ChrisTaylor

Depending on how the wood chips are packed it seems to last for about a hour. At this point agitating the box starts it up again. Experimentation is in order: I want to see if keeping the box at an angle, titled towards the soldering iron side, improves things. I suspect installing two vents near the base of the unit will also increase the smoking time.

It's not an electric smoker. Well, not in the sense of some off-the-shelf product. The smoker is comprised of a cheap, low wattage soldering iron (25W) and a 'smoking box' from the local hardware store. The smoking box is designed to be placed on the grill of a kettle barbecue (or any kind of grill, be it gas or coal-fueled, with a lid) and loaded with wood chips or smoke pellets. I drilled a hole in the side of the box with a 1 cm drill bit and poked the soldering iron inside.

We've discussed the possibility of installing a window and some kind of hatch through which we could reach in and agitate the smoke pan. These are some way down the road, however. We'll see how we go with vents but an ice tray may be necessary too. Melbourne is rarely ever *that* cold. We'll need to plan ahead carefully for long cooks. At the moment I'm playing with short (1-3 hour) smokes before cooking, as you can see in the photos. Today I'm smoking a pound of cayennes and fatalis for my next hot sauce.

I cut one of the spare support pieces into 3 * 15 cm lengths. A simple tripod to hold up a pizza tray--an easily removable, easily cleaned drip-catching mechanism. The bolt that Ben and I had purchased didn't work. After some searching the aisles of the local hardware store we found these. There are two: one near the top of the door, one near the bottom. They keep the door tightly closed. Installing the first of the hooks. The hooks, which have a 6 kg capacity, are intended for hanging sausages or similar from the ceiling of the unit. Installing the castor wheels. Two of the castor wheels are fitted with brakes. Considering the weight of the unit, wheels are vastly superior to our original solution of keeping the unit raised--bricks. The drip tray in place. A crude but effective way of keeping the racks in place. Note, too, the hooks. Smoking some more 'roo fillets and a capsicum. Handles. Next we're planning on installing four vents: two near the base, two near the top. The vents will be adjustable, allowing us to slide them open and closed. I'm also going to install a weather station thermometer in there to allow us to keep track of temperature and humidity during long cooks.

What you see there was done over two sessions: one that lasted from mid-afternoon into the evening and another that lasted damn near ten hours (although that included a couple of trips to the hardware store to buy some more screws, hooks and so on). The whole box rests on four bricks. We've discussed the idea of mounting the entire unit on some castor wheels (the kind with brakes on them) so re-purposing one of the bricks to raise the smoke box from the base of the unit might be something we do. That said, in the trial run the box didn't scorch even the scraps we used.

A half-arsed Corn and Oil made with homemade, Inner Circle-based Falernum and Mount Gay standard. Lemon instead of lime. EDIT Even for a half-arsed version, it's pretty good. I also made some Manhattans earlier with Punt e Mes, Basement bitters and Bulleit rye. Introducing a friend to the Manhattan.

We're planning on installing an oven tray or something similar to catch any drips.

For a good long while, I've wanted to own a cold smoker. Cold smokers here are very expensive, though. Expensive and hard to get. I knew I'd have to make one but I just couldn't build up the motivation to draw up a plan and assemble it. Then, last week, occasional eGulleteer benthescientist mentioned he wanted to build one too. Ben drew up a simple plan. What we had in mind was a simple box. We envisioned using cake cooling racks or something similar as the shelves. Neither of us have much experience with or knowledge of working with timber so we wanted to keep things simple. A local timber yard was happy to cut some American oak (intended for sitting under floorboards or carpet, I believe) to size and supply them, along with the frame, at a good price. The groves you see in the photos were already there. It's still a work in progress, but here's what we have so far. The beginnings of one of the panels. Each piece of timber is 14 cm x 50 cm. They are ~18 mm thick. The male and female groves on each end needed to be sawn off. The groves ensured a nice seal we wouldn't have been able to otherwise achieve. The smoke-generator was a challenge. We knew that for cold smoking, we had to keep the temperature as low as possible--as close to the ambient temperature as possible. We initially envisioned taking this can (don't worry, it was brand new before I hacked into it with a Dremel) and running a ducted heating pipe from it to the cooking chamber. We abandoned this plan, as you'll see later. Here is the first panel. Lining up the support pieces. Day two. Two sides assembled. Rear panel, the two sides and part of the base completed. The base and roof were somewhat tricky. We debated cutting the final slat down from 14cm but decided, in the end, to leave it. Fixing the last two support pieces. An early trial run: seeing how well chamber fills with smoke. We're using a low wattage soldering iron to generate just enough heat to cause mesquite sawdust to slowly smoulder. The door sitting atop the smoker. The (mostly) finished smoker. Those horizontal bars are designed to hold up the cake racks. Installing the racks. This setup is a little flimsy. If you don't take care when putting food in there, the racks can drop down. We're going to work out some system of pins or supports to ensure the racks stay in position. The racks are just cheap ones we got from the supermarket. The smoking system we settled on. This box, which we purchased ready-made, has good airflow. We're working on a more permanent solution to keeping the box, which gets quite warm, raised off the base of the smoker. For tonight we just used a couple of oak off-cuts. Our first attempt at cold smoking. For ~1 hour and 20 minutes we smoked some cheddar, some unsalted butter, extra virgin olive oil, jalapenos, eggplant slices, a couple of pork chops and a couple of 'roo fillets. The 'roo fillets were very good and I was happy with the pork chops, too, altho' benthescientist thought the 'roo took the flavour on more. The oil and butter took on a lot of smoke flavour. The chilli took on little: I'd slice them in half next time. The cheddar was a little overdone: it was almost as if the mesquite and cheese didn't get along. The eggplant was nice, too. The 'roo and pork chops had been hit with the same spice mix (a mixture of salt, black pepper, cayenne and garlic powder) prior to smoking. The meat, along with the eggplant, was cooked over a gas grill. We have a few future modifications in mind. The planned locking mechanism, a bolt of the sort you'd use on a gate, didn't work. We need to install some kind of latch. I also want to install a couple of hooks in the ceiling. Extra vents may be in order, too. The ambient temperature is 17-18C at the moment and only after a hour did the smoker hit about 25C.

