DIY smoker in a hurry ??

[Nik]

Has any-one built and used a DIY smoker in a hurry to salvage freezer contents ??

Scenario is sudden isolation with long-term loss of usually-reliable utility power, and limited local generator / inverter capacity. So, a week or two before you and few neighbours similarly beset must begin to 'use or lose' their freezer contents. Each freezer you can empty & isolate extends life of rest...

Note domestic 'salting / pickling' more than a kilo or two of meat is not an option as UK deprecates sufficient 'nitrite' due potential for conversion to 'nitrate' for IEDs...

IIRC, you cannot even get nitrite as-is for domestic use, only pre-mixed with 'salting salt' in 'herbs & spices' quantities...

( Yes, yes, I'm having another try at extending my 'String' story: I've plenty of reference books, but all seem to assume you can get sufficient salt + nitrite or 'pickling mix'. So, Plan_B.. )

[Nik]

Slightly off-topic, happened across a DIY cook-stove using four (4) 8-shaped breeze blocks, with one sorta protecting ground and one off-set to provide 'little & large' rings. NOT a long-term solution, but buys time to devise better...

[registror]

primitives did it without salt, even, altho dunno how long the food lasted. I"ve seen claims of pemmican lasting for many years, but i dont believe it, since the fat is bound to go bad in 1-2 years, unless kept at least refrig temps. You've got a problem in that a lot of frozen stuff is FULL of ice-crystals. Those have to come out before it's going to be feasible to prevent rot. Salt works reasonably well without nitrites or nitrates. I bet you can get mineral blocks for cows. I bought a 50 lb one for $8 a few months ago. The salt pulls the water out of items, but you need a lot of it, the items have to be cut into thin strips, like bacon, for the salt to get to the moisture content. Smoking by itself, is not likely to suffice under those conditions. Consider the need, also for bug netting, or youll get fly eggs laid in the meat, etc, as you attempt to dry it out/smoke it. Salt helps with that, too. . I'd say to eat the hell out of the food AMAP, to reduce how much of it you lose/have to preserve. Olympic swimmers eat 10,000 calories per day while in training and they do NOT get fat. Consider having lots of spices/vinegar, salad dressings, etc, to help you choke down 10+ lbs of food per day. per adult. If you can keep it frozen for 1 week, that's 70 lbs of frozen food, per person, so you;d have to have a helluva big freezer in order to have to smoke much food

[registror]

I imagine that you can rent another generator, or rent space in cold storage, but it might be a long trip to an un-affected area for the latter. Of course, if others have beaten you to the rental place, you'll be out.

Years ago,, before the Net, I think it was, American Survival Guide mag had a how to article about this

https://www.google.com/search?q=amer...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[registror]

me, I'd dig a pit someplace, or cut a drum in half for a fire and use plastic sheeting to contain most of the smoke, poke SOME holes in it, to flush out the moisture and suspend it as a "teepee" over the racks of drying meat, Several such set ups might well be needed, along with the netting underneath/over to exclude the bugs

[Nik]

https://survivalforum.survivalmagazi...fiction-string

This. Better described in subsequent chapters, 'effect' came through leafy-suburb on a skewed diagonal, like a giant cookie cutter. Houses across street and beyond rear fence / alley simply didn't arrive. Off to left, deepening gouge through wild-wood tree-tops, before chimney pots, roof apex, roof+attic, roof+upper storey dumped onto / among lopped trees. Then several intact houses. Then, to right, house minus rear corner, front half of house, rubble beneath toppled trees.

So far, no survivors bar narrator & 2 kitty-cats, plus weaned kitten and small, yappy dog found on first scouting to 'right'. As yet, no other cars, no 'workshop', no 'prepping' / SHTF caches. When his nerves settle a bit, narrator will explore to left.

Upside, there's ample big timber felled, and 'pollarded' trees to left will surely grow a crown.
Downside, lots...

[registror]

looks like the wrong subforum?

[Nik]

Preparedness: Food & Water ??