Smoking with Firehut takes place simply to burn small pieces of wood logs under the smoking fire chamber and adding more wood as neccessary.
Heat is evenly distributed throughout the grill and can be controlled quite easily. The appropriate firewood size is approximately 3x4 cm thick and maximum 35 cm long. For smoking, we recommend alder, beech, apple tree or oak, which yield the best smoky aromas. In the early phases, birch can also be used but note that it generates a lot of soot and burns very hotly, making temperature control more difficult. Wood used in smoking must definitely be hardwood. Pine or spruce, for instance, cannot be used as they contain resin..
Smoking with small fire wood logs require patience but also provide time for relaxing. It is a nice, unhurried way of spending time with friends and family or just by yourself. Peace, the sounds of nature, the crackle of fire, the delicious aroma of food cooking over fire… a pleasure for all the senses!
The oak wood in the picture has been cut into appropriately small, roughly 3x4 cm thick pieces.
Fish is the ingredient that is fastest to cook and thus a good starting point for getting to know your new smoker. Here’s a quick recipe for smoking salmon. You can apply the same recipe for ingredients other than fish by repeating steps 23 and 24 until the food is ready. Salmon is ready in approximately 45 minutes, depending on how thick it is.
1. Prepare the fish for smoking by adding salt and seasonings at least 1–2 hours before smoking
2. For smoking we will use also briquettes, grill briquettes help create an ember for smoking. Place some unlit briquettes on the grate (6–8 pcs)
3. Fire up about half of the chimney starter of briquettes. With the number of briquettes, you can also "adjust" the desired smoking temperature. The chimney starter is a very handy tool for lighting briquettes and coals without lighter fluid, the chimney starters can be bought at the nearest hardware store for about 10-20 euros.
4. Wait until the briquettes are fully lit and start to char (their surface turns grey)
5. In smoking, we also use small firewood, max. thickness approx. 3x4 cm and max. length 35 cm
6. Put the smoking fire chamber on the grill, on top of the briquettes
7. Add 2–3 pieces of smoking wood on top of the briquettes
8. Open the top vent, and adjust it to the position suitable for smoking (it’s good to start with the vent half open) Tip: Almost closed or 1/4 open, higher temperature and stronger smoke.
9. Wait until the firewood lights up and burns with a flame
10. Put the grill grate in place and adjust it to the position suitable for smoking (upper level)
11. At the rear edge you can found the hook for lifting grill grate for it.
12. Place the expander bar at the front edge
13.Make sure that it locks in place
14.Also put the heat distribution plate in place
15. Make sure it locks at the rear edge
16.Place the drip tray (for grease) on top of the heat distribution plate. The tray can also be filled with water or other liquid, which is particularly advisable when smoking meat with a high fat content.
17. Put the front edge hatch in place, keep the hatch in place whenever possible as unnecessary opening of the lid will extend the cooking time.
18. Put the front plate back in place, it helps manage the fire.
19. Wait until the desired temperature (90–150 degrees) is reached and start smoking.
20. Place the food over the drip tray. Use two drip trays side by side, if necessary
21. We recommend using separate digital thermometers for measuring the internal temperature of the meat and grill.
22. It is very important to maintain a fire that burns cleanly and gets enough oxygen
Otherwise, the firewood will start to produce carbon monoxide and soot that does not taste good
White smoke is a good sign, dark grey or blue is not
23. Add firewood as needed, typically about every half hour or when the temperature starts to drop too much. Once you find a suitable interval "touch" for adding firewoods, you will learn to anticipate and then the temperature will remain constant enough. Good basic rule: firewoods should be added just before the flame goes out completely from the previous trees. For longer smoking periods, we recommend using a separate digital thermometer attached to the grill grate level, where you can see the temperature in more detail. Notes: The temperature does not have to stay completely constant, nor is it intended for smoking with firewood. However, the end result becomes very delicious.
24. When adding more firewoods, wait until the firewood lights up and burns with a flame before putting front plate back. For longer over 6 hours smoking is neccessary to add and fire up more briquettes as ember.
25. continue smoking...until the food is ready
26. Enjoy delicious food smoked with real firewood! The fillet is ready when it can be easily cut into pieces with a fork. If you are using meat thermometer you can see directly when it's ready.
27. One of the best features of Firehut is that after smoking, you can add some wood to the fire to make the flames bigger again. The flames will burn away the fish smell and grease and the food you cook in the fireplace next time will not taste like fish.
