Projects
Equipment for drying, curing and smoking, drawn as editable 3D models. Enter the timber you can buy and the parts, cuts and shopping list follow.
- ResearchedSource report written; no dimensioned model yet.
- Terekeka pit kiln · Smokehouses and smokers · Not statedEquipment page
A customary fish-smoking pit described at Terekeka in a 2018 field study: an earthen cavity, logs supporting wire mesh, and a flat iron cover. The dimensions and trial results belong to that study setting.
- One bath, many small jars · Appliance conversions · Not statedArticle
A sous-vide circulator holds a tank of moving water at a set temperature. With jars instead of bags it can incubate yogurt, set eggs, extract kombu and steep syrups, once you know what it does and does not control.
- IdeaOn the list; no research or drawing yet.
- Icehouse · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A structure in which winter ice or compacted snow is stored in insulation and drained, then drawn on later to cool food, separating the season of collecting cold from the season of using it.
- Half the firewood: a Senegalese smoker comes to the Sepik · Smokehouses and smokers · Not statedArticle
A fish smoker designed in Senegal has come to women's groups in Papua New Guinea's Sepik through the UN's food agency. The public record holds one measured result, a 50 percent cut in fuel, and a good deal of context from Africa and Asia.
- Root clamp · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
Roots and tubers heaped on the ground or in a shallow cut, covered with straw and then earth, a temperate and highland way of holding living produce through the cold season.
- ResearchedSource report written; no dimensioned model yet.
- Fermentation cabinets: proofers, dehydrators and converted fridges · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedArticle
A proofer, a dehydrator with its trays out or an old fridge on a controller can keep cultures at a steady temperature. Whether it works depends on what sits inside: a lidded jar, a vented bag, a shallow tray or a crock.
- Seven thousand fish a batch: smoking Lake Malawi's smallest catch · Smokehouses and smokers · Lake MalawiArticle
Usipa weigh about five grams, and the rainy-season catch will not wait for the sun. A 2019 beach trial on Lake Malawi weighed the wood, time, money and taste of three kilns and a frying pan.
- Two metres of ground: a Negidal smoking shelter on the Amur · Smokehouses and smokers · Lower Amur, RussiaArticle
In August 1992 an expedition found Negidal smokehouses still in use on the Lower Amur. One recorded shelter, a shallow fire pit under a bark-covered pole frame, opens onto a salmon people's food and a river short of fish.
- Screened shade drying herb cabinet · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A mesh-fronted cupboard, or a stack of food-suitable trays, that dries herbs and leaves in shade out of rain and direct sun. It needs no heater; a low-power fan is an optional add-on.
- Fridge cheese cave with individual ripening boxes · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A modern cheese-ripening space made by controlling the temperature of a refrigerator or display cabinet and managing each cheese in its own covered container. It is an appliance conversion, not a natural cave or a traditional structure.
- Dedicated whole-muscle charcuterie fridge · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A refrigerator set aside for curing whole cuts of meat, held at a cool curing temperature and humidity under an external controller with airflow and hanging space.
- Steam oven as an incubator · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A steam oven held at a low setting with the food in a covered container, so cultures incubate in humid, even warmth without drying.
- UC Davis chimney solar dryer · Boxes and incubators · Not statedEquipment page
A passive solar dryer built as a long black-covered table with a clear-film chimney that draws air over mesh trays. The University of California Davis 2018 manual gives its cut list and build steps.
- Natto incubation chamber · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A warm, humid enclosure for natto, the Japanese fermented soybean dish made with Bacillus subtilis, holding it at roughly 35 to 45 C for about a day before cooling.
- Shoyu moromi vessel cabinet · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A corrosion-resistant cabinet with trays under brine vessels and gentle indirect heating and cooling, for the moromi stage of soy sauce, where soy koji ages in brine for months.
- Small warm fermentation cupboard · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A small washable enclosure with adjustable shelves and a guarded heat source, used for warm fermentation of foods that need a temperature above room level.
- Sweet potato curing cabinet · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A small enclosure that holds freshly harvested sweet potatoes at high heat and humidity for about a week so the skins harden and wounds heal, before they move to a cooler store.
- Tempeh incubator with heat removal stage · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A ventilated, cleanable enclosure with spaced perforated pouches or trays and a gentle heat source, for incubating tempeh, which warms itself as the Rhizopus mould grows.
- Water bath incubator for small fermentation vessels · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A reusable insulated tub that holds several small covered fermentation vessels upright in heated water, using an immersion heater and separate bath and product probes.
- Walk-in cheese cave · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A small insulated room for ripening cheese, kept cool and humid by a cooling system that must be engineered for the room. Commercial controllers show that a window air conditioner can be made to cool below its normal limit.
- Sausage drying cabinet after fermentation · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A cabinet that dries fermented sausage after the fermentation stage, with humidity removal, airflow and temperature control, once the product has reached its safe fermented state.
- Warm sausage fermentation incubator · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A warm, humid incubator kept apart from the drying fridge, where fermented sausage is held through its fast-culture stage before moving to drying.
- Single chamber for sausage fermentation and drying · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
One converted fridge used in sequence for fermenting and then drying sausage, with its temperature and humidity settings changed between the two stages.
- Two-chamber small production workflow for dry sausage · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A small workflow with a warm fermentation chamber and a separate drying chamber, so that batches move from one to the other on a regular cycle.
