Smokehouse plans.
 

Have an idea in my head for a mortar and beam smokehouse. Slant roof. Was talkin to a guy that said to build it on a hill and put my fire box down slope so that you dont cook your meat. Seemed like a smart idea to me. Yall ever heard of this? Thoughts and plans welcome.

Yes. No. Maybe ----- I don't think so.

Big damn help you are,lol.

Smokehouse? New diesel truck? Not working for The Man anymore?

Mo, did you win the lottery?

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/...mokehouse.html

http://www.endtimesreport.com/smokehouse.html

http://justtwofarmkids.com/2010/01/1...-a-smokehouse/


Good reading

Never seen one built on a slope. Saw one in Arkansas that was a 4x4x7 box, with a 55 gallon drum as firebox which attached by stove pipe.

No idea what kind of results it produced, though.

Read em earlier. Missouri edu has plans for a whole hog smoker. Dont know how to c & p yet. Has a plan for a way offset fire box like im thinkin about. The house is weak though.

Check into the old Foxfire books. I bet its in there

Hcf, on the right path.

One thing you can count on is that the smoke and heat will move differently than you plan. Generally it is going to follow the highest-elevation path of least resistance to the chimney. Some of that heat and smoke needs to mingle around your meat. However, too much smoke without enough heat could cause condensation of smoke-nastiness on your meat giving it an off flavor. It is a delicate balance. You need your design to be somewhat adaptable, which is more challenging with brick and mortar. Many of the mass-produced metal off-set smokers require mods to get them to work right. The better ones have been refined over time to get the smoke/heat correctly distributed evenly through the smoking chamber.

Basically, you might need to provide the ability to add baffles to direct the smoke/heat where you want it to go. Also an adjustable chimney to pull the smoke at the right elevation from within the smoke box. Or you can keep building them and tearing them down till you get it right.

Cool project.

Bump

If you get some kind of plans drawn up. I can come down & do the masonry work for ya. I will be in Rodgers-vill Missouri laying blocks second weekend of Oct.

I have one at the fortress. This ones for the new place. Id like it to be big enough to do 25 hams and 40 50 slabs of bacon.

put me down for a couple hams when they're ready.
sec

Your friend total is going to grow exponentially!

I highly recommend you get a commercial smoker instead of this plan. But that's just me.

Shootin for christmas.

Two thinga I have, lot of recycled materials and farmer wayne. What I dont have, walk in cooler.

I saw a pretty cool one years ago out at Watkins Mill. about a 12 by 12 stone and mortar building that was probably 15 feet tall. Large firepit right in the center of the floor. All the hams and stuff were hanging about 8 feet above it from beams. It was badass. I guess that is how they did it back in the day. Small pipe coming out the center of the roof.

I just noticed you are smoking ham and bacon so I stand corrected. I thought this was to do BBQ.

i used to smoke whole hogs in a ole-oilfield tank heater with attached firebox .. it was about same size as a 500 gallon propane tank but 3 times thicker metal .. it had a baffle 3/4 the way down making the smoke come in thru the bottom ... had a grate for the hog made of walkway metal .. other end had a 6 inch baffled stack to control the draw ... always blasted the meat first then lower heat last six hours .. liked oak to start and finish with any fruit wood ....

Already have one of these.

ROFL figures.

Smokehouse and smoker aint the same thing fellas. Not for bbq.

I have to say, I don't know how to make one work, but I think I'd try to spend some money sealing it up. I would think keeping bugs and dirt out would be paramount.

I'd be interested to know how you separate the smoke from heat.

What cdcox wrote is pretty spot on. the dew point and how to regulate it is one key. To much and your cookin to little and you get that nasty funk.

Let me know what you come up with.

Looks like a decent plan to build a smallish "one hog smokehouse" pretty inexpensively.

I think the best thing to do is pour a 10 X 10 pad. Use blocks and morter, or stone and morter if you got the stone, with beam supports and an insulated, double metal roof. Firepit running the length of the building right down the middle about 3 feet wide. that way, you can regulate the heat by the fire size (length). Three pipes spaced across the top of the roof at the highest part that have dampers on them. Thats close to the old one I saw but more modern. You could do 4 hams easily it this set up

Thats.the one I was talkin bout on the first page dole.

My great grandad had one in KY I think they called it a smoke cellar and it was on the side of a hill but everything's on a hill in E Kentucky.
I remember some big ol hams hangin in there but I was too young to know how it worked. IIRC it was a really primative settup.

I had no idea, but learned a lot reading HCFs links. Those were pretty interesting.

The comment about freezers being readily available once the end of times hits, ROFL

I am guessing these would be real handy to have if you do your own butchering and or hunting.

I meant 40 hams. you could do 20 hogs in this easy

Those links of HCFs, cover both of those topics pretty well, or seemed so to me. Especially the heat part. I would think the smoke would take care of the bugs, no?

Dig that last one.

I think other factors would determine where you put it to a greater degree than building on a slope.

It's true, smoke will rise, but when that baby is fired up smoke will be coming out of every opening. Ceiling, vents, holes near the floor.

Build it at a convenient spot to load and unload (i.e. vehicle or cart or whatnot), unless you like carrying hams up and down hills for no reason.

I like that last one dude. Mostly cause the cost would be next to mothin. But ya I dont wanna be haulin shit all day.

Why wouldn't you lay the floor at whatever angle you wanted instead of building on a hill?

Hill for elevation and easy way to put fire below and away from smokehouse, not for having floor anything but level.

Ah, I see. I'll shut the **** up now.

Home-cured ham is pretty hard to beat when you do it right. We never had more than 8 hams that I can recall, and just smoked them above our root cellar (so no real fires, just a fire-pie-pan full of coals from the woodstove and hickory chunks) Rub the hams well with red pepper, or you can get ham weevils. Google those little rascals if you're not familar with 'em.

When you get this done and then you realize that you need more dinning area let me know. I'll give you a modular building for the dinning area. You can side it to look like a log building to match your smokehouse. You have to take care of the freight and setup but I will give you the building.

Of course I get lot's of free Q in the deal.

I googled "ham weevils" and the only result that I got was this post :P

You in the modular building biz? or just trading a spare for grub?

Yeah we've been doing modulars for 30 years and my dad did mobile homes before that.

That's 30 years of experience that we'll be picking out of your brain, one tidbit at a time. Nice.

Farmer Wayne turned me onto a couple experts in the area.

I don't think the natives drowned in their tea pee. As conical as it sounds, it makes too much sense!

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2526

Good reading on country ham curing

Like Bacon? John D also has discussions on "city ham" and curing your own ham that way if you are not into real country ham

http://johndlee.hubpages.com/hub/Mak...stes_fantastic