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Smoky Jo's Photo Gallery
Home designed and built smokers & cold smokers See more on our blog!
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Some edited highlights from a lovely email received this week - November 2018!
"I came on one of your courses.....
The course was inspiring and almost 3 years later I've finally got round
to building something to smoke in.
The inaugural smoking of the Crescent Smokehouse was last Sunday, on
which evening we feasted on smoked olives, cashews, cheeses and venison
sausages. All excellent, I must say, smoked over oak using the small
Mac's cold smoke generator. The Wookey Hole cave-aged goat's cheese (6
hours) was a favourite and a block of that will be going in every
smoking from now on. The cashews were declared 'seriously good' by a few
regulars at our local.
This weekend: salmon!!
. As the old proverb goes:
"Teach a man where to find smoked fish in Morrisons and he'll buy it as
an occasional treat; teach a man to smoke fish and he'll eat it every day."
Yours in smoke,
Simon & Catie" |
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Dear Jo and Georgina
I suspect that you get many emails from people saying what a great time they had. Well please allow me to be the latest.
The day was excellent. Informative and enjoyable in equal measure. I have not stopped talking about it and must confess to becoming a smoking bore!!
You will see a picture of Bobby the boiler. Recently finished his life as a central heating boiler and with a few well placed self tapping screws and some hardboard he has now found a new lease of life as a cold smoking cabinet.
This is his first outing. We have successfully smoked some salmon and haddock fillets along with flour and a couple of generous blocks of cheese. The haddock has made some wonderful fishcakes and the salmon found its way into a risotto. The flour will soon become the first mince pies of the season and the cheese just enjoyed for its own sake.
Once again thank you for a great day and the start of a whole new way of enjoying food.
Have a great Christmas and I wish you both all of the very best in 2016
Vince Creamer
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Simon and Claire came on a course in July 2015 and were inspired to create this wonderful smoker based around an artisan cold smoke generator...
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Paul and Lanto from Macs BBQ came on a course - went away and created this masterpiece of home smokery!
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Pete Kaiser came on a course to build on his knowledge of cold smoking which he had acquired over the years from his Father. This is where he cold smokes salmon; - great wood burning stove "plumbed" into a fridge. |
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Ian Waugh created this amazing smoker - and has produced amazing smoked salmon! (More details on the blog)
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A Father and son-in-law team learned how to smoke food with us at The Wild Boar in November 2012 and were inspired...
"Thank you for a great day, Tony and myself thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, you are truly a professional team, expect two smokers to be built, photographed and posted to your e-mail in the near future. many thanks, Tony and Dave"
- watch this space! |
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To the left is Vaughan Knight's smoker made from a steel drum and scrap - he reckons he spent about £10....
.......To the right is "Sid the Smoker" - Chris Mercer's creation, made from wood and offcuts and plastic plumbing - he spent arounf £30. The first meat he smoked was a slug - but that was apparently accidental!
More from Chris & Vaughan is on the blog.
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This is built by David and Elsie Heyes around a cold smoke generator they bought when learning the art of how to smoke food with us: "It is made from scrap blackboard (and old wardrobe from our daughters house) and the innards are a modified small barbeque from Wilkinson's. In the photo it is smoking some cheese and tofu - and works wonderfully. "Your course has definitely changed our eating habits we have ate more fish in the last few months than the last 10 years - Sea Bass smoked over Cherry Chips is quite delicious." |
This amazing barrel conversion belongs to Delia Holland Jones. |
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Ricky from Zest restaurants
came on a course in the summer
and has combined an old fridge with a Bradley smoke producer.... I'm sure it will fill up soon! |
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"Minifred" is Nic Chater's tribute to Freddie the Filing Cabinet smoker...
"First of all, please excuse the belated 'Thank you' for such a great day's smoking course all the way back on 5th June. I'm sorry that I had to leave before all the eating was done but we ended up with the best picnic ever whilst walking in the mountains the next day.
Since then I've got hold of a small desk-top filing cabinet...and 'Minifred' has been born."
This incinerator-based hot smoker was built by Scott, before coming on a Smoky Jo's food smoking course. He hot smoked over applewood ribs and brisket. Hi is no going to use it as a cold smoker with the aid of an artisan cold smoke generator. It certainly looks the part! |
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We have had a few recreations of Freddie the Filing Cabinet smokers - this one is known as Dibnah's Revenge after the late great Fred Dibnah - eccentric and among other things a keen mechanical engineer!
This one has been created by David Hewat the day after his Smoky Jo smoking course!
"I have cracked the smoke now, I have tried lots of things in “Dibnah’s revenge” from oranges to cheese - all succesful!"
David is also working on solving the condensation problem - in metal cabinets you can get the occasional drip of black condensation on the food, it would be good to have a permanent solution.
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Gosh there are some truly clever people who come on the Smoky Jo's courses! Connie & Allan made some quick adaptations to create hot smoked salmon and trout!
  