I introduced a friend to Daiquiris--the real kind, not the real fake strawberry slushie kind--with a Banks 5-based classic model. No Hemingway or other valid variation: just a 2:1:0.5. And, now, inspired by haresfur, a lemon, lime and bitters using Angostura and Basement.

Another Baird. Rising Sun Pale Ale. Again I really like it. Like their Session Ale they've managed to make an approachable beer that isn't forgettable. Shame it's quite expensive--a case would be unreasonably priced. EDIT And now InBranata. This smells weird. Fruity. Like ... mango. Tropical fruit. Taste retains some of that fruitiness but isn't as intense, and has much less of a tail, than you'd expect based on the nose. It's okay.

Single Take Session Ale. Kind of funky label on this one. All the writing, bar the 'Single Take Session Ale' and some stuff about apv and whoever imported this beer into Australia, is in Japanese. No idea what it says. Good beer, though. Nails simple without being ever being boring.

After zesting 8 large limes for my first batch of Taylor's (geddit?) falernum today I had a lot of lime juice. So it's time to make daiquiris, right? Let's start with JM. 2:1:0.5 plus a dash of Scrappy's lime bitters.

Started a batch based on IC Green. Used the K.Penguin recipe.

Ilegal reposado.

Two things from the beta book: The Fall of Man and The Last Mechanical Art. Now that I have a nice mezcal the latter is actually a nice drink. Use shit mezcal in that one and you know about it.

That question was, in fact, a typographical error. What I really meant to ask was: how important is it for me to use a white rum? Is dark rum okay?

They make an overpriced single origin organic barrel version that's super smooth and I know it's super smooth because that's the official tasting note. Smooth! Of course it's a rum!

How important is it that the rum is overproof? In terms of reasonably-priced over-proof rums my options are Bundaberg and Inner Circle. Bacardi 151 is expensive. I've never had the overproof version of Bundaberg but I suspect it's considerably more restrained in terms of its flavour profile than IC Green.

Can you post a photo of them?

Make mine a double. On a bit of a Rusty Nail kick because I want to get the Drambuie 15, even though it's taken me ... shit ... eighteen months? to get half way through a 350 mL bottle of the regular stuff. You know, the regular Drambuie is basically half the price of the aged, scotch-focused variant. So. Yeah. Anyway. 3:1 of Glenfarclas 15 to standard Drambuie. Was intending to make a normal sized one, with two ounces of scotch, but there was just only a tiny wee bit in the bottle (that ended up not being a tiny wee bit when I actually poured it out) that I just had to go all out. Boozy and fucking good. Two of these would put you and your unborn grandchildren and everyone in between in the hospital getting your stomachs pumped.

Rusty Nail with 3:1 anCnoc to Drambuie.

A lovely Old Fashioned made with Basement Bitters and Bulleit 95 rye.

The rosemary is very much a background note.

Just so I understand: you're asking if I, as the consumer, would be able to notice the difference between two ganaches made with different brands of chocolate if those ganaches were jacked with some kind of spice or liqueur? And whether I'd view the cheaper ganache as the kind of bad I wouldn't want to spend money on?

Made a couple Fernet Brankenstein's with the last of my bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail. Initially I had some reservations about the vermouth/Fernet/mint/Uigeadail combo but once the drink settled a while it warmed on me as fast as an induction cooktop. Real good. Wondering which Islay/Skye I'll use next to scratch the Fernet Brankenstein itch. Options include Talisker Distiller's, Bruichladdich 10 and some indie bottlings of Bowmore, Coal Ila and Laphroaig. Of course, there's an argument for using a bold but non-island malt such as Auchentoshan or anCnoc.