We’re great believers in recycling here at The Sparrowholding; for example, we use the sheep’s fleeces for weed control in the polytunnel and their empty mineral lick tubs as giant plant pots for growing vegetables. Our relatively new neighbours, S and J, are evidently like-minded, and we discovered that they also recycle things – such as this filing cabinet, which they’ve turned into a food smoker! It now sits outside their kitchen door and has become an essential piece of their kitchen paraphernalia…
Yours Truly was fascinated to discover how this re-purposed piece of office furniture worked, so a few weeks ago I popped next door for a guided tour, which proved most interesting. The smoked food that they’d already tried when I visited included meat (red meat and poultry), cheese (delicious – I tried some!) and tomatoes. You name it, their home-made smoker can smoke it!
Better still, I returned home from my sortie bearing two bottles of S and J’s gorgeous smoked sauces: one smoky tomato and one smoky BBQ. Have since tried the said sauces out on chips and nuggets and I can tell you that both tasted AMAZING 🙂 The only downside is that they were soooo amazing the BBQ one is already nearly empty…

The food for smoking is popped on wire mesh placed inside the drawers – in this photo, two pieces of mesh have been separated using empty tin cans.

The bottom drawer contains the charcoal or wood that generates the smoke to cook or smoke the food “stored” in the drawers above.

To allow the smoke which passes up through the filing cabinet (infusing the food with a gorgeous smoky aroma) out at the top, a small chimney has been added.
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