Great idea treefarmer I like that man. A smoke house has been on my mind for a while, I like the simplicity of it.
What is the floor made of? Is it on a concrete slab? Hard to tell from the photos.
9dawgs, Sorry about omiting that info. The floor is dirt, just like most of the old time smokehouses. I had intended to have my fire on the inside of the smokehouse and then was not satisfied with the outcome. Seems some of the "real" old timers had a small hole or pit inside to work thier smoke out of but like I pointed out it was a "trial and error event" for the 1st few laps. The man that I followed, had his fire under a 3'x3' steel plate that sat on 4- 8x8x16 concrete blocks. He said that kept the fire from blazing too high when the sausages dripped. (The 1st time we made sausages at his place he was using an old walled in chicken house for a smokehouse-said he had burned down several over his many years!!!) All that is a possibility when using wood, this is probably one of the reasons some folks now buy hardwood sawdust to create smoke. Found it to be more comfortable to tend the fire from the outside rather than have to open and close the doors, loose heat, fight the smoke, etc.. A man that had a small deer plant over in Holmes county suggested that I use a wood heater in combination with a gas fish cooker. But back to the dirt floor, there is not enough grease dripping to create a problem, but on a slab it would become an issue as it would need to be kept clean so it would not be slick. Over the dirt floor it helps keep the dust down and maybe I won't get put in jail for allowing a little hog fat to soak into the ground in the middle of 80 acres. Treefarmer
Thanks Treefarmer, my grandpa's had a dirt floor as well. Never thought much about it soaking up the fat drippin's but it makes sense. Them old timers had it all figured out!
Man, to post pics of great looking sausage like that is criminal. You should be ashamed of yourself...hahahaha
Any chance of getting some of that shipped to Canada so a northern brother can sample a little taste?
