ProQ Cold Smoke Generator, Small

Let's be honest, this isn't particularly cheap. The small version which I bought seems barely 6" square. I have a Masterbilt electric hot smoker so decided to use this to do my cold smoking. With the outside temperature at 5c it's the perfect conditions. In the pack is the smoking unit, a bag of sample smoking dust(I didn't use this) and the candle. I used Apple wood dust and even though it's my first time cold smoking its going surprisingly well. Initial lighting didn't seem too promising and initially I thought it'd gone out. I left it a few minutes at the bottom of my smoker with the fur latched closed and upon opening the door to relight was blasted with a load of smoke. I opted to hang my bacon joint and add the video shows, after 40mins only a very small amount of the dust has been used. I'd go so far as to say the smoke level matched that if my masterbilt when hot smoking. There are guides regarding cleaning and like most things, if you look after it, then it'll look after you and should last a good while. When you've finished smoking, you can push the ignited parts away and then store what you haven't used for next time

Works witch pellets (grinded). Just get magic bullet, or magic bullet like blender and a hudge bag of pellets- cheap. My favourite was always mequito (in some cases mixed with hickory). Grind them, but dont put too much into a container, as may damage the engine. I usually use about half of long coctail glass at one time. To fill it up, need to grind about one glass. Pellets (grinded), will burn out a the twice of the speed of sawdust, but thats just great for me. I also never light it up using candle. Just use small blowtorch, or get one corner over stove fire for few minutes. Amazing smoked cheese on cobb bbq. As I like it a bit more melted inside, with skin quite hard and nicely coloured, have to give it abit of temperature going. Got tiny metal net conteiner (round one, with the chain) from local korean supermarket. I think, its to be used while cooking a soup, to put stuff in, close it and chain it to the edge of the pot. What I do, is to put cheese pieces on the cobb bbq roasting rack and get grinded pelets going unbeneath for few ours (all covered with lid). Than I fill up round container with ungrinded pellets, close it, start it on stove and place it cobb bbq burning basket (just under still working smoke generator, with plenty to burn). Pellets burn quickly allowing hot air flow to speed up generator- what means, I have to keep oppening cobb and placing cheese on other side each 5-8 minutes, before smoked skin breakes and melted cheese form inside would get out (creating a mess). Its all about timing and checking temperature incide cobb bbq, but during last hour cheese is bombarded by smoke and temperature, what gives amazing effects.

I should have been more patient and waited for the bigger version but the small version works really well. The sawdust sent with the generator was excellent, my oak sawdust is not as fine which is probably why I have to top up regularly. The generator has helped create some excellent smoked trout.

This is the second ProQ I have used, the first has started to show signs of wear with the mesh burning through after many years. You don't need much else to produce some fantastic results with this item. Whether you use a large cardboard box or a purpose built unit, you can cold smoke all sorts of food to add new dimensions to your cooking. Making bacon is easy and delicious (put pork belly into a bag with some salt and sugar for around 5 -7 days in the fridge then rinse and let it dry out, there are loads of recipes on the www) One amazing item is smoked tomato sauce. Slow roast tomatoes then cold smoke them for about 6 hours over oak, blitz them up and a pasta sauce is born. This renders a vegetarian dish that is reminiscent of tomato and bacon... simple and delicious. Smoked salmon is also easy to make and far superior to the flacid stuff you get in the supermarket. Or lightly cure and smoke a steak, you won't ever want ordinary steak again. I could go on, check out cold smoking on the web or look at a few books on Amazon (Try Paul Peacock for a technical approach or Dick and James Strawbridge for a well laid out and picture packed read)

First, I confess I didn't buy this ProQ smoker for my own use, it was bought as a present. BUT Dear Reader, do not despair, I'm not being dishonest! I already own one of these ProQ cold smoke generators and rate it as A1, excellent, two thumbs up or any other suitable description of your choice. I have used it to smoke home cured salmon, bacon and even cooked chicken. So far my only gripe is that it often takes a minute or so longer to ignite the wood dust than the instructions say, but hey, if you can't take an extra minute on a 14 hour smoke, you ain't going to enjoy the DIY approach to first class smoked food anyway! But if you are eating mass produced bacon or smoked fish and think you can do better than that, I can highly recommend the ProQ cold smoker. Smokin' good!

Good size, bought a different one first and was too small. This easily lasts 24 hours.

