10 Smokehouse Ideas For Your Backyard

These smokehouse ideas for your backyard (DOWNLOAD PLANS HERE) will open up endless fine dining possibilities for your family. Smoked meat is tradition that goes back thousands of years as a way to preserve a harvest that normally took place each fall, winter and early spring. The saved meat would then been used throughout the warmer months having been properly preserved. But today, smoking certain meats is a way to make flavorful memories. And more and more people are experiencing this right in their own backyard.

It’s a very American tradition to have a BBQ grill in the backyard. But the origins of this was the smokehouse. Most farms even 60 years ago had a smokehouse that was pretty active in the winter months. Over the years, smokehouses fell out of favor and the iconic charcoal and gas grills reigned supreme. But now, smokehouses are coming back!

Famous charcuterie stores and restaurants have brought back the unmistakable flavors that only a smokehouse can provide. And then it dawns on us, “I can do this too, at home!”

Below are 10 smokehouse ideas and designs that people have built in their backyards. Our homestead has our own smokehouse that we have been using now for about 4 years. We have smoked all kinds of meats including, venison, lamb, trout, salmon and even SALT!

#10 – An American Homestead Smokehouse

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Some of our delicious smoked trout after a couple hours of cold smoke.

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#09 – Cinderblock and Wood Smokehouse

This is a modern design with a cinderblock base and a nice wood finish on the outside. Notice the multiple temp gauges on the front of the smoker that gives the cook accurate readings of what’s happening on the inside without opening the door. The separate firebox allows the smoke to travel to the meat and lose heat along the way providing a cold smoke.

#08 – Brick Style Smokehouse and Bake Oven

This attractive and well built smoker is also an oven for baking bread. It’s great to get a dual purpose out of your build. The all brick construction ensures years of use and should weather fairly well over the years.

#07 – Small Smokehouse with Firewood Storage

This is a nice little backyard smokehouse idea that would work well for most homeowners wanting to prepare their own meat. The attached firewood storage would come in handy for stocking your supply of your favorite hickory, maple, or apple wood.

#06 – Colonial Style Brick Smokehouse

This is the iconic style smokehouse you would have seen in the early days of colonial America in areas like Boston and New York. There are actually 200 year old smokehouse that exist today in these areas. Homeowners with access to lots of good bricks may want to explore a style like this. Although its very attractive, it can be somewhat expensive to build.

#05 – Smokehouse with Modern Look

This backyard smokehouse went with a more modern look instead of a wood exterior. It just shows how creative you can get with a smokehouse design. With this particular model, you have two fireboxes. One underneath your food for more heat and a firebox set off to the right for more indirect heat. However, with a firebox contained withing the same unit as the meat, it will be hard to get a true “cold smoke” of 80 degrees or less.

#04 – A Smokehouse With Character

You can see that the builder of this suburban smokehouse decided to decorate the outside. It shows that even if you decide to build you smoker from a set of plans found online, you can still make the final project unique and unlike any other.

#03 – It’s Just A Box Smokehouse

It’s nothing spectacular but it works. This is just a simple box construction with an outside fire source piped in to the center. You start the fire, hang your meat and leave until you are satisfied…or until your taste buds can no longer stand to wait.

#02 – Smoker with Screen Shelves

In this constuction, the builder placed screen shelves to place meat or other items on. The screen shelving ensures that the pieces your smoking will get proper airflow and exposure to the smoke. The screen shelves keep things moving internally and thus produces a better product. This is a simple construction that anyone can build.

#01 – Complete Cinderblock Construction

This smokehouse was build entirely with cinderblocks. Cinderblocks make a good building material for your smokehouse ideas and by far the most used material for these types of projects. It does require a bit of skill and practice to lay the blocks evenly but as someone who has done this, it can be done by a novice and have a good outcome. This is usually the most common smokehouse build that we see from backyard meat smokers and homesteaders.

Smokehouse Ideas: Honorable Mention

Not everyone is into building their own backyard project. If that is you and you still want to have the ability to make yummy meat products in your backyard, there is hope! There are numerous commercial products and kits available on the market that will allow you to cold smoke meat. Just spend some time searching online and asking about it BBQ forums with other backyard smokers. Pictured below is just one product that is available.

Our Smokehouse Construction Video

Here is the video of our homestead construction build. We hope these smokehouse ideas give you the inspiration to build your own backyard smoker or cold smoker.

Downloadable Smokehouse Construction Plans