Well there you go getting it on and digging into your new local possibilities.
Yeah. You are now a long poke from your salty water Sound’s gleam eatings. But man look at what you have traded into.
Good choice your new home for all of you.
S.U.
7 Likes
I grew up on salmon and steelhead and kinda got burned out on it for a few years, but the quality of meat on these fish have got me hungry for them again. That and with the general food available nowadays full of soy seed oil slop, day by day i think more and more how the generations before me were able to stay in such good shape to old age the the factor i see that has changed is the food we eat and the ease of which we can get it. People are eating garbage…because they are bored??? nah nah nah, thats not how i want to live. I want healthy food for me and my house. and as the world declines id like to have stores of it built up for my familys consumption, trading goods, and gifts.
Man when i was a kid i remember riding my bike over to friends houses to hang out and just be kids, and a friends mom would send home a bag of zucchini muffins. I never thought anything of it to be honest " oh cool thank you!" Now i see that as much more then a kind gesture. Its a peaceful here, eat something healthy its good for you, our house has plenty and we want to share the wealth. I intend on doing things such as this as i am able to procure more and more good all natural food. Running over to dads right now where he has a bucket of fresh picked tomatoes waiting for me, last time over was a bag of radishes and parsnips. Ill be returning to him some salsa made by my wife from those tomatoes
13 Likes
I totally agree, that is the conclusion me and my wife came to some years back too.
And those kind gestures are really nice, the world needs more people like this.
Cold smoking gives a different taste to the meat, and don’t forget venison bacon. Haven’t had it myself but I see many others making it so I guess it is good
I can make some pics tomorrow of my cold smoker if you like, there is some welding involved on that too 
11 Likes
I would love to see it Johan!
7 Likes
200% agreed. Nice said Marcus. The world is a better place if everyone sees it like that. Thanks
5 Likes
This is my cold/hotsmoker, it is a coldsmoker but if you want to hotsmoke it is possible to put in one of those barbecue electric igniter on a thermostat or an inkbird.
I use old fridge racks or oven racks to put in as shelves on the ledges, it is built after the ones I have saved
Also a drip plate on the bottom is needed, any type of pan will do.
And this is the cold smoking thingie, hammer as sizer
Woodchips (up to 1/4” is what I use) is put into the big pipe and ignited through one of the holes in the by-the-bottom part (2x 3/8” holes)
The small pipe protrudes into the big one about 2” to work as an ejector and an aquarium pump provides air for the ejector, this one is rated as 2x 50 gallons of air per hour
I forgot to make a picture but there is also a wooden lid that is pretty tight for the top.
I know, I know, I would love to have one that only uses wood but to get consistent results and less time to check on the smoker, I chose to use this for now and move towards a woodfired smoker further on.
However, these are the downsides with mine.
I am going to redo this one a bit and move the smoke pipe and ejector so it sits about an inch above the bottom instead because now the smoke has to travel through the woodchips before hitting the ejector and going into the smoker and deposits the water in the air to the dry woodchips and then it stops smoldering. Moving it to the bottom almost eliminates that (as I imagine).
Plus the pipe for the woodchips don’t have to be so big, I built it to hold chips in it to continuously be able to run for 48h but I definately check on it mor often than that so a refill then is very easy. But I am not changing that since I already have it.
While I was at it I also made some pictures of my big hot smoker.
It is built for commercial farm sales and holds about 50 7-pound chickens in one plane to be certain the temperatures are just right. Or four whole piglets as I was imagining then 
It uses about 20 gallons of the same woodchips as the small one in a pile on the bottom, started in one end with a small wood fire to get it to smolder and heat up the smoker initially, this gives smoke for 24-30 hours.
The temp is then controlled with an electric sauna heater while the woodchips provides the smoke.
Doing it like this requires a drip plate so you don’t get fat drippings burning giving it a hint of rancid taste.
This gets expensive to run small batches in even though it is insulated, it uses close to 100kWh per 24h to keep it at a 190F but when I built it electricity was pretty cheap and per pound of meat in it it still is but as our priorities change towards ourselves more I am considering selling it off.
Long post, sorry about that.
14 Likes
Oh yes, and the coldsmoker produces smoke that is about 5-10 F over ambient temp which is good, coldsmoke shouldn’t be over 75 F and ventilation in any smoker is also important.
11 Likes
We are in Olympia today visiting family. We are heading down to the river to see the salmon run coming up. And then take the Grandchildren to the museum this after noon , after watching Faye play soccer.
Those are some beautiful fish, I love smoke Salmon. Yummy in the tummy.
Hope you cat your 50 lbs. Plus for your year supply of salmon.
One of these days we will have to stop by for a visit and see your new place. This weekend is fully book out with thinks to do.
10 Likes
Why is meat exposed to wood smoke in the first place? This is also a traditional procedure for “preserving” meat or cheese in our country. The cold smoke is actually a mist of “juice” that is discharged from the gasifier, I think that the same effect would be achieved if the meat was lightly sprayed with this “juice”, … and drying is done by air flow. 
9 Likes
Yes, the cold smoke is a preservative because of the low temp and drying from the inside out removing the moisture so bacteria can’t grow (usually a 30% or more weightloss if my memory serves me right) but the hot/warm smoke dries the surface first stopping the moisture on the inside coming out, therefor a much shorter shelflife because of the moisture.
