DIY Smokehouse Or Homemade Fish Smokehouse

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Do-it-yourself smokehouse. We make ourselves

Greetings to all readers of our blog " Do it yourself with us ".

It's summer outside, which means that the period of rest, fishing and entertainment has come. Many people move during this time to live in summer cottages and country houses, closer to water and nature. And how wonderful it is to sit in the morning with a fishing rod, to catch fresh fish in your ear. But there are days when it bites very well, and the sea and fish are a whole bucket of pleasure. And here the question immediately arises, how to preserve this fish?

Today I want to tell you how a homemade smokehouse is made with my own hands. Moreover, the costs for its production will be the lowest, and the fish smokehouse is of high quality.

What you need to work

Let someone think of such a smokehouse from a barrel and not very aesthetic in appearance. Believe me, it performs its functions for smoking fish perfectly, its cost is minimal and requires only a little labor.

So, to make such a smokehouse, we need several dozen bricks, a small sheet of metal, a two-hundred-liter metal barrel, two hinges and two handles. Moreover, depending on whether you want to get a smokehouse for cold smoked or hot fish, you just need a different number of bricks for the chimney.

I was making a semi-hot smoked smokehouse. The temperature in the smoking zone is 70-90˚С with a chimney length of one meter. Cooking time for medium-sized fish is an hour and a half. By making the chimney shorter, you can get a hot smoked smokehouse, after 20 minutes, the aromatic dish can be served. You can make it so that there is a cold smoked smokehouse with a smoke temperature of 30-40 ° C and a smoking time for a day or two. To do this, it is necessary to lengthen the chimney to 5-6 meters. Passing such a distance through the chimney, the smoke has time to cool down.

It all depends on the desire and taste preferences, it will be the same to make and assemble a homemade fish smokehouse. The only difference will be in the length of the chimney.

Homemade smokehouse with your own hands. Manufacturing and installation

Step 1. Mark the cuts on the barrel:

the barrel (the smoking container itself) will be located horizontally, and our goal is to cut off 1/3 of the length (the lid of the smoking chamber). Barrel diameter 580 mm. Set aside 195 mm from the end sides and mark the cutting line along the ends of the barrel

mark the cutting lines on the sides of the barrel, connecting the marks on the right and left ends

Step 2. Mark openings for the lid handles on the right and left sides of the barrel so that it is convenient to open and close the smoking chamber.

Step 3. Using the marked marks, we drill holes for attaching the handles.

Step 4. Using a grinder or a jigsaw with a metal file, cut one side of the barrel along the marked line.

Step 5. We mark the location of the hinges and their attachment points on the cut side of the barrel.

We mark the locations of one loop, positioning it relative to the end of the barrel. We do the same with the second loop, positioning it relative to the other end of the barrel.

Step 6. We drill holes for attaching the hinges.

Step 7. Using a rivet, we fasten the hinges at the marked places.

You can use simple bolts with nuts instead of a rivet.

Step 8. With the help of a grinder, cut off 1/3 of the barrel finally along the marked lines.

Step 9. We fix the handles in the drilled holes.

The lid of the fish smokehouse can be lifted and the whole structure can be tested.

Step 10. At the site of the future location of the home smokehouse, lay out a brick firebox and chimney of the required length, depending on the type of smokehouse.

I used a regular red baked brick held together with clay.

Step 11. We mount our smoking chamber to the chimney.

Step 12. Mark the smoke inlet in the smoking chamber.

Step 13. Using a grinder or a jigsaw with a blade for metal, cut the inlet.

Step 14. Mark the location of the exhaust pipe from the smoking chamber.

If we marked and cut the inlet from below, then we make a hole for the chimney on top and in the opposite side of the smoking chamber. Thus, the smoke will be evenly drawn through the entire volume of the chamber.

Step 15. Using an electric jigsaw, we cut out a hole for the exhaust pipe.

Step 16. Drill 4 holes in the chimney at a distance of 50 mm from the end and insert a support wire 50 mm longer than the pipe diameter.

Trying on our chimney for the smoking chamber.

Step 17. Cut the grooves for the cross bars in the smoking chamber and place the cross bars on which the fish rack will rest.

Step 18. Set up our camera in a permanent place and attach it with wire from four sides to the ground to prevent overturning.

Step 19. We close the chimney, blocking it with bricks, and the combustion chamber, putting a sheet of metal on top.

Our homemade fish smoker is ready, you can try it in action. Despite the fact that there are many steps to make a smokehouse with your own hands, in fact, all the work took me one day.

I hope you will succeed quickly and easily. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer everyone in the comments.

Fish recipe

And finally, a recipe for how to cook semi-hot smoked fish

1. Pour the fresh fish into a container with salt and leave for 10 -12 hours, depending on the size. The fish is not cleaned or gutted. In this form, it will be juicy and tender after smoking.
2. After the fish is salted, rinse it thoroughly with water.
3. We melt our homemade fish smoker and achieve stable smoke without fire.
4. We put the fish on the grill in the smoking chamber and cook it for an hour and a half. We put the larger fish closer to the inlet of the chimney, smaller fish closer to the chimney.

Delicious, fragrant, juicy, fatty fish is ready. Bon Appetit.