Recipe: Appetizing The MacGyver Cold Smoker

The MacGyver Cold Smoker.

You can cook The MacGyver Cold Smoker using 4 ingredients and 12 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of The MacGyver Cold Smoker

1. Prepare of Materials.
2. It's 1 of old soldering iron.
3. It's 1 of empty soup can, inside untreated.
4. You need of your choice of wood chips (pecan, oak, apple, etc.).

The MacGyver Cold Smoker step by step

1. Soak wood chips in your favorite liquid (water, beer, wine, etc.) for 3 hours..
2. Fill the can with 1/2 cup of wood chips at a time and place in the firebox of your offset smoker on it's side..
3. Insert the tip of the soldering iron into the can, underneath the wood chips, to the back of the can..
4. Plug the soldering iron in and turn it on..
5. The time it takes to begin seeing wisps of smoke depends on the wattage of the soldering iron. I used the 40 watt setting on my iron and began seeing smoke in about 5 minutes..
6. After 15 minutes, there will be smoking embers. Turn off or unplug the soldering iron..
7. Keep the firebox vent open by a quarter and the smoke chamber damper by an eighth..
8. I was very pleased how well this worked. 1/2 cup of wood chips generated copious amounts of smoke for about 1.5 hours. The ambient temperature outside at the time of testing was 75°F and the highest temperature the digital thermometer recorded inside the smoke chamber was 79°F; well within the acceptable range for cold smoking..
9. Now that I have proved to myself that this actually works, going to try out a recipe tomorrow. If you try this method, be sure to share how it went and any suggestions..
10. *Safety Concerns: When using an old soldering iron, it is probably best to replace the soldering tip. Solder contains lead and there is probably a small buildup of solder on there and you certainly don't want that ending up on your food. Would there be enough to make someone sick? I don't know but why take a chance when a new soldering tip is only about 5 bucks. Also it is important to note, some metal food cans have a protective layer on the inside. I am not sure if when heated it would give off anything poisonous that could be carried in the smoke. Always look for a can that does not have that layer..
11. Pros of this method: If you already own an offset smoker, the this is an inexpensive hack that works fairly well..
12. Cons of this method: If you don't already own an offset smoker, then it isn't an inexpensive hack anymore. Since you don't want to go above 86°F you are restricted to late fall, winter, and early spring for cold smoking. (Depending on your geography) The embers can sometimes die early so you may have to turn the soldering iron back on to finish them..