Air drying is enough as a preservative without the smoke.
Using the juices from a gasifier is something that I would reluctantly try (still try though 
) but I suspect even lightly sprayed is a lot. I have tried smoking with very little ventilation and the taste was a sour meat-gone-bad taste even after resting in the fridge for a week setting the flavours, it could of course have been that time only but it made me stay away from non-ventilated smoking.
Liquid smoke is condensed smoke but I have not looked in to that more than that, easier to smoke the old fashioned way.
I have no idea if sprayed juices would penetrate the meat the same way as cold smoking for days would
13 Likes
Combining the two, cold smoke a day or so depending on what taste you like and then airdry the meat (well salt brining first of all of course) and then thinly slice the meat gives a royally nice snack.
I did this for christmas a few years ago, salted a moose fillet and coldsmoked it for 20hours then dried it down to 64% of the original weight, sliced it super thin and had it on the table for family and relatives. It was gone in no-time, delicious 
Sorry, am I clogging your thread?
12 Likes
Nope I love talking about different food preservation methods and learning from others across the globe!
I have a pot of fish head soup on the go right now 3 split salmon heads, copious amounts of celery, green onions, carrots, dehydrated kale from the garden and a skosh of salt. The house smells amazing!
Did a small harvest on potatoes this morning russets and reds syllus was very happy with the results
Been snacking on smoked salmon since breakfast, took my best friend out in the rain to chase a few more salmon he has never caught one before. Landed one nice 7lb coho sent it home with him along with some fresh smoked some apples off the yard tree and a few squash from the garden
14 Likes
Well I’ll make sure I have some canned ready when ever you stop by so you have snacks for the way home
13 Likes
That is a happy helper holding very nice potatoes
Did you smoke apples? Never heard of that before, salt, shrimps and even eggs works so why not apples. Have to give that one a go next time
9 Likes
Haha that was a forgotten comma, fresh fish and apples is what it was meant to say but now you mention it a smoky apple pie sounds very interesting. Smoked eggs are a favorite of mine, hard boiled then smoked then pickled now that is a royal treat
9 Likes
Haha, it could go in any direction. Either awesome or disgusting 
11 Likes
I guess it makes sense that wood gas experimenters would likely experiment with food as well.
9 Likes
well here is a recipe…
5 Likes
I got 100 posts behind this thread, finaly caught up. Forgive me for geting back to the older topic. Deer.
I like to say that deer geting in the garden do so because they have severe lead deficiancy… but if supplimenting them with what they need is not an option, construction foam (poliuretane) is a old trick kids use for their crops that grow in the forrest if you know what l mean… sprayed on stalks around the “garden”. Supposedly it deters deer. Never tryed this but l did try a nother method, you mix hot tallow with crushed calcium carbide and apply on stalks around the garden, or on bean poles. The tallow its self smells like death to them and the carbide slowly reacts with moisture and produce stinky acetylene. It had worked for me protecting a crop of pole beans couple of years back.
Smoking. Tone, not long ago l thod the same but a few weeks back l took a deep dive in the topic. Like you sayd, smoked meat is a deep tradition in our country, but l never got it right! Tryed many methods but never got the desired effect. Now l think l got it.
I learnt most of the preservative characteristics of smoke actualy come from Nitrous oxides. CO plays a role too. They are the one that change the proteins and one of those is also a protein that gives meat its colour, so as it changes it turns that characteristic pink colour. When l found this out all came clear to me. Ofcorse! Nowdays the pink colour is obtained by adding nitrates to the curing mix, same mechanism! Speeds things up, no need to wait for smoke to penetrate deep in the big peaces of meat, just inject it with nitrous compounds and you are done. Untill you get collon cancer that is…
I do not use nitrates in my curing mix so geting meat cured right was always a failiure.
I knew before that smoke somehow makes ham pink but the problem was always that l got a good pink cure on the out edge of the meat but the center always turned grey when the ham was boiled, evidence that the meat wasnt cured but still just salted raw meat. Still edible but the taste just isnt the same as the pink part! Leaveing the hams in the smoke for longer wuld fix the problem but at that point the taste wuld be way to smoky. 4 hours in the smoker was most l dared to go. Just not enaugh time for sufficient penetration…
So, after this revelation, l turned to science and made some non smoky smoke. Fancy way of saying, l burnt some charcoal 
first l salted the meat with 3% salt, spices and a bit of sugar to prevent oxidation on the surface. Then the peaces went in the smoker (aka my forges fumehood) with the forge lit underneeth, without draft so the charcoal smoldered slowly and filled the hood (closed at the top) with its gases. 24 hours and about 6 pounds of charcoal later, behold!
Perfect pink cure trugh and trugh. Retained the colour when boiled. Tasted as it shuld. Just a tiny hint of smokyness wich is more thain enaugh for my taste. Probably healthyer too… highly recomend you guys give it a go
11 Likes
Very interesting Kristijan. I never use nitrates for curing either and use the eq-method of salting which means it doesn’t get saltier if you leave it in the brine longer.
Never considered charcoal to be used with smoking, I need to think about this a bit more and give it a go. Thanks
Hahaha, severe lead deficiancy
I bet that is great with a scoop of vanilla icecream
5 Likes