Re-thinking my smoking strategy

sambal badjak · Post by **sambal badjak** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 08:32

I have been using a pro/q cold smoke generator to smoke my sausages and bacon etc and been finishing them off by poaching in hot water.
I have tried the oven, but it is very difficult to keep it below 100 oC, let alone below the 93-94 oC that is recommended.

Lately I have also been smoking at a higher temperature with the aid of a hot plate (and still finishing off by poaching).

The problem I am running into is that I ran out of the proQ smoke dust and the other fine oak dust that I have been using. All I have now and can get now doesn't want to burn properly in the csg.
I have tried drying it in the oven and whatever else I could think of (placing it above the hot plate, to have a proper upward draft) but nothing seems to work out.

Out of frustration I put the csg straight on the hotplate, so at least I got smoke. It resulted in about 1 to 1.5 hours smoke as opposed to the 10 hours light smoke I normally get.

What would be my best way forward:
Using wood chips/saw dust in a pot straight on the hot plate and replenishing every hour or so? It would mean that I can't cold-smoke (which I can only do in winter anyway).
Or are there better (other) ways to look at?

Does anyone have a similar problem with the use of a csg?

ajwillsnet · Post by **ajwillsnet** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 17:07

Get some hardwood pellets and add a little water to them. Then crumble them up and dry them out . Now you have dust.
Works for me.

Bert

sambal badjak · Post by **sambal badjak** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 10:59

Thanks, but......
No hardwood pellets here. Can't even buy sawdust, except for floor sweepings.

I can use the planer to make some wood chips, but haven't gotten much further than that.