Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 15, Number 29, DeMotte, Jasper County, 1 June 1945 — Farm Topics [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Farm Topics

Cheaply Constructed Smoke House Useful Building May Also Serve For General Storage Use C EVER AL types of smoke houses are proving satisfactory. The kind of house to be selected will depend largely upon the volume of meat to be smoked, as well as offseason use that may be made of the house. Where an “A” shaped smoke house is used, the wall or sides should be made of boards about 9 feet long, in order to keep the meat about 5 feet away from the fire. The sloping walls should be spread 7 feet at the bottom. The house 8 feet long is large enough for the smoking of a large number of hogs, as usually the Canadian bacons, boneless butts and the bacons will come out of the cure three or four weeks before the hams are ready to smoke. Many use the barrel for smoking meat. The smoke should enter the barrel through a tunnel from a fire as much as 5 or 6 feet from the barret ** For the other type of house, illustrated, almost any material may be used for the walls. There should be some small openings or cracks at the top of the house. The house walls should be at least 7 feet high.

The floor dimensions may be as little as 4 by 6 feet. SmaU one or two car garages have been used satisfactorily for smoke houses. The storm ceUar or storage ceUar may also be utilized. It takes about 30 hours of continuous smoking to finish the job on hams. A small fire car) be started every morning and aUowed to die down during the afternoon, or the smoking can be done continuously.

Smoke Houses for Every Purpose.