- Vinegar fermentation cabinet · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
A closed cabinet held near 20 to 30 C for vinegar making, where acetic acid bacteria convert ethanol to acetic acid in the presence of oxygen.
- Warm cabinet with an internal food container · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Not statedEquipment page
Any warm box, proofer, dehydrator cabinet or adapted fridge whose conditions reach the food through a separate container chosen for that culture.
- Upright freezer converted to a curing chamber · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
An upright freezer run warmer than its own thermostat under an external controller, with separate humidity control and airflow, for curing and ageing food.
- Oven with a lamp · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
An ordinary oven repurposed as a warm enclosure by using its interior lamp. The cavity is not a calibrated incubator, and lamp output varies by model.
- Two appliances sharing a workflow · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
Each appliance does the stage it is good at: a closed pot to soften, a mill or cloth to separate, an open pan or freezer to concentrate or clarify.
- Freezer, fridge and cloth clarification set-up · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A liquid set with 5 g gelatin per kg is frozen solid, then thawed in the refrigerator in a cheesecloth-lined perforated pan; the drip comes out clear.
- Drying cabinet with lined trays · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A dehydrator or drying box set up with mesh trays for slices and herbs and solid liners for purées, drying by warm moving air to a recipe's own endpoint.
- Shallow pan over controlled hot water (yuba pan) · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A wide shallow pan of soy milk standing in a controlled hot-water bath, so that the bath heats evenly while the open surface forms film after film of yuba.
- Brewer for bulk work and a finishing pan · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
The kettle heats and reduces a large volume of thin liquid such as whey; before it nears the brewer's minimum fill the batch moves to a wide pan for the thick, stirred finish.
- Brewer as a hot-water service station · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
The brewer holds clean water at a set temperature for washed-curd cheeses and other hot-water jobs, beside a separate cheese pot, instead of heating milk directly.
- Custom brewery used as a nested cheese vat (Hamblyn) · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
New Zealand home cheesemaker Tony Hamblyn's custom brewery, in which a 50-litre cheese pot hangs in a 70-litre mash tun of circulated hot water; later one tank served purely as hot water.
- Plug-in temperature controller on an appliance · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
An appliance plugged into an external controller so a probe, rather than the appliance's own dial, decides when it heats or cools.
- Proofer as a multifunction culture station · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A heat-only proofer used in turn for tempeh bags, natto jars, kombucha, yogurt and black garlic, each with its own container, rack and water-tray setting.
- Supported pot inside a water bath · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A food pot held at a fixed height inside a larger vessel of controlled hot water: the water distributes heat while the milk or whey inside stays still and away from the heater.
- Several jars in one bath · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A circulator tank holding a rack of identical jars, so several small batches share one temperature for side-by-side trials of cultures, milks, ratios or flavourings.
- Sous-vide bath with an open-topped inner pot · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A small open metal pot held on a rack or bridge inside a circulator bath, so food can be stirred, added to or cut while bath water heats it from outside.
- Multicooker with inner bowl and trivet · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
Containers or a steaming basket standing on the multicooker's rack over a measured depth of water, so the water carries heat evenly to food kept out of it.
- Rice cooker used in stages · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
One rice cooker run as two stages: cook the rice, then add koji or malt water and hold it warm with the lid managed, before boiling, straining or chilling elsewhere.
- Dehydrator as a jar incubator · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
A dehydrator with its trays removed or shelves rearranged, holding capped jars of cultured milk at a low setting so the machine warms but does not dry.
- Direct milk in a slow cooker · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
Milk heated directly in the removable crock with a probe in it; the cook stops the heating by lifting the crock out of the base or switching off.
- Slow cooker as a water jacket · Appliance conversions · Not statedEquipment page
Water in the crock with a smaller stainless pot or heat-safe jar supported inside it, so the food never touches the hot ceramic and can be lifted out to stop heating.
- Microwave-vacuum and combined drying of mushrooms · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Modern and globalArticle
Combined drying joins microwave heating, vacuum and sometimes freeze drying in one process. In a 2020 shiitake study, a three-stage microwave vacuum freeze drying method reached dryness faster than freeze drying and rehydrated better than hot air.
- Programmed-temperature hot-air drying · Drying, curing and ripening chambers · Modern and globalArticle
Programmed-temperature drying changes the air temperature in stages during drying, rather than holding one setting. In a 2025 shiitake study it improved aroma, rehydration and shrinkage against constant-temperature hot air.
- Smoked rohu in Kale: a Senegalese smoker in Myanmar · Smokehouses and smokers · Kale, MyanmarArticle
In Kale Township a brick smoker designed in Senegal was rebuilt for rohu, sawdust and imperial rulers. How it was built, what its pilot measured, and a separate family condiment made from smoked catfish.
- Manoka Island fish smoking: community work and prototype comparisons · Smokehouses and smokers · Manoka IslandArticle
On Manoka Island in Douala, women smoke fish on mangrove-wood racks in airy houses. Participatory work with a women's association tested a brick smoker and a metal smoker against that practice.
- A thermostat on a mini-fridge: what the documents say, and what they leave out · Appliance conversions · Modern and globalArticle
A plug-in thermostat can switch a mini-fridge on and off, but no document read here shows it is safe for the compressor or that the fridge would hold a cheese-ripening temperature.
Every model is a dimensioned draft from a documented source or an original proposal. None has been built, load-tested or reviewed for fire and food safety.
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