This little cold smoker is an absolute must for anyone considering smoking food, or even for old hands at food smoking. Size wise, it's 15x15x4cm. It's made of metal mesh securely attached to a solid metal frame. At the outside corner there is a little ramped area where a tea-light candle is inserted for a minute or so to start the smoke dust off smouldering. Smoke dust is filled along the mesh spiral, and once lit it slowly spirals into the centre, smouldering as it goes. Once lit the filled smoker will smoulder away evenly for about ten hours or so (give or take). I use a Bradley Smoker and the smoke Bisquettes (their spelling, not mine) get quite expensive if the recipe calls for long cold smoking or even longish warm/hot smoking. This little cold smoke generator fits in the bottom of my Bradley quite easily and will smoke for ten hours at a fraction of the cost of doing it with Bradley Bisquettes.... Lets do a simple cost comparison to show you how much more economically this smoker works: The cheapest Bradley Bisquettes I can find cost around £20 for 48 Bisquettes. These burn at the rate of 20 minutes per Bisquette, meaning they cost around £1.25 an hour. This Cold smoke generator takes about 80g of smoke dust to fill, and burns for ten hours. I buy smoke dust online from smokedust.co.uk at £3.99 per 450g, which means it costs around 7p per hour. Quite a significant saving if you are smoking overnight, for example, or even over a period of days. I haven't just used it in my Bradley, I've used it in my small kettle BBQ (The cheap garden type you get from DIY shops) and even in a small wooden tool-shed set up as a small smokehouse, and it gives great results every time. The smoker gives off virtually no heat so you have to worry less about the temperature of your smoke chamber/smokehouse when cold smoking... not entirely forget about temps, of course, but definitely fret less... certainly less than if you were using wood chips. It has also never gone out on me yet, meaning even less hassle. It imparts just the right amount of smoky flavour to the foods too, making it entirely fit for purpose... a rarity in many products these days, I'm sure you'll agree. In summary then, this Cold Smoke Generator is an "on off the charts amazing" little gem, and a practical must for anyone even considering doing some home cold smoking... With a little jiggery pokery and imagination it can also be used in a hot smoke set up too (if the chamber is heated electrically or with gas). 5 STARS!

This is a clever bit of design and seems to work well. The first attempt was problematic as the dust kept going out and I had trouble relighting. But I went on line to look for tips and found that my issue was the dust was not dry enough. So I gave it a 3 minute blast in the microwave, tried again and it worked perfectly. So far I have only done 2 smoking sessions, both for home made streaky bacon. The first batch I did a single burn with applewood dust, but found to flavour a bit "light". So for the second batch I did 2 burns using hickory, and found the flavour just a little too strong, but delicious none the less. I am sure that I will work out the best combination of wood type and smoking times through trial and error. I do however have one small issue with this smoker, and that is the price. This device is very small, and simply made. Charging £35 for it is excessive. I did note that other suppliers on Amazon were even charging over £50! A couple of years ago I bought a similarly designed cutlery organiser for a draw. It is at least 4 times bigger, twice as deep, made in a similar way from mesh and thin metal bars, and cost me less around £10. Sadly I have been unable to find any similar smoker alternatives at more reasonable prices, otherwise I would have returned this unit and asked for a refund.

No ha hecho absolutamente nada

While I haven't used this enough to make an accurate review, I wanted to share that blending pellets intended for pellet smokers (widely available in many flavors) works for the sawdust! Why ProQ doesn't offer the dust, is beyond me. This works, pic attached! This was just two cups of whole pellets in a cheap old B&D blender. Hope this helps someone else. *update* these bad boys are brilliant, proof attached. In my situation. I still add a pellet tube burning straight pellets about 3 times (burns about 4 hours) in a 30-36hr window for some additional smoke because of the size of my smokehouse. The proqs burn +/- 16hrs but if the wind is up they can burn up much faster. All using blended up smoking pellets.

Habe jetzt drei mal Schinken und zwei mal Käse/Mozzarella geräuchert. Alles bestens gelungen!

Just what I needed

J'ai hésité vu le prix, mais ce générateur le vaut... On utilise que 75gr de sciure pour 10 à 12h de fumage. Allumage super facile avec une bougie type chauffe plat, et réussi à chaque fois en moins de 3 minutes. Le fumé est léger mais très constant. Cela évite d'avoir une fumée trop épaisse qui donne un goût âpre au produit fumé. Pour le saumon après 10h, le fumet est bien présent mais avec une saveur subtile... Parfait. Pour la viande, il faut une fumée un peu plus dense. Deux solutions : - soit relancer le générateur jusqu'à avoir le fumet désiré ( 30h pour du beacon et du filet mignon) ainsi le fumet pénètre lentement dans la chair. - soit allumer le générateur par les deux bouts. Durée 5 à 6 h heures mais fumet plus corsé ( très bien pour le lard et la poitrine de porc) et recharger le générateur autant de fois que nécessaire. Surtout ne pas tasser la sciure, sinon la combustion est plus lente, et beaucoup moins de fumée. Juste arasé jusqu'à voir le serpentin de la grille. Pour seulement 75gr de sciure par fumage de 10 h, faut pas hésiter à prendre de la sciure de qualité. Info importante : dans mon fumoir ( 80x40x37cm) l'élévation de température est de 4°c seulement avec ce générateur...