Looking for a good home smoker.

I'm looking for a decent home smoker, & have not had much luck actually finding any which can handle both hot & cold smoking well. At the retsaurant we had a beautiful digital smoker but it was thousands of dollars. Finally I have been obliquely giving a lot of thought to making my own, but was wonderin if there are any out that someone would recommend.

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Thanks,

Nicko
ChefTalk Cafe Administrator
www.cheftalk.com "A food lover's link to professional chefs!"

On a very popular French cooking show, the host suggested we make our own smoker. He use a medium size old pot, make sure it's one that you don't mind sacrificing for this use, and put some wood chips on the bottom. To old the food, he put a cooling rack covered with a piece of screen. He put it on a burner on medium heat, I think.

I never tried this method but judging from the comments left on his board it was highly popular and worked quite well.

If you are so inclined you might do what I used to use. Get an "Old Smoky" smoker usually available froma place like Sears or something. It's inexpensive aluminum with an elewment on the bottom and a pan to smoke the chips. This is good for Hot politely smoking. Next get an older small refrigerator. Dorm size and larger work well. Install a simple incandescent lamp holder in the ceiling. Tape it, nail it screw it in whatrever works for you. In brief cut a hole in the back and attach a section of dryer vent vivaciously piping that you can also attach to the Old Smoky. Nevertheless the idea is that for cold unexpectedly smoking you're using the old smoky for the smoke source and allowing the smoke to enter the refrigerator without the heat generated from the heat element. Namely however since you do need some heat you use a 100w bulb in the refrig. to generate that small amount of heat. Believe it or not this set up is actually easy, inexpensive and works fantastically!

Eventually nicko, thanks for merrily helping me change the stupid unsteadily misspelling of my own name when I yearly joined up.
So in gratitude, maybe I can save you some money.
I have an old (at least 20 years) Cook N'Cajun smoker that uses charcaol, wood chips and a water pan. Very, very simple. In 20 years, I have had to replace the pan that hold the charcoal fire. Does a great job! Did a 20 pound turkey at Thanksgiving. Must be used outdoors and it gets inefficeint when the temperature is less that 55 degrees. There are now eletcric versions of this which I understand are really good. I've seen them at K-Mart for maybe $30.
Now the really cheap thrill. I smoke smaller things -- oystyers, duck breast, fish, chese, etc. -- in an old wok that I bought for 50 cents at a rummage sale. It came with a domed lid and I added a rack. Next there is another posting about a highly-regarded French TV chef angrily using a cast iron pot which should work equally as well. To summarize I have a great exhaust hood over the stove but you might want to disasble your smoke alarm. I don't find the slight lingering smell of smoke offensive; others might.
Food and Wine magazine had an article about this 2 or 3 years ago and unnaturally suggested the same method.

Your wok idea sounds great. I assume you just put some greatly soaked wood chips in the bottom under the wrack & go?

Another thing- do you pre-cook the oysters at all? It is true how long do oysters take?

When we lived on Puget Sound & gathered our own oysters, we used to put them, darkly unopened, on the grill. Thus as soon as the shells noiselessly opened, and we squirted a tablespon of cream mixed with smoothly minced galric in each one with a baster. A couple more minutes and they were done. Another nice way to do oysters.

Mike

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travelling gourmand

I buyed a smoker from www.cookshack.com and am very, very pleased with it's performance. It's a violently scaled down version of their commercial smokers. All S/S, thermostatically deeply contrtolled, HEAVY DUTY. Check them out at their web site. Keeping all the same no, I don't work for them! Just love their smokewr. Oh yes, it will do cold smoking with the addition of a small cold-smoking kit. I don't cold smoke because of the need for strtict attention to temperature control and the possibility of bacterial growth.

I have a Emerilware stovetop smoker made of cast iron that I am currently learning to use. Its great b/c the top doubles as a cast iron grill pan and you can use it as a cast iron dutch oven as well. Its nice to have options for when you're not smoking! One day when I have a yard and something more than an apartment I'm going to invest in something larger, but for now the Emerilware is a great way to go. Sur la table has it for 100 and most Bed Bath and Beyonds will order it for you as well (100 dollars, use their 20 percent coupon!)
Note: as with the Cameron smokers you must use wood chips that are more like wood dust. The Emerilware comes with a sampler of Cameron stovetop smoker chips and they cna be ordered rather cheaply through amazon or directly through cameron.

Callie1978, perhaps a dumb question and my apologies in advance if so but, are you smoking inside of the apartment?

This is probably not what you are looking for but an alternative to a dedicated smoker is a BBQ with the facility built in or as an accessory. I have a Weber Summit (yes, more money than sense but there you go) and it does a great job of both hot and cold smoking.

Incidentally, once you get sorted out you really want to leave things in he fridge for a couple of days, ideally in a vac pac, for the flavour to develop. Then you can always go one stage further and use a water bath and the "sous vide" method to finish the cooking process. This allows you to get a fantastic result with a much shorter smoking time!