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Thinking about a smoker mainly and also a mincer/sausage maker.
Any recommendations on what to buy for a beginner?
I dont really have the patience/for-thought to muck around for to long trying to maintain a fire etc so liked the look of the electric ones??
Should a mincer by electric or are the manual ones ok.
Cheers for any tips
Smokers are easy enough to build out of old filing cabinets with a cheap electric hob for burning power. That's the method i've always used and it's fantastic for smoking a large amount of things such as fish and bacon. For things such as pulled pork and brisket that require longer, hotter cooking a webber grill does a fantastic job and requires very little babysitting after your coals are lit so depending on what you're looking to smoke it may be better to take that route.
Manual mincers work just fine,are much cheaper than electric and are way easier to clean in my experience. Some stand mixers have mincer attachments also so that could be worth investigating (might be easier to justify to the wife hah). Either will typically come with a sausage stuffing attachment.
I've got a Bradley digital smoker. It's good that you can repeat what worked, and easy to use. But bloody expensive to feed the wood pucks in, and your limited to the flavors that they have.
Would get one again - maybe, but would look at the ones that can use normal shavings etc.
My two cents worth:
Smokers are awesome. Every home should have one and as I type this I have a salmon being hot smoked for dinner tonight. 40-45 minutes start to finish, slow cooked and melt in your mouth. Unfortunately its hard to get something decent without spending big money in one form or another. Years ago I bought a cheap upstanding charcoal smoker on 1-day. Damned if I could get the thing to work to my satisfaction so I bought a cheap gas ring to go in the bottom. That worked better. Biggest issue is temperature control and with the gas ring I only get a max of 130°C. It's good for biltong and hot smoking fish but not really that practical for making a Ham, for example. A couple of years back I got a Smokai smoke generator... Damn, I should have done that years ago. By attaching the Smokai smoke generator to the side of my Brinkman box I can now hot AND cold smoke, opening up a whole new world of yummyness
In hindsight I'd have been better buying the Smokai first and going from there. My future plans involve going bigger on the smoke box. I need more room... I'm thinking a wooden structure about 1.8 m high and a good 600 x 600 wide/deep. Big hams need a bit of room and with that height I can then do sausages easier.
An important note: There are not enough days left in your life to enjoy the awesomeness of smoked food so don't delay getting into it any longer.
What was the question again? Oh, yeah... right... buy something like a Smokai smoke generator and go from there... get an old fridge, bolt it on the side and see how you go. Experiment with enthusiasm.
Mincer? Yep, definitely. Go electric. Much easier to use and faster when you're doing it on your own. An electric mincer also let's you have two hands free... easier to make sausages that way.
Enjoy.
For a mincer/ sausage maker hard to pass this up
SAUSAGE MAKER | Trade Me or if you prefer red SAUSAGE MAKER 2800W | Trade Me
I have one and it turns meat into mince easy enough, maybe just need to trim the sinew a little more than a commercial grade one but for the price it's awesome.
Also just finished 3 salamis this morning which are now resting in the fridge.
Sausage stuff can be found here:https://www.thecasingboutique.com/?locality=nz and here https://oskarbutcher.co.nz/
Good fun indeed!
If you a serious about small goods dont piss about with a hand mincer, unless you are only going to do 1 kg at a time.
Also dont piss about with the small electric ones.
Get a seperate mincer and seperate sausage stuffer
http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-fa...1327516124.htm
Sausage Maker Filler Stuffer Sausage Making 10LB | Trade Me
Both these types ( not this specific one ) will be good long lasting machines. Chill the meat down real low ...almost frozen and the mincer will plough through it.
Smokai is probably a good bit of kit, I made a copy of one called an amazen smoker and it works great for cold smoke, but everyone that has the smokai loves them.
Just minced some dog tucker heifer up today using a Kenwood mincer. Two back legs no worries. Broke them into strips to freeze them down then poked them through. Mince will get a try tomorrow.
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I smoke fish and meat in my bbq no problem. Its mostly hot smoking but if turned right down its almost cold smoking. I put the sawdust/chips in a tin foil pkt with holes punched in them.
I might buy a wine barrel and a smokai for a bit of authenticityQuote:
Originally Posted by planenutz
New or old? The price of a new barrel would make your eyes waterQuote:
Originally Posted by PerazziSC3
Yep, they work well. I'm not sure they impart any additional flavours but they certainly look good and in terms of volume, they're just about perfect for home use.Quote:
Originally Posted by PerazziSC3
Having a door rather than a lid would be my preference. I've seen barrels where you stack stuff in from the top and I think that might be cumbersome once you've got it running.
Go for it... you won't regret it.
Old I'm thinking, couple Hundy??Quote:
Originally Posted by MSL
Smoked Cheese is the business!! Old boss got one of these https://www.wildearthwines.co.nz/stoaker
It is fricken awesome but I'm sure you could do the same thing at a much cheaper cost with the smokai
Smoked nuts (e.g. almonds) are also awesome.
I have a Smokai, works pretty well. Use it on my BBQ, Been trying to get a old wine barrel, but hell they are expensive!