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I’m thinking of starting smoking!

Food/Drink / by

Are you a smoker?  If so, how often do you smoke?  I would have to say, regardless of whatever you might think or hear, smoking, I believe, is very good for you.  It tastes good too!

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What do you think?

Oh, wait!  You think I’m talking about smoking cigarettes?  Cigars?  Ha ha… no, I’m talking about smoking food!  Like, making smoked fish or other kids of food!  Like I say, I believe that smoking is a way of preparing foods that adds no fat, tastes delicious, and is a healthy way of eating.

I never have done a lot of food smoking, although I used to own a charcoal smoker when we lived in the States.  It was kind of old, had some rusty parts on it, and such, so I just threw it away when we moved to the Philippines.  In recent years, though, I have been wanting to get into smoking foods here in the Philippines.  Primarily, I want to smoke different types of fish.  There is such an abundance of fish available in the local markets, and I love smoked fish, so this is something that I really do want to do.

The problem is, even though I’ve been looking for several years now, I have yet to find any kind of commercially available smoker here in the Philippines.  So, what it comes down to is that you need to make your own smoker, if you want to smoke foods here.  Over the years, I have been looking at several different smoker designs, but have just never gotten busy and actually tried to build the smoker!

 

Last week, I found a discussion on the Internet about smoking foods, and somebody mentioned a YouTube video (which is actually a TV show segment) about a simple smoker design.  I watched the video and found the design to be easy, and all of the items should be easily available here in the Philippines.

Have a look at the video yourself and see what you think.  If you have experience smoking food, do you have any suggestions, either positive or negative, about this design?  Do you think it will work well?  I am certainly interested to hear your thoughts.

After building the smoker, the next challenge will be finding what kinds of woods that are locally available will be good for smoking the foods.  I have always thought that Mango tree wood would possibly be a nice wood to smoke with, but a few weeks ago, I heard from a friend that Mango wood is possibly not healthy and has some component to it that is possibly poisonous for smoking.  I will have to research that before I try it!

Any suggestions on locally available woods for smoking?  I know that wood chips are not commercially available for smoking, so it will be a matter of going out collecting the wood, cutting it up into chips, drying it out, etc.  It won’t be easy, but I think it will be a fun project.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi Bob. I am an expat living in Angeles City 2 years this month. I had a charcoal smoker like you describe. It worked quite well. Also several friends had smokers made from old refridgerators. That might be a good plan here as it doesnt need to be very big and the refs available here are about the right size. As to wood in states I used hicory, mesquite mostly and sometimes apple. Here I dont know what they use. Mabey there is someone in your area who smokes and you can ask them. Here in AC there is a lady that my friends wife takes fish to to smoke. He will be here Nov. 15 and I will try to find out what wood she uses. Now you got me thinking and mabey I will build a smoker too. Thanks for the great articals. I read them everyday

  2. Hi Bob – Well, in my experiences, I just can't slice the meat thin enough to bunch and roll a nice perfecto. I suppose it would taste pretty good, but I'd wonder if I could keep it lit, what the draw would be like, and would I mess up the ashtray. 😆

    Have seen the "Good Eats" program – you should be able to find all that you need. Smoking food is a great way of preserving it, too. You won't have to use as much vinegar as other traditional recipes call for. 😉

  3. Hi Ray B – thanks for reading! And, thanks for your suggestions too. Yeah, in the States, with the little smoking I did, I also used hickory or mesquite wood for that. If you do find out what kind of wood they are using here, please give me an update on that!

  4. Bob, you can ask the local tindera selling tinapa (tinap-anan in cebuano) what kind of wood was being used in making there products. Sometimes these sellers goes house to house and i used to see one before in marfori.

    I think ipil-ipil is the one they are using as that's the only tree you can cut off without requiring a permit from the DENR. Be informed it is illegal to cut mature trees without a permit even if you planted it and is in your own backyard.

