The Mini Smokehouse

I couldn't decide where to post this, but since it is a wood burning cooking apparatus, I figured it fit here as well as anywhere. It could also be somewhere in building or food preservation.

I am building this very tiny smokehouse out of scrounged materials, only buying the screws and some of the hardware that I couldn't find for free or didn't already have. I built the foundation out of concrete blocks leftover from an old kiln I built years ago. I had been using them for a potato tower. The frame and walls are untreated shipping stringers I got for free. The roof is a sheet of roofing metal I found at the recycling center. The door and the draft flap are boards from a desk we found left out for the garbage man. The hanging rack is made of unfinished oak table legs. I am forging the hooks to hang the meat out of scrap mild steel and will pickle them in a foodsafe acid to resist rust. The firebox is a crappy portable grill that I am modifying to suit the task. I have already removed the hinge pin holding the lid on, and will be adding more holes in the bottom so it doesn't go out easily from lack of air.

I am very interested in seeing yoir progress.  Thanks for posting!

We have done a lot of work today. I had to hew a board to make it fit because we don't have a rip saw but we do have axes. It fits perfectly. You will see my brother Jacob in some of the pictures. He was a huge help. We expect to finish it in an hour tomorrow morning. And after running an errand, we will begin smoking the bacon I set to cure on tuesday.

WE MADE BACON!!! The smokehouse is finished. We worked out how to regulate the fire early on and the draft regulator flap (above the door) works wonderfully.

We walk you through the features of our smokehouse:

The last really gnarly wind storm tore the roof off, flung the wood part across the yard, and knocked over the bricks. I fixed it all up, and expecting more wind, added a post driven into the ground and nailed to the wall on the lee of prevailing winds.

We sold the smoke house above on craigslist when we moved.

I need one that can fit 2 pigs worth of Bacon, Ham, Jowl, Fatback, and sausages. I want to do it without nails because they work themselves loose with the expansion and contraction of the wood both seasonally and because of the periodic warmth inside. I want to do it without glue or paint because of the delicate nature of smoking very valuable meat. I would be open to lime wash on the exterior like what was done in the 1700s. Not sure on roof materials. I might make clay roof tiles. (I’m a classically trained potter but failed to make money doing it.)

So I figure a smokehouse 6’Wx6’Lx10’H with an exterior smoke generator ought to do nicely. I can timber frame it. Not sure if I want to do clapboards or boards fitted into a sliding dovetail in the beams and set flush with them from the outside. Alternatively, I could do a cob-on-wattle wall with lime plaster on the outside. The foundation is also a major concern. It needs to be fireproof for safety. It needs to not shift during frost heaving. So there are basically several options here. We can do a gravel filled trench going down about 12-14 inches, topped with stone; or we can do a mortared stone (or brick) wall going down 30 inches.


Here is my concept sketch of the smokehouse with plastered cob walls.

I also considered a slightly different Roof design with a shelter for smoking wood: