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Smoke ‘Em if You’ve Got ‘Em

November 26th, 2013

Yesterday, Mr Chiots finally rolled the new smoker out of the garage. It’s quite a beauty, looks like an outhouse, but that’s OK, maybe that will keep people from stealing our bacon.  After setting it in place, we immediately built a fire, attached the tube from the old grill left by the previous owners and it was filled with smoke. Into it went all the bacons, a few petite picnic hams, jowl bacon, Canadian bacon and the ham hocks.
Smoking pork 1
Smoking pork 2
We’ve been wanting to build a smoker for a LONG time, but we never really had much to smoke, that’s not the case any more! Yesterday we put about 100 lbs of meat in there and started using trimmings from our apple tree to give it a sweet smoky flavor.
Smoking pork 3
In the future I’m definitely going to try smoking peppers, cheeses and other goodies. This should be a fun thing to experiment with. Perhaps I’ll even try to make my own smoked sea salt and peppercorns.

Do you enjoy smoked, meats, cheese, peppers or spices?

21 Comments to “Smoke ‘Em if You’ve Got ‘Em”
  1. Kay on November 26, 2013 at 5:57 am

    Yes, yes, yes to all of them!

    Reply to Kay's comment

  2. kristin @ going country on November 26, 2013 at 6:39 am

    Only if it’s really smoked. If it’s some kind of disgusting smoke flavoring added to the thing, NO WAY. I can’t STAND that stuff, even in tiny amounts.

    I do like the smoked trout my husband makes in our tiny, ancient Little Chief smoker, though. It’s like fish bacon.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  3. kathi Cook on November 26, 2013 at 7:31 am

    That’s one cute smoker! I love smoked meats and fish, especially salmon. I am not too fond of smoked cheeses-I like cheese too much to change it in any way. Of course smoked hams and bacon are the best. Good luck.

    Reply to kathi Cook's comment

  4. Adelina Anderson on November 26, 2013 at 7:32 am

    Love smoked meats. We did bacon and a large pastrami this past year.

    My kids and I love smoked trout! It is totally like fish bacon. :)

    Reply to Adelina Anderson's comment

  5. Jennifer Fisk on November 26, 2013 at 8:02 am

    That’s a beauty and very similar to one a friend built. I love properly home smoked meats. Considering what commercial places try to pass off as smoked, I don’t buy any of it.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  6. Lee on November 26, 2013 at 9:21 am

    That’s a great smoker. Did you build it?

    Reply to Lee's comment

    • Susy on November 26, 2013 at 11:30 am

      Yes, Mr Chiots built it.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Nebraska Dave on November 26, 2013 at 9:34 am

    Susy, I do like smoked or BBQ either one. Will there be any racks of smoked ribs in there? That is a mighty fine looking smoke house. I absolutely love the way you generate the smoke and get it into the smoke house. How long will you have to tend the fire to smoke the meat? ***** Have a great smokin’ meat day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

    • Susy on November 26, 2013 at 11:31 am

      Eventually we’ll smoke some ribs. We’re cold smoking these, typically you smoke for 24 hours straight for for 5 hours every day for 5 days. We’re checking on the fire every hour. Yesterday things smoked for 5 hours, today we’ll get about 12 in and tomorrow as well.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Lorna on November 26, 2013 at 9:40 am

    Love your smoker!
    We live in an early 1800’s New England farmhouse that has a hearth with a beehive oven. (Unfortunately, the chimney is not lined so we can’t use either at the moment, but that’s on the to-do list!). We were told the built-in closet next to the beehive oven was likely a smoking closet when the home was originally built. Our friend from the historical society said some smoking closets still have the residual smoked meat smells in the walls!

    Reply to Lorna's comment

    • Susy on November 26, 2013 at 11:32 am

      I’ve seen in a book about having a smoker closet next to wood stove. So great!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. amy on November 26, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    That is a real beaut ~Brian!! The only thing I like smoked as far as meat…is turkey….not a real big fan of turkey….so smoking it….is far better tasting to me.

    Reply to amy's comment

  10. Michelle on November 26, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    My husband would love this…

    Reply to Michelle's comment

  11. Robin on November 26, 2013 at 1:29 pm

    I’m hoping to build a smokehouse next year to do our pigs and a couple of turkeys. Like Kristen, I don’t like liquid smoke but real smoke is delicious. I’ll be saving the branches we prune from the apple trees.

    Reply to Robin's comment

  12. Rachel on November 26, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    Very cool to see how this works! Does anyone know if smoking helps the preservation process or is it just for flavor?

    Reply to Rachel's comment

    • Susy on November 26, 2013 at 5:55 pm

      It does help with the preservation process.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  13. Eric on November 30, 2013 at 1:15 am

    Great smoker! I enjoy smoking meats, keen to give cheese a try soon though.

    Reply to Eric's comment

  14. Chris on December 7, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    Just catching up on blogs…yes, we smoke salmon alot here and chicken…just wondering if you could just set the little grill on the floor inside the smoker…too much smoke and heat all at once or possibly setting the smoker on fire? :) Great setup though!

    Reply to Chris's comment

    • Susy on December 8, 2013 at 8:09 pm

      When we’re hot smoking we probably will put the grill inside, but we wanted cold smoke in this case.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  15. Chris on December 10, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    Ahh, got it! Well, hope you achieve the smoky flavor you were after with this method…We usually do an in between hot and cold smoke with our salmon and trout…kinda tricky though!
    Happy Winter!

    Reply to Chris's comment

  16. Steve @ schmoky.com on January 30, 2014 at 7:26 am

    Oh, i remember my dad’s smoker built in the shed like this. Doesn’t take much space but you get the most ORGANIC product ever!

    Reply to Steve @ schmoky.com's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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