Smoke preserved foodstuffs?

I've always dreamed of building a small smoker in order to experiment with both game and livestock. I know of some folks who have purchased commercial smokers both electric and wood powered who have gotten some really nice results out of their use.

Do you have a smoker? Do you use it as much as you'd like?

A video I was watching that inspired the thread follows below.



Share your favorite items to smoke preserve.

I have a smokehouse that my grandfather built by hand, sometime after the 1930s. It still has the rails for sausage smoking at the top. And it still has a rich scent of sweet wood smoke when you disturb the creosote patina on the walls.

The tech was dead simple: a low smoky fire made with specific hardwoods, held at temperature for perhaps a day or more, in an enclosed space.

The smoke added many important preservative elements. And yet, these meats were also soaked in a brine of salt and spices and nitrates -- preservatives all -- prior to smoking. Before refrigeration, this was how it had to be done.

I have a small smoker with an offset firebox.  I bought it many years ago with the idea of smoking fish (probably over a decade now since I've been fishing so that's a clue).  I believe it was last year that I finally started to use it.

All that I definitely remember using it for so far is peppers.  We did that after coming across YouTube videos on paprika and smoked paprika.  So, we've made some of our own smoked paprika and hot smoked paprika.  This year we also used some of the smoked sweet peppers in making BBQ sauce for the first time - it's a bit thinner than most commercial products, but tasty...we may never purchase BBQ sauce again.

I do have a brisket in the freezer in the country, but I think it may be too large to fit inside the smoker.  I also need to pay attention as the offset fire box can throw flames into the smoker portion if I'm using wood and a bit careless (I burned a couple peppers this year).

I was just looking into building a stand alone cold smoke box. We have access to clean organic pork and i love bacon. I would live to hear about peoples experience keeping the smoke going.

I recently found out that what I thought was a potting shed next to my garage was in fact a smoke house. I look forward to trying it someday.