  5. Have you tried Cannabis? Grows plentiful in the RP I hear, not so sure of the flavor but hey you won't care afterwards anyhow !!!
    Pizza anyone!!!!?????

    …sry Bob i could not resist !!!

  6. Hi Rey – I'm not sure if the tinapa vendors would be using what I am looking for or not. I could try it, though. I'm looking for the flavor of the smoke, not the generation of heat. But, it would be worth a try! Thanks for your suggestion, Rey.

  7. Hi Paul – Great idea! I love using coconut shell charcoal. Sawdust or chips from coconut shells would likely make an excellent smoking wood too. I'm gonna try that!

    I never heard that mango was related to poison ivy, that's interesting. I do know that the mango and cashews are related, though.

  9. There are all kinds of wood chips for smoking meat and fish listed on e-bay. You might just want to have a look see for the fun of it….do not know if any of them would ship to the Philipines or if you would even be interested in that.But if nothing else would give you a idea of all the different kinds of woods one can use for smoking meat or fish.

  10. Hey Bob,
    Your right about the flavor of smoked fish. I remember when I lived in Everett, Wa. I would visit my uncle in Sequim. On my way I would always stop at Port Townsend and buy a big ol' slab of smoked salmon for about ten dollars. It was heaven 🙂

  11. Hi hudson – Now you're getting into my personal history! Not sure if you are aware, but I was born in Port Townsend. Lots of family up in that neck of the woods too. My Mom lived in Sequim for a number of years too when she was a child. When we lived in Washington, I used to go salmon fishing every year. Whatever fish I would catch, I would always have it smoked. Love the stuff! I can only imagine that there are some fish here that would make for some very tasty smoked fish too. Tuna in particular, I've heard that it smokes up nicely.

  12. Hi Bob. I also want to buy a smoker. My new filipina asawa misses the dried fish. Its so expensive here even at the asian markets. Im hoping Some smoked fish will fill her need. Maybe some smoked bangus?

  13. Ha ha.. sorry, Hudson… the dried fish and smoked fish are completely different! I doubt you'll satisfy her craving with smoked fish! She might like it too, but it won't be a replacement. Also, you won't save yourself from the smell of the dried fish! Ha ha

  14. I found a list of woods suitable for smoking now I have to look around my desk and find it again… ah here it is:

    Acacia – Like Mesquite
    Cocanut hulls
    Guava
    Mulberry – Haven't seen these in Davao
    Calamansi
    Pomelo

    Although I suffered no ill effects from the Mango Wood I'm not about to press my luck. I have a bunch of Santol wood in backyard as well and its well cured now might give that one a go when I make bacon the next time. As for a smoker I have a plan to go "Filipino" when I make it as use whatever cast off building stuff I have around the house… mostly leftovers from building the chicken coop.

  15. We have a smoker in our house by the front door. I got it as a gift from work for my tenth anv. I put it all together but it has nver been used. It has been there for about seven months now.

    • G’day Dom,
      Did you ever use your smoker? and if you hstill have it do you want to sell it?
      Joe

  17. Hi Bob, Living on the lighthouse I did a lot of smoking of fish and meats including sausage. Anything round works – cement rings, metal rings. Just stack them up and put the racks between. Doesn't matter if the smoke leaks out. You can always plug the cracks with tinfoil. The hotplate is a good idea and makes a uniform smoke. One secret – put a baffle between the hotplate and the food (a grill rack covered in tinfoil works well). This spreads out the heat and also makes the smoke fill the smoker better. I used wild crab apple as it was the only hardwood I could find. With the hotplate, you don't need to make very small chips – you can use chunks as they will start smoking once they get hot enough. Enjoy! Try smoked hard boiled eggs. Yummy!

  18. Hi John – Nice new Gravatar, my friend! 😀

    Thanks for the tips. I like the design with the flower pots, as shown in the video, and will probably try something like that. I have a design that I got several years ago for a smoker using an old refrigerator, which looks good too. Only problem on that is that you need to make sure the old refrigerator has no plastic inside it, or it kind cause poisoning of the meat being smoked.

