Old fashion, oak smokehouse for hot and cold smoking!

If you are like me, an old fashion smokehouse is a thing of the past. My point being quality and effort have been sacrificed for speed and convenience and the crazy part about this all is, we're consuming food which is nowhere near the quality we abandoned and we still don't have time. I'm wondering where is the progress? Why pay more for less?

This is my rendition of what my parents and many other families had, in stead of a BBQ grill, costing hundreds. I guess the difference might have something to do with mobility, but why do we keep claiming better quality when we know it is not.

My smokehouse is made of solid oak scrap wood and tin, with a fire barrel in the bottom and a grill above. The only costs was I chose to use screws, so maybe there are twenty dollars worth invested in this project. The metal grates came from an old grill someone trashed.

I've started the fire and today, I am using pecan wood because it fell to the ground from my pecan tree. The main thing is not to make your fire too hot, but to cook with hot colds.

This is the entrance to the grill part of the smokehouse, from the lanai.

I've loaded some bacon, sprinkled with brown sugar and black pepper to cook. In the aluminum pan are leftover lamb chops, I'm warming to eat right away.

Cold smoking, which really takes you back, where they smoked food for months to be stored away for years.

Under the tin is a fire pit, connected to the smoke house by a 10 foot underground pipe, in which the smoke is piped into the smokehouse. This process is called "cold smoking" and depends on how long you smoke your meat determines how long it will last.

Okay, done! I wish you were here to sample the flavor...I'm having problems finding words to describe what I'm tasting in my BLT.  Even the leftover lamb shops have a revitalized delicious flavor, I know your family would appreciate. And don't be depressed when you eat this... it is very addictive!