Cold Smoke Generator

[BrettK]

Got this in the mail from Spain today. Figured you guys would like to see it. Paid way too much for it, and I’m kicking myself seeing that there’s alternatives on Amazon. It’s incredibly well built though…and I’m not just saying that to make myself feel better about spending too much on shipping. It’s all metal, and definitely not flimsy, will definitely last a long time.



I went ahead and got some saw dust to go with it. Another European offering we don’t get here in the states. It was priced properly and didn’t add anything to shipping. I’ll have to get creative after this bag though, because you can’t go to the store and buy sawdust. I used to work at feed mill where we pelletized livestock feed, so being familiar with that process, I think I’m going to attempt to reverse engineer wood pellets with a little bit of water, and if needed, maybe a rolling pin and a sandwich bag.



It won’t be tonight, but hopefully by this weekend, I’ll try my hand at some cheese, with a possibility of deli meat and vegetables. Hope y’all had the Merriest of Christmas’.

 

[TomRc]

Unless there’s something special about this particular dust, you should have plenty of options here in the states. Search “smoking sawdust” on Google or Amazon and you’ll find no shortage of options. I bought a Smokai unit from New Zealand for cold smoking with my Weber gasser and had the same worry about dust availability. I’ve actually found that the sawdust burns too quickly for my liking and that the Smokai is very happy running pellets instead. In fairness, the Smokai is a powered unit with a forced air aquarium type pump which might attribute to its’ ability to run pellets. Regardless, it looks like you’ve got yourself a nice, stout piece. Looking forward to seeing some of your tasty results.

 

[BrettK]

Unless there’s something special about this particular dust, you should have plenty of options here in the states. Search “smoking sawdust” on Google or Amazon and you’ll find no shortage of options. I bought a Smokai unit from New Zealand for cold smoking with my Weber gasser and had the same worry about dust availability. I’ve actually found that the sawdust burns too quickly for my liking and that the Smokai is very happy running pellets instead. In fairness, the Smokai is a powered unit with a forced air aquarium type pump which might attribute to its’ ability to run pellets. Regardless, it looks like you’ve got yourself a nice, stout piece. Looking forward to seeing some of your tasty results.

That Smokai unit is pretty sweet, seems like a good “set it and forget it” option. I did see a couple of sawdust options on amazon after I posted that, but I bummed a small cup of pellets of my buddy with a Traeger and those pellets instantly fell apart with a bit of water, and that small cup almost produced as much dust that was in that bag. So a 20# bag of pellets would set me for a really long time and be super cheap at the same time.


It’s definitely not as fine textured as the store bought stuff, but this took about 5 minutes with a bit of water from a spray bottle and a coffee grinder. I’m pretty content.

 

[Bruce]

I have to wonder if there are any added chemicals to that stuff?

 

[BrettK]

I have to wonder if there are any added chemicals to that stuff?

Pelletizing is a pretty neat and straight forward process.

1. We started with ground natural ingredients, and conditioned them with steam, making somewhat of an oatmeal consistency
2. It was then sent through the center of a pellet mill (looks like a circular cheese grater - google them). The mill spun at a high rpm and generated a lot of heat, so the loose mash would be forced through the holes of the hot die, essentially cooking the mash and forming a pellet.
3. A fixed blade on the outside of the die would cut the pellets into uniform sizes, the pellets would then drop into a giant cooler that would rapidly cool the freshly cut pellets and prevent them from baking together like a giant “no bake” cookie.

I obviously can’t speak for Weber…but as easy as they came apart, and no discoloration or residue mixed into the sawdust…my educated guess is it’s 100% sawdust. If you got into the “flavored” variety, theres a bigger possibility, but that doesn’t interest me.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

+1. They make a mush with sawdust and force it through a pellet dye at high temperature and pressure. The act of compression and the high temperature causes the lignin within the biomass to melt, gluing the particles together, which then re-form as a solid pellet after cooling.They do it with livestock feed and brewing hops as well. No chemicals used in processing smoking pellets.

as far as buying Weber products from Europe: I bought a Weber pizza oven for my kettle grill that I don’t regret one bit.

cheers!