    Smoked hard boiled eggs? Wow… never heard of that, but sounds like it might be very good!

  19. Hi again Bob, I just found a webpage for the BBQ/Smoker I had on the lighthouse. http://barbequick.net/store/index.php?main_page=p… Firstly you could buy additional sections so you could make it higher and smoke more items. Secondly it had (make the photo larger) a metal bowl over the coals (or hotplate) in which you could add liquids such as apple juice, spiced wine, or? to also flavour the meat. This bowl also caught the drippings so they didn't fall on the coals/hotplate and burn, making black smoke. Worked very well even in the wind. With this you could barbecue, smoke cook food, or just smoke the food. Smoking lightly and then cooking the meat is also good, or just add some nice dried wood on your barbecue coals as the meat cooks. Really adds the smoky flavour too.

  21. Hi Bob;
    Paul is correct about dried Coconut husks, and it does have a good taste. My friend made a smoker out of an old refrigerator; we all came by to see it for the first time he lit it off. Where it was discovered that removing all the plastic from the machine would be a really great idea, five retired Merchant Seaman trying to smoke fish, you could have seen that one coming! After a few adjustments and dampening the coconut fibers, and fired it up again, the fish was pretty good,

  22. Hi Bob,
    I remember my Mom used guava leaves for smoking fish…you still need glowing hardwood (or any) charcoal. Just add a layer of fresh guava leaves about a couple of inches above the charcoal then set the fish (or meat)on top of the guava leaves.
    Thanks,
    Glenn

  24. Hi john.j – Hey, long time, my friend! Good to hear from you. Thanks for sharing that link for the fish smoking.. I'm gonna give that a read! When I start smoking, which I hope is soon… I guess I have to invite all LiP readers over for coffee and smoked fish! 😆 What a combination!

  27. Geeez Bob, just go to wal-mart, get a nice brinkman smoker, a 25 pound bag of kingston briquettes and a bag of mesquite hickory chips put beer in the water pan and let it smoke for about 10 hours 😉

    we used to cut 30 gal barrels in half and weld in tabs to hold the grill put a grease drain and hinge the top always worked great. I thought most fruit woods worked good for smoking ?

  31. hi bob, we have been smoking pink salmon for about two weeks now. the wood i like to use here is alder. but it all depends on your brine. ive taken smoked salmon to the philippines a few times and it goes quick. ive been thinking of building a smoker there made from wood. the kind the old timers used to use here to smoke ham and bacon. i think it would get a lot of use there.

  32. Hi jerry smith – good to hear from you, it's been a while! I miss smoked salmon, and it's simply not available here. I hope that I can smoke some local fish and it's as good as the smoked salmon!

  33. oh no problem, hardest part is getting the wood. I chip it up using my bolo knife (as long as the wood is seasoned). I think I'd have to go out in the province to hunt down some of these woods though. Haven't seen a Calamansi larger than a bush here in town.

  34. I plan on making pickled eggs once my boxes arrive with all my equipment. Coupled with smoked eggs and some San Mig to wash it down sounds like a good night… of course my wife might make me sleep on the couch after that repast.

  35. hey bob. ill try and bring you a few jars in december. they are only 1/2 pints but they do the job. the only safe way to can salmon is to use small jars. the 1/2 pints take 1 hr and 40 minnets at 10 lbs pressure in the cooker to kill any bactertia and thats after the fish is smoked. in my fish i usily smoke a little longer if i am going to can them, also for canning i will add more salt to the brine. its good to hear from you too. dont worry i still follow every week. i just reply where i might be helpful. take care

  37. kamusta bob
    ahhh we have been smoking lobsters and fish for years.so now im thinking of making a new batch and i will see if i can send you some if you might like it.leave your adress in my email and i will see what i can do.
    salamat bob…..ooh we usually use hickery or even better is apple wood…..

