Cold smoker cooling

[murphyslaw]

Hi all
So I have made a "cocktail shaker" cold smoke generator and I'm in the process of gutting our old dishwasher for a cabinet
Now on to the question - to keep the temp low inside the cabinet I plan on using ice and salt and what I would like to know is

1. Will this be enough to cool something this size and
2. What sort of ratio salt to ice am I looking for

Thanks in advance

[hoddo]

I guess you are going to mount the smoke generator outside the cabinet, the length of the pipe between the smoke generator and the cabinet can affect the temp, the longer the pipe the cooler the smoke. You are going to need airflow in the cabinet, consider fitting a small blower or fan this will also help keep the temp down. A cold smoker does not need to be a fridge, ambient temp is fine if you smoke on cool days or nights.I would be wary of using ice inside the cabinet due to the risk of excesive water vapour and condensation on whatever your smoking

[murphyslaw]

Thanks hoddo
Yeah I plan on mounting the generator outside and also looking at a basic water jacket cooler for the output pipe using an old car windscreen washer resivour and pump.

As for running it when ambient temps are cool that could prove a bit more difficult since I now live in central qld (probably should update my profile)

[hoddo]

If your ambient temp is high I would be putting the cooling on the air intake, perhaps an old fridge evaperator or a motorbike radiator hooked up to a pond pump in a drum, you could ice that up. Cooling on the smoke will help but it wont counteract the high ambient temps, over 35 I am guessing?

[murphyslaw]

So I was thinking about the moisture problem
If I were to put ice in the cabinet itself but had it inside a tub with a lid that would solve the moisture problem would it not?
I would think the only moisture able to come in contact with the food then would be what is already in the air in which case - short of smoking in a vacuum - you can't avoid anyway