Looks great Murray.
I love the end bits.

Looks good Muzz.
Does it taste better than shop bought?

That looks very nice. Will have to give that a go myself one day. Did you have it smoking heavily for the whole time in the smoker? When I used to smoke jerky, it had to be a very light smoke, otherwise it was too overpowering and became bitter. Completely different style of meat though

Wow, I would love to try that. 

I've spoken to my wife about your efforts, now I am being asked to give it a go. I don't have a smoker though, so will either be using my hooded BBQ or investing in something a bit more suitable for the process

Mikel
I used coconut type beads and it did not alter the taste.  I will go to the timber mill and see what they have in the way of hard wood. I will do another ham next week. Bunnings now sell apple wood  and wine barrel chunks. Keen to try the wine ones.
I cut the last ham in half and gave it to your daughter, the pressure is on for another.

Cactus wrote on Apr 28^th, 2019 at 6:34am:


I use the coconut Heat Beads in my charcoal BBQ and have never found any after taste in cooked meats either.

Nah Derek.... there is always room for an extra toy. 

Bear.. I have found (only limited experience so far) that as light a smoke as possible gives the best flavour.
Which (for me) in turn requires a longer smoke time but still maintaining a low temperature to prevent the meat going over med. rare at the most.
Next venison leg I will be looking at around near 4 hrs.
A balancing act I will be a while in mastering 
M

Yes Derek... exactly that one.
Bit of assembly required but I (and I think Muzz) reckon its the "smokers dux gutz".
Seems the next step up in cost is near x5, to my thinking this is very good value for $'s.
M

Derek...I think the short answer is "no".
Years ago when living in Coffs Harbour my next door had a "cold smoker"
When the mullet were running, I jagged them off the breakwall, he butterflyed and cold smoked.

His block was on a slope which made his set up easier.
It was a half buried, enclosed fire box with a (about 6"diam.) metal flue going uphill, on the ground, to the smoker. This was a hessian enclosure with several racks from which the butterfly fish were hung.

He used sawmill offcuts for the fire with any sort of tea tree scrub for smoke.
With the smoke going through the metal flue, by the time it got to the hessian enclosure it was quite cool, the drawback being this was a very time consuming process taking in excess of 24 hours.

He would be up and down all night keeping the fire at the right burning rate with the smoke needing to be fairly dense.
The result however was something else and selling the smoked mullet was quite a nice sideline for him. 
M

I would agree with Michael on that,
Having a fire box located away for the smoker and a few lengths of down pipe I think it could be done. If you have the room to do it.