  38. Here where we live in Bulacan one can buy charcoal. Is wood charcoal and it is hard to lite. But once its going it burns slowley. Some say put gasoline on it but not me. I used some old newspapers and it was slow to get started but burned quite well. There is alot of places to buy the wood charcoal here. Most little stores even have it. You might check with people in your area. Thanks for the tips on a smoker. Sure hated to leave mine behind in the states. We bought a Filipino Habachi to cook on using this black wood charcoal. The hamburgers were Masarap!

  39. Hi Bob G – We can buy charcoal here too – either wood chunk charcoal or coconut shell charcoal. The wood I am looking for, though, is for the smoking chips.

  40. hello bob… we used to use a metal garbage can for a smoker.{ a new one of course} but we didnt put the fire inside the can because all you want is the smoke. you build your fire in a small pit in the ground and use stove pipe to bring the smoke to the can , you put holes in the lid of the can with a drill. there are many good ideas here im sure one of them will work for you.

  41. Hi Bob,

    I just came across your blog and read about your interest in smoking meat. I'm a filipino from Manila but I relocated here in Cagayan de Oro (a 6 hour drive from Davao) just a year ago. I'm such a bbq lover that I am now one of a very few filipinos for sure that is into bbq smoking.

    I just finished building my first smoker out of a 55 gallon container drum which people from the US call and Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS). It's a very simple build and it is worth building, a very effective smoker indeed. I registered as a member at http://www.bbq-brethren.com and they have a thread there as to how to build a UDS. You can check in out.

    As to the wood, Handyman at Robinson's (I'm sure there's one in Davao) sells mesquite. I asked the manager from that home depot if they can sell hickory and apple wood chips in the future and they told me that they'll make an acquisition request for those products and hopefully they can sell them soon. I tried calamansi and pomelo and they really work well.

    The supermarkets here don't sell dry rubs unfortunately but the website I mentioned above have dry rub recipes perfect for our needs here.

    Hope my info serves you well.

    JOHN

  46. Hi erwin – I looked at your article, and you have some good looking foods that you cooked on the UDS! Cool! I like that. Guess what… I saw a commercially made UDS at Gaisano yesterday too! I would like to buy one… it seemed a bit expensive to me, though… P9k+. What do you think?

  47. Hi Erwin – OK, my friend.. yeah, I thought that was too expensive! 😆 I'm not good at hands on type work like building something, though. Maybe I have to give it a try, though… we'll see… Thanks for the encouragement!

  49. Hi Bob,

    You might want to check out this web site http://www.smokinlicious.co.uk/ They sell mango dust for smoking. They do have an office in the us. I have ordered wood chunks from them and they shipped them fast to a state side address, I then used a balikbayan box to ship it here to the PI.

  50. I think you should look at True Value at Trinoma mall. I think they have wood chips there for barbeque.

  51. Hi Im otec, from the philippines, also thinking about experimenting on smoking ribs. i wrote an email to a guy who makes Komodo Kamadas( a type of ceramic smoker, based in indonesia) about tropical woods we can use for smoking. He being based in indonesia, he is familiar with tropical woods that can be used for smoking. he advices to use guava, and tamarind(sampalok), he also uses coconut charcoal on his smoker and claims to give a distinct flavor. I haven’t tried it yet, i have to make my UDS first. will let you and erwin john know about it in a couple of weeks
    more power to your site

  52. Hi Bob,

    Can I ask how’s your smoking project in Davao? BTW, thanks for this thread, its really good and informative!

    Josef

      • Sorry to hear you haven’t experimented yet. A full size smoke house is in our plans, once we are fully established. We,re up in the hills above Solano, and the less electricity we use for food preservation, the better. We have plenty of wild guava on the place. One of our neighbors makes charcoal. He prefers guava. My wife would not like it one bit if I were to chop up her pomelo or rambutan! Besides, I kinda like just stepping outside and picking fruit for breakfast.

