ProQ Cold Smoke Generator


 
Originally posted by John Ford:
Easiest way to make smoking grade sawdust is to leave a bag of traeger pellets outside in a heavy rainstorm! ( OK It was a mistake but it works. ) I bought the pro q cold smoker because I already had 12 lbs of sawdust!
Click to expand...

hah..is that true? When they get soaked and dry out they crumble to usable dust? That's not a bad idea. Maybe i should just get a bag of traeger pellets, soak them in water then dry them out!
 
I assume there is a mesh/screen on the bottom of it. How fine is it? Doesn't look like it would be to hard to make one out of a strip of stainless steel. How deep is it? About 1-11/2 inches?
 
Well I have the metal I need and the bending is easy.Weld the legs and attach the screen,I figure take an hour tops to make with a beer break. Also gets me into the garage where its quiet and unsupervised.

Cheers
 
Yes those are traeger pellets. You don't have to crush, just get wet & dry. It was a mistake but works great in the pro Q. Just got my proQ in & I wanted to do a test run before the salmon smoke this Sun.
Cheapest place to get pellets I've found is order online from ace hardware (20lb for $19 , & get free ship to store.)
I use them in place of wood chips on my gas grill & big easy.
 
I bought one of these last year and havent used it in a while. Im thinking of trying it this weekend. Anyone have any good recipes that they have tried lately?
 
just a heads up. I got my psseasonings.com saw dust, and i'm a little ticked off.
The "mixed hardwood" sawdust seems to be working fine. It's nice and fine. The cherry sawdust is MUCH coarser and does not stay lit.

Why would they make the 2 products different!?
I'm going to email them and ask for a refund at least on the cherry wood.
 
Originally posted by Ian Mack:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chris E:
Originally posted by Ian Mack:
It turned out great!
Salmon-11.jpg

In fact I'm tucking into some right now (smoked salmon on toast for lunch).
icon_smile.gif
Click to expand...

Ian, The smoke salmon lox looks amazing. Can you elaborate on the time you let the salt cure sit, the time the salmon spend in the smoker, what kind of dust you used etc?

What was the outside temperature? I don't think you can cold smoke if the outside temp is say only 40 degrees can you?

THanks.
Thanks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hi Chris, sorry for taking so long to answer your questions..
Temp outside was around 50degs, I left it in the salt for around 10 hours, before washing the salt off and then hanging it in the fridge overnight. Smoked for 10 hours using hickory dust, but would also use Alder or Beech(some people smoke for 24 hours) the time you smoke for really depends on personal taste. QUOTE]
Do you smoke with the skin on? what direction do you slice it? Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Reviving an old topic...

I got my ProQ this week.

I'm using my WSM today to cook up some racks-o-lamb so I'm going to use an old Weber Smokey Joe I found on Craigslist.

I went to Costco and bought some Sharp Cheddar and Monterrey Jack (both from Tillamook Creamery).

The Smokey Joe will only hold 1/2 of my cheese load but I'm only smoking for 4 hrs. I'm hoping that the sample of cherry dust that came with my ProQ will last long enough for two cooks.
 
Hmm... The provided wild cherry smoking dust was
1. Not enough to fill the ProQ
2. Unable to stay lit despite appearing to be dry

So, I soaked some Weber Mesquite chips, filled the WSM water pan with ice & water, tossed 5 briqs into a chimney, put the hot coals into the WSM, placed a smoker box full of wet chips directly on the coals & hooked up my Stoker. 

I had to toss a few briqs on during the smoke but I was able to keep the temp below 100.

After 3 hours I took the cheese off, ate a bit & vacuum sealed the rest. The pieces I sampled were pretty good. 

Now the waiting begins. 
 
I just got my ProQ on Friday and didn't get to mess with it until yesterday afternoon. Took a long look at the included wild cherry dust and figured that it wasn't going to be anywhere close to enough to fill the tray. My penny-pinching thought process kicked in and I realized that I've got bags of wood that I use for comp cooking and all I need to do is turn a piece of it into sawdust.

My first thought was the Dremel tool with a spiral bit but it gave me really fine wood flour and it wouldn't burn right. So I got my chop saw out and bingo! Just the right consistency I got twice the amount that's in the bag in about 5 minutes.

Tonight I'm going to fire it up in my trusty old SJ to see that it's going to burn correctly. Next I'm going to 'dust' up some oak and some maple. This Saturday I'm going to throw some cheese and garlic in and try it out for real. We'll see.

Russ
 
Be very careful when you use the saw to cut up irregular shaped wood. I ruined mine, chrusing the gearbox, and just by blind luck I kept all fingers on my left hand as the blade locked into the piece of wood.

I will never take the risk again.

I've had much more luck making useable sawdust with a chainsaw, much safer, makes lots of sawdust in a short time, and after drying the chips in the microwave for a couple of minutes, they are perfect.
I have not tried the ProQ, I have a home made smoke generator made from a manual oil pump. The ProQ might want wood that is more like sawdust, I do not know. But as a general tip, if you can't get your sawdust to burn/glow, try to dry it in the
 
There a number of good sources for smoking dust.
The wetted traeger pellets work well. But I hve ordered dust from Baxters and Fruita Wood and have been pleased with the quality of both. The Pro Q Smoke generator is an awesome addition to my smoking arsenal. Highly recommended..Cheese, Salmon, Tuna, Sturgeon, Salt, Whole Garlic Cloves.. all are wonderful!!
 
I bought some Butcher and Packer Cherry Sawdust. I would not stay lit.

I saw somewhere a suggestion to bake the chips in the oven at 170 for an hour to make sure that they were dry. That didn't help. Hmmm...

So, I tossed the baked chips into an old coffee grinder & tried again.

Voila‘. It's been 2+ hrs & it's still going.

Next test: grind into dust w/o baking & see if I can skip that step.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top