Smokehouse from the refrigerator: bring original ideas to life

Many people love smoked meats because of their unique taste and the possibility of long-term storage. Gourmets most often overshadow the assortment offered in retail outlets, making a choice in favor of home-smoked products. Firstly, when preparing yourself, you can set the smoking parameters to your liking. Secondly, there will always be a clear confidence in the quality of the raw materials used. Third, the cost of such delicacies will be much lower than the store price.

Of course, to start making smoked meat at home, you need the smokehouse itself. It can be purchased, but it is much easier to make it yourself from quite unexpected improvised means.For example, you can make a smokehouse of both hot and cold smoking from an old refrigerator. Below is a detailed instruction.

Almost every citizen of our country has an old refrigerator on the balcony, in the garage or in the country, which was sent there after buying a new one. Usually it is used as a locker for unnecessary things or not used at all. Exactly such a unit with a metal body is needed to turn it into a smokehouse. It is worth remembering that the rework will require a Soviet-made refrigerator, since such units were made of metal, and modern models are made of plastic, which, when heated, will release toxic substances - it is not recommended to smoke products into them.

In addition to it, you will need refractory bricks and a metal sheet (cover) for the kindling chamber, as well as a metal or plastic pipe (preferably with a knee) not shorter than 4 m. old washing machine.

Before embarking on the process of re-engineering, you need to remove from it all the internal and external parts: partitions, covers, plates, plastic and rubber parts - only the body will be used. After removing all the seals, the refrigerator will no longer firmly fix the door in the closed position, therefore it is recommended to attach a hook or bolt in advance.

First you need to drill holes in the side walls of the case for fastening hooks, grids and trays. The number and distance between the holes will have to be determined independently, they will depend on the model of the refrigerator and the dimensions of the grids or shelves attached to it. You can only use gratings that are made of stainless steel, otherwise when heated, the material may oxidize and give an unpleasant taste to cooking products.

Also in the upper wall you need to drill a hole under the chimney pipe. It will be involved in the initial kindling of the smokehouse, after which the pipe is closed with a lid. The diameter of the chimney should not be too large for the smoke to pass in a thin stream, otherwise cooking time for smoked meat will take twice as long.At the bottom of the refrigerator you need to install a special tray on the legs for draining fat.

Optionally, in the center of the future smoke chamber, you can place an additional tank of stainless steel, where several holes are pre-drilled. This is a secondary smoke chamber, the task of which is to provide additional air circulation to impart an indescribable flavor to the products.

There are two types of smokehouse: non-volatile and energy-consuming.

In the energy-consuming smokehouses during operation, electric energy is used, for which an electric stove is installed in the lower part of the building. From above it must be covered with a sheet of steel with a minimum thickness of 5 mm. Subsequently, a kindling material is placed on the steel surface. If it is not possible to find a steel sheet, for this purpose it is possible to adapt old pans. If the refrigerator used has a sloping bottom, under which it is inconvenient to substitute the electric stove, you can simply turn it upside down.

To get a non-volatile smokehouse, in the lower part of the body you need to make a hole in which the pipe will enter about 10 cm in diameter. The pipe should be placed under a slight slope to create thrust.

The pipe itself is better to completely dig into the ground, it will perform the function of a natural cooler. The second end of the chimney leads to a furnace made of an iron tank. The firebox should also be located in a recess in the ground, which is lower in level than the housing of the smokehouse. For a pit intended for a firebox, it is not necessary to prepare the foundation, it is enough to simply lay out its walls with hardened bricks or a sheet of refractory metal.

Such electrostatic smokehouse works on the principle of cold smoking. Products prepared in this way are recommended for use by doctors, because in the process of smoking there is no release of carcinogens and other harmful substances. To make a non-volatile hot smoked smokehouse, the furnace chamber must be placed directly under the lower part of the refrigerator body, but only if the bottom is made of thin metal.

The first step in the smoking process is to light a fire in the firebox and wait for the appearance of coal. As soon as they are ready, they should be covered with a metal sheet, on which sawdust of fragrant wood is placed. After hanging products for smoking in the smoking house, you need to tightly close the door of the refrigerator and the firebox lid - this is a prerequisite for high-quality home-smoking.

Recently, there have been many recommendations for improving the design of a self-made smokehouse with a pipe, as the quality of smoking in it strongly depends on the quality of the wood used. If damp wood is used for kindling, then condensate accumulates at the exit in the smokehouse, and a tasteless crust on the products themselves.

As a solution, it is proposed to make a two-chamber firebox, where a fire is lit in the first chamber, and fragrant wood chips glow in the second chamber. And it is absolutely unimportant in this case that the quality of the ignition used: the necessary smoke is obtained directly from the smoldering of chips.Do not forget that for smoking can not use chips from the needles.

Smoking is easier in summer, in winter, there may be difficulties with maintaining the internal temperature. The combustible fabric will help to cope with heat loss: you can simply cover the refrigerator with it during smoking. It is best to place a smokehouse in a place protected from the wind. In addition, it is recommended to choose a site with a length of about three meters, which is slightly biased (with a difference of about half a meter). So the smoke will quickly rise through the pipe.

If you need to smoke a small amount of food, then they should be placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. In this case, the reflector is mounted on top (any piece of tin), which speeds up the cooking process, which allows to significantly save wood chips.

To give an aesthetic appearance of the smokehouse, you can remove the back wall of the refrigerator and put instead heat-resistant glass. Through it you can watch the process. You can also hold the wire with a thermocouple in the rear compartment, closed by a shield that will allow you to adjust the temperature during smoking.

Our step-by-step instructions, drawings and recommendations will help you to make a smokehouse with a smoke generator. This cabinet from the chamber refrigerator looks very stylish and original.

Summing up, it is obvious that it is very easy to make a personal caption for personal use. It is not necessary to spend large sums of money on a ready-made machine - it is enough to apply a little imagination to the old units available on hand.

How to make a smokehouse from the old refrigerator, see the following video.