        Take care,
        Pete

        • Sounds like you are having fun, Cordellero Cowboy! Keep it up, and enjoy life in the Philippines!

    • Hi Larry – Happy to have you on board here! I live in Davao, so we are not very close, but if you make it down here, I’d be happy to get together!

  54. hi bob, going to get your book on 49 way to make money in the philippines , as soon as i get back to manila, here in texas visting my daughters a few more weeks ,

  55. hi just read your site for first time found it by mistake good luck for me.i was looking for info building a smoker with trash cans etc as i now live in bohol and need a project to keep me away from the red horse lol im a brit but hold that against me if any one has any tips or pit falls on a home build just let me know bob will sign up for your newsletter

  56. good day Bob!

    Great forum. I have been drooling over smoked sausages for a long time and polish, german or what have you is really expensive to buy in the market plus i love to cook so why not try doing it myself as you did! Thank you for the great site. Hope to read on what else I can find in here interesting.

    Thanks!!!

  57. Hey Folks,

    Very interesting discourse on smoking in the Phillipines. Unfortunately, I did not recognize most of the woods recognized. We probably have many of those under different names. We live in Panama. Anyone out there smoking in Panama, food of course?

    Thanks for any feedback.

  58. Sure glad I found your website Bob, I am up in Batangas, and due to your site I now have secured a supply of wood for my smoker. My smoker is a masterbuilt vertical Gas smoker, so I am now looking for folks here that have had experience with adapting an american LP system to a Philippine system. Specifically I need to know if I need to change out the burner ? I have already discovered that I need to replace the regulator but that is as far as I have gotten. Any help that any one can provide would be much appreciated.

    • Hi William – Thanks for visiting my site! I appreciate all new guests here! Unfortunately, I am probably not the guy who can help you on this question, though. I never made the leap and got into the smoking, though it is something I still want to do.

      I don’t think, though, that there would be any need to change the burner or anything like that, because I know that people have gas BBQ grills from the States running off of the local LPG with no need for replacement. So, you should be OK on that. Yes, change the regulator to fit the LPG bottles, but the burners should be fine.

      Good luck to you! I hope you hang around the site and participate, we’d love to hear more from you.

  59. Hi Bob!

    Zy here from the Philippines. I currently just bought a steel cabinet from a friend and planning to convert it into a smoker. Any tips on what I need to add or to modify before smoking? like do i need to paint the inside of the cabinet? vents? air circulation inside? is better to put the wood inside or do like an offset smoker type? thanks! 🙂

    • Sounds cool, Zy! I hope it turns out great. I am not the guy to ask for tips, though, because I never did the project, but would still like to! Maybe somebody else will give some tips, though.

  60. Narra wood. Bob I would really like to visit with you. I am a retired Food Technologist from the US. I have worked for Cargill Inc, Tyson Foods, Seabroad Farms and Gold Just Inc. I now live in Davao City over by the Bangkerohan Market.
    [email protected]

      • Wow, your a busy man Bob. No topics, just letting you know Narra Wood is one of the better woods to smoke with. Charcoal Coconut Hulls and Coconut wood is what is used on traditional smoking of Baby, I get wore out on its flavor pretty quick though.

        • I wrote the article about smoking more than 8 years ago, to be honest the topic is no longer of interest to me.

          That does not mean I don’t want to get together. I get together with literally dozens of people per week who want to meet up. I just asked about the topic because the vast majority of those who want to meet need some kind of help or questions answered, and I wanted to make sure I was prepared with the needed information.

  61. Hi i am from germany. The problem is in philippines there is no usable wood for smoking. I read some articles from people trying to smoke in Thailand they sait the taste was awful using coconut or banana tree. I am just packing a BalikBayan box to send beechwood chips / sawdust together with a metal smoking cabinet from germany. I will meet my box in april and will know more. Maybe you can advise some names of fish which would be good.