1997 - Volume #21, Issue #2, Page #06
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Hog Farmer Boosts Profits With Smoked Hams
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"It has large double doors on each side and a pair of slide-out racks which makes it easy to load and inspect hams and to add firewood. I made it mostly from materials that I already had and spent less than $450," says Crowdus.
He made a firebox by cutting a steel water trough in half and welding it to a steel frame that he welded to a car axle. A 4-ft. sq. commercial oven with slide-out racks mounts on top of the firebox. A 6-in. dia. oil well pipe on top of the oven serves as a smokestack. Draft is regulated by three lever-controlled doors on one end of the firebox and by a crank-operated baffle on the smokestack.
"It works a lot better than barrel-type barbecue cookers because it doesn't have a large lid on top that has to be raised," says Crowdus. "When loading wood into the firebox I push it all the way into the trough. I can also load wood into the trough through about 10 in. of open space on each side of the racks. A steel tray over the trough has a 2-in. high lip all the way around it allowing me to load charcoal on it.
"A combination of wood and charcoal gives the hams a unique flavor that allows us to get more value out of our hogs. We sell our hogs to the meat packer and after they're processed we buy them back, then barbecue them in our cooker and resell them directly to the public. We use the cooker year æround but especially during the holidays when we sell our hams mostly in larger cities. Our ham business has added about 10 to 15 percent to our net pork income. We also use the cooker in our catering business."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Marion Crowdus, 1799 State Rt. 141 North, Morganfield, Ky. 42437 (ph 502 389-1795).
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