many years.

Attention! The disadvantages of the installation of this type is to include its dimensions and, as a result, the lack of mobility.

If you and your loved ones love smoked products and the place on your site allows you to place an apparatus of such an impressive size, then the smokehouse from the refrigerator is your option.

If you use smoked meat rarely enough, you want to be able to take a smokehouse with you on hikes or space in your area is limited - you may be better to turn in a refrigerator for scrap and buy a small portable smokehouse.

How to make from the old refrigerator cold smokehouse

Products prepared by the method of cold smoking, retain in their composition all the vitamins and nutrients. They are cooked at low temperature with cold white smoke. This method of smoking is recommended by nutritionists.

The design of cold-smoked smokehouse is somewhat more complicated. The main difference is that the housing of the smokehouse and the hearth in which the wood chips smolder should be separated. The hearth is connected with the smokehouse chimney so that the smoke enters the smokehouse at a temperature not higher than 30 degrees.

Important! The smoke in a cold-smoked smokehouse acts as a preservative and kills all harmful microbes, however, given its low temperature, the smoking process should last at least a day.

For the final transformation of the refrigerator into a cold-smoking smokehouse, it is necessary to make a hole in the bottom of the body for the chimney. To ensure the flow of smoke into the working chamber, care must be taken of the chambers: for this, the hearth is stirred slightly lower in the vertical plane, and the chimney is placed at an angle.

If possible, the terrain is used for this. If you have a completely flat area, then you need to dig a recess for the hearth, an inclined trench for the chimney, and place the smokehouse directly on an artificial elevation.

The difficulty lies in the correct selection of the length of the chimney. The length is chosen in such a way that the smoke in the chimney cooled down and came to the smokehouse at a temperature of 27-30 degrees. Experience shows that the length of the underground chimney should be about three meters. A more accurate figure is chosen experimentally, because it depends on many parameters of the chimney - inclination, cross-sectional area, wall material, etc.

Creating a cold-smoked smokehouse, in addition to the smoking chamber, requires a separate arrangement of the hearth and chimney and is quite time-consuming.

Production of smoke-cured smokehouse from the refrigerator: step-by-step instructions

When hot smoked products are exposed to smoke with a temperature of one hundred or more degrees, the process of smoking itself takes very little time, about an hour or two. It is believed that with this treatment, the products lose some of the vitamins, and under certain circumstances, carcinogens are formed.

It is somewhat easier to make hot smoked smokehouse. Simply place the electric stove on the bottom of the prepared smoke cabinet, placing a pan with smoking chips on it. And pick up such a heating mode of the spiral, in which the chips in the pan smolder, but in no case does not light up.

Attention! Always keep the wood chips wet, thereby increasing the amount of smoke, minimizing the risk of fire.

As practice shows, gourmets manage to equip hot-smoked smokehouses both outdoors and in the apartment.

Street mode

When placing a smokehouse on the street, in addition to the above-described method with an electric stove, you can place the hearth directly under the body of the refrigerator in the ground, and pour the sawdust directly to the bottom of the smoking chamber.

At the same time, to increase the resource, it is desirable to lay an additional sheet of metal about 3 mm thick between the bottom of the refrigerator and the hearth.

Home method

We do not recommend doing this, but some arrange a smokehouse right in the apartment. For this smokehouse with a stove as a smoke generator, equip the chimney, connecting it with the exhaust system of the home. It is also worthwhile to additionally seal the door abutment to the chamber, it is best to use heat-resistant rubber seals for ovens for this.

Now you know how to make a convenient smokehouse out of the old refrigerator without possessing any special skills.

Watch the video: DIY Convert an old refrigerator into a meat smoker or smoke cooker (March 2024).

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