Here is another ingenious design, this one has been built by Frank Sargeant.
Most of it is made from recycled materials.
 
The firebox is an old clothes boiler. The stainless steel connecting pipe came from a scrap yard. The smoking cabinet is made from an old piece of 8'X4' plywood taken from a skip on a building site.
 
The only things paid for are a 90 degree bend for the chimney, 2 lengths of 2"X2" for the smoking cabinet frame, a length of 1"X1" for the removable rack rails and the length of stainless steel pipe to connect firebox to the smoking cabinet.
 
The chimney is a piece of left over drain pipe from building his chicken house.
Fantastic Frank!
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Have a look at these two designs - from the simple to the intricate.
The Chocolate Tin!
  
Here Oli has simply scrunched up some tin foil to rest his salmon on - sprinkled a little wood dust onto the bottom of the tin, and placed the tin with a lid on, on some heat. The tin gets hot, the wood chars and gives off smoke and the heat produced cooks the salmon. - So simple!
Fantastic Oli - it looks delicious and thank you.
Great Oli !
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And now - how about this for a really ingenious design?
The CCTV Camera Smoker!
Made from an old CCTV mounting, a computer fan, an soldering iron, a 12v battery, two pipes and a rack!
The absolute genius!
"My first version used a 12v soldering iron to start the process, but the latest version starts like your charcoal starter, by leaving the lid and base off and using dry wood shavings. When it is burning and smoking vigorously, the base is fitted and the fan started, wood pieces are added, then the lid fitted.
Then regularly check by removing top and adding wood, you’ll soon learn how often you need to add wood. I was using well seasoned Cherry
which still contained a lot of moisture" - Colin Turner
Colin with his ingenious design for a home made smoker.
  
There is now an updates model as it is being perfected all the time. If you want further details email us and we will send you more info.
Brilliant Colin!
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Now Dennis and Marie have really pushed the boat out - have a look at this ingenious design. Dennis is clearly taking his smoking very seriously and is looking to smoke large
quantities.
Here they have built a small fireplace up against a bank. There is a pipe going from the back of the fire place (this has been set in the ground) and it leads straight into a smoking shed. This allows all the smoke into the shed and none of the heat - brilliant! This system is ideal for cold smoking large amounts of food. Well done Dennis!
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How about this for a great idea and a great design - Jonathan Webster created this smoker.
This is his cold smoking set up, cost £40 for a gas ring , everything else was scrounged.
 
This a a brilliant design - a cold smoker. Two chambers - one with wood shavings inside and heat underneath, with a long pipe to another chamber where the food is. Simple but effective using re-cycled bits and pieces. Cold smoke all the food and anything you want hot smoked take it out after it has cold smoked for a few hours and roast in in an ordinary oven.
"We had our first smoked salmon and smoked walnuts tonight, they were v tasty, thank you for your help" - Fiona Webster.
Well done jonathan!
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Here is a picture sent by John Kania who came on a weekend course in October -to introduce us to 'Freeda'! Look out Freddie it looks as though you have some attractive competition!
Well done John!
Smoky Jo's courses are part of -
Stepping Off
and soTraining and Consulting.
Corporate
training, specialising in designing and delivering motivational seminars
and workshops. Our work is motivating and inspiring, putting your
organisation a step ahead. |
