Operating instructions for the smoker

General instructions for the smoker
There are two ways to smoke, the cold method (10°C to 25°C) where the dishes are first cured, and the hot method (40°C to 110°C). Cold smoked dishes can be stored for longer.

Hot smoking
This is a lot easier to do at home, but the result is no longer sustainable than the normal cooked product. You have given the food a delicious smoke flavor. Fish is smoked at a temperature between 60°C and 80°C, meat at a higher temperature, between 90°C and 110°C. The time varies - depending on the size of the piece of food, and whether it is already pre-cooked from half an hour to a few hours.

Cold smoking
Cold smoking is more difficult than hot smoking. The temperature is - depending on what you smoke and the desired result - somewhere between 10°C and 25°C. Smoking can last from 4 hours to 4 days. All the while you have to keep an eye on the temperature and ensure that the smoking oven stays good due to smoking! The result can be kept for a long time. Whether food is smoked enough can be determined by the weight: you have to weigh the fresh food before brining and after smoking. Fish loses 13 to 30% in weight in the process. With meat and poultry, it can go up to 25%.

The technique of smoking:
Preheat the oven, first let it become nice and hot (burn the bottom plate clean) by placing the lid only half on the oven and the ash drawer about 50% open, so that the draft is maximized and bring a few thick logs to the glow the (ash) la. Attach the meat or fish to be smoked to the supplied hooks or skewers and hang them in the oven. Mackerel, eel and gar are hanging well, but there are also fish that fall apart when they are cooked such as red gurnard, trout, etc. If in doubt, add extra firmness with specially made hooks, it is incredibly a shame if the dish is cooked and falls on the (dingy) bottom plate if you want to remove it from the oven.
Now dampen the heat of the glowing blocks with some smoke moth, smoke curls or smoke chips, but keep it a bit airy (don't cram it). Set the ash drawer approx. 2 cm. open and lay the lid loose on the top of the oven or if the smoker has a door ajar, with the breather hole completely open, if the draft is even too strong and the smoke moths are threatening to flame, then further dampen it by pressing the lid firmly onto the oven and partially closing the vent hole; the intention is to preserve the heat through annealing at the bottom with just enough draft, so that smoke and heat are generated, which is then trapped in the oven with a slight gap. Always try to keep it this way by shaking the ash drawer and refilling it with mostly small stuff, but always keep 1 or 2 glowing large blocks at the bottom. By feeling with the hands on the side of the oven, at the level of the dish, you know if you are in the right place: AUW! is wrong and easy to touch with the inside of the forearm (is a sensitive area) is also wrong. Good: just being able to put your palms against the sides of the oven without pain, but getting used to it…
If you check every 5 minutes, not much can go wrong. Do you want to play a little less labor-intensive, than to play safe, so for a long time at a low temperature (glowing blocks at the bottom, covered with small stuff, ash drawer and chimney hole almost completely closed and nipped, meanwhile doing other things). By longer is meant at least twice as long as indicated in the guidelines.

Important:
Too hot is never good, often the food starts to deform strangely or the ash drawer is full of ash, which is too strong to prevent it from sinking through the holes, moreover a lot of fat leaks away, making the food dry quickly is becoming. Furthermore, try to maintain the temperature as long as the smoking time lasts, doneness can possibly be checked with a long (puncture) pen, but in general it applies that if the fat runs out, what you hear by sizzling in the oven, then the food is getting cooked.

Warning:
The smoking oven becomes hot. Keep children away!
The Smoke Oven is for outdoor use only!
Only use the Smoke Oven under the watchful eye due to the risk of being burned!

User manual smoking oven
Please first check the manual below before using the oven! The Smoke Oven is only intended for the preparation of food and is not suitable as a stove or for other purposes. Overheating can cause the stainless steel sheet material to deform. This is therefore excluded from warranty. When burning, only fuels may be used that do not generate harmful waste or gases. Choose a place in the shelter and take the wind direction into account, so that the neighbors and your guests are not bothered by sparks and smoke.
Place the Smoke Oven on a firm and flat surface or secure it. When heating the oven, first open the aeration valve, and then close it again in time to prevent overheating. Wait (when using the barbecue) until the charcoal is annealed and a white ash layer has formed before you open the fire grate and remove the ash.
When igniting the oven, it is handy to use appropriate firelighters that you put between the fuel.

WARNING: Do not use spirit, gasoline or similar flammable liquids for lighting or re-lighting!
The Smoke Oven is exclusively for outdoor use. The Smoke Oven becomes very hot during use, so wear protective gloves when handling or touching. Always keep a spacious (± 1.5 meter) distance between the Smoke Oven and (flammable) objects.

Use the Smoke Oven only because of the risk of being burned under the watchful eye. Be especially careful with children and pets walking around.

For safety's sake, keep a bucket of sand and / or water close at hand when using the Smoke Oven.

Wait for the smoker to move until it has cooled down.

At the end of the use of the Smoke Oven, the fire can be smothered by closing the aeration holes.

Cover warm charcoal or ash with a layer of sand for quick and safe cooling.

Only after the entire cooling and emptying of the ash remains may the Smoke Oven be placed in a closed space.

All components of the smoking oven can be cleaned with washing-up liquid. (Excluding thermometer)

When the oven is heated for the first time, discolorations become visible, especially in the furnace section, this is not covered by the warranty. This is common with stainless steel, and this is only about optical changes. Nothing changes in the quality of the product.

Wish you a lot of pleasure in preparing dishes with the smoker!