How to build a smoker the Ikea Hack Gardenfork way

[Gardenfork]

Here is the video and the how to build a smoker instructions for our ikeahacking food smoker. We used it to smoke salmon, but this Ikea Hack Food Smoker can be used with other foods.


First the recipe for the brine. You take the salmon, slice it into 2" strips and place it skin side up in this brine. a 9" x 13" cake pan works well for this. Place the salmon in the refrigerator for at least an hour, longer is better.

Eric's Salmon Brine Recipe:

2 quarts water
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt - must be non-iodized
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon black pepper

Place the fish skin side down in this brine in a flat pan, cover in refrigerator for at least an hour.

Take out the salmon and place on a wire rack skin side down,

Drain the brine pan carefully, reserving the brine solids an. Take the brine solids at the bottom of the pan and use a brush to coat the salmon with the brine solids.

Point a small fan at the brined fish until the brine has pretty much dried on the fish.


How to smoke salmon:

Add a large handful of wet hickory woodchips ( or whatever kind you like ) to the cast iron pan on the electric hot plate.

Place the grate in the smoker and spray with non-stick cooking oil, or brush with vegetable oil. Lay the salmon skin side down on the smoker grate.

Place a digital thermometer probe in the fattest part of one of the pieces of fish, place another digital thermometer across the grate to read the ambient temperature in the smoker.

Turn the hot plate on, ( i set mine to HIGH ) close the lid, and let it cook. Check the ambient temperature, you want it to be 160-180 degrees. Adjust the hot plate accordingly.

Hot plates sometimes turn off by themselves, so one needs to pay attention if you notice smoke not coming out of the smoker. Also, use a heavy duty extension cord, the shortest possible, to plug in the hot plate. Its possible to trip a circuit breaker.

When the salmon reaches about 140F, it is smoked.



how to build an Ikea hack food smoker

for this Ikeahack, we're using

2 Skrin storage containers

1 Lamplig trivet

1/4 threaded rod, 2 pieces cut to 17"

Four 1/4 nuts , preferably acorn nuts for the threaded rod

2 hinges - 2" or 3" metal hinges work well.

Bolts, lockwashers, and nuts for hinges. 1 1/2" are a good length.

Washers that fit the bolts you are using for the hinges: you'll need about 5 for each of the bolts you use to attach the hinges.

Attach the hinges to join the two Ikea Skrin boxes. Because of the rolled lip of the Skrin boxes, you'll have to use the washers between the boxes and the hinges, so that the center pin of the hinges sits on top of the rolled edges of the two boxes.

Mark and drill the hinge bolt holes. Wear safety glasses when doing this.

Attach the hinges with the bolts, washers and lockwashers. Its handy to have a helper when doing this.

Drill four 3/8" holes just inside where the hinges mount on the lower Skrin box.

In my original design i used bolts to hold up the Lamplig grate, this is not a great design, so I changed these bolts to threaded rod which extends across the Skrin box.

Cut the threaded rod to 17"and slide them through the holes. secure with acorn nuts. This will hold up the Lamplig grate.

Add the handles that come with the Skrin boxes and you are good to go.

Additonal Modification: If you want, you can cut an access panel on the short side of the lower skrin box so one can easily add more woodchips to the hot plate. This is a lot easier than having to open the smoker and pulling out the grate.

The Skrin boxes come with metal covers, and you can use that metal to fabricate a access panel cover with a piano hinge and lock.

[Kathy L]

Thanks for posting this. I have a charcoal smoker (which by the way, only cost about $30 when I got it a few years ago--is the hack worth it?) and was thinking I would do a ham before the summer was over. You inspired me to try salmon for the first time. This will take a fraction of the time and might possibly get my smoker urge out of my system.

So, my sockeye salmon is brining as I type.

[Gardenfork]

wow. great. let us know how the salmon comes out. eric.

[Kathy L]

The salmon turned out great. It's maybe a little too salty, so next time I'll take it out of the brine sooner. Sockeye worked well. I think the higher the fat content to the fish, the better it tends to taste. (I guess that's usually the case, isn't it?)

I think I'll still be doing the ham.

[Mike Szewczyk]

Cool Hack! I have nothing constructive to add, but I do have this: It may be the super nerd in me but I think that with legs your smoker would like like the droid Gonk from Star Wars.

[Gardenfork]

yes you are a super nerd...

[John Federico]

I wish I had the time to take on some of these cool projects (and recipes). But I don't. So I'll watch you. ;)

[Tina Fisher]

My husband was just saying today he would like to have a smoker but won't spend the money, and I FIND THIS IN MY EMAIL!!! I'm going to print it up for him, see if he'll make it for us.