Smoking your own meats, vegetables and cheeses is a great way to work towards a self sufficient lifestyle., especially those on a tight budget. The folks over at diyready.com put together a great video tutorial on the process of building a simple pallet smoker for the DIY’ers out there.
Before we get started though, let’s go over a few safety concerns. Did you know that there are safe pallets to use as well as unsafe ones? Pallets are treated with two different methods of preservation; heat treatment and Methyl Bromide fumigation.
Heat treatment is a process of putting the pallets into a kiln for thirty minutes at 140 degrees F for hardwoods and 133 degrees F for softwoods. This is a pest control method used by the pallet makers to prolong the life of the pallets.
The other method is Methyl Bromide fumigation; unfortunately this creates a health risk and should not be used for projects or used for firewood.
So how does one tell the difference? Luckily the International Plant Protection Convention (abbreviated IPPC) requires that pallets carry a stamp on them. The stamp will look like this.
The first thing you should look for is the IPPC logo, if it does not have it then do not use it. You will also notice it has a country of origin and right below that will be the method of treament. HT for heat treatment and MB for Methyl Bromide.
Now that we got that out of the way, here is how to make a sweet pallet smoker.
Good luck and make sure you share your favorite smoking recipes with us!
