Smoking in an electric oven

[TommyB]

I won't bother you with the details, but my smoker died and needs a replacement part, which now-a-days is next to impossible to get anything delivered. So, I read on the Internet (don't you believe EVERYTHING on the Net?) that you could actually do smoking in your oven. I decided to try it. It said to take wood chips (I used pellets) and line the bottom of a pan lined with aluminum foil and seal. (I'm leaving out the food related steps here). You then put this pan on your stove on medium-high heat until it starts to smoke. So far, all went as planned and it did start smoking. The instructions then said to put the pan in the oven set at 200-220 degrees. You can guess, shortly the smoke stopped as wood does not smolder at this temperature.
Has anyone tried this and had any success? The meat did pick up 'some' smoke flavor but not much.
I know this sounds silly, so please forgive me...

[jerrybell]

Unless your oven is outside, this is a bad idea. Smoldering wood will release carbon monoxide. This is, of course, not an issue with a smoker located outside because the combustion gasses are vented to the atmosphere. Most residential range exhaust hoods are not going to move enough air volume for indoor smoking to be safe.

[lostclusters]

I saw a good eats episode where Alton Brown smoked salmon in a cardboard box. He set a hot plate in a box, put a cast iron pan on the plate, added some wood chips, added a few sensors and voila. I am sure that would work in a oven too. But without the hot plate, nope.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

he has instructions on how to build a smoking box on a few of his recipes

[rickgregory]

So there's stovetop smoking which you can do safely but you only use it to lightly flavor something - think fish - for ~15-30 mins.

You can't really do hours long smoking and it's not something I'd do indoors. it might be safe, might not be, but the oven isn't even close to airtight and the entire place would fill with smoke.

If you really can't wait, grab weber smokey Joe for smaller projects. And it's not IMPOSSIBLE to get things delivered, it just takes a little time.

[bbqLuv]

I tried drying smelt in the oven and using liquid smoke. BAD IDEA. That was before Mt, Saint Helens blew and there still was a smelt run. Back then you the limit was 25 lbs per day.

[TommyB]

Thanks for your comments on this. It's kind of what I expected. I FINALLY got the part for my smoker, outdoors, and can not return to it. Of course, I'll need to dust off the snow. 😁