Such smokers were in use in Germany between about 1960 and 1970. The frame is made from angle steel, the panels from galvanized metal sheets.
Below the smoking chamber, there is a box containing the sawdust, that could be pushed in and out. It was partly filled with sawdust. To start the smoking process, glowing wood or coal was taken from the kitchen stove by means of a dustpan and put on the sawdust. This was an important step because lighting the fire directly in the box could lead to an open fire which would ruin the food. To control the glowing of the sawdust, there was a slider at the box to adjust the supply of air. The type of sawdust determined the taste of the smoking goods. We used mainly sawdust from oak.
The smoking goods were mainly ham, liver sausages, greaves sausages, and brawn. The smoking lasted one to two weeks and had to be controlled every day. Inside the smoking chamber there were two or three wooden slats taken from hazelnut trees to hang up the food. As the entire interior of the chamber, the slats became totally black from the smoke deposit that built a rather thick layer.
Only a few farms in our village had smokers. The others brought there hams and sausages to the ones owning such a smoking apparatus. We had one. And I remember the day (around 1962) when our neighbor's children brought there goods in a bin standing on a two-wheeled pushcart. At that time, there was no sewerage in our village but the the waste water was flowing through kennels alongside the streets. When pushing the cart through the kennel, the bin tipped over and the hams and sausages fell into the wast water. In our kitchen we cleaned the stuff under tap water. Finally, after smoking everything tasted well, and the neighbor's children never told their parents about the disaster.
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