Cold smoking is the one barbecue technique your grill can't do without help. Cheese, butter, salt, nuts, cured salmon, and garlic all want hours of smoke at temperatures below about 90°F — cool enough that nothing cooks, melts, or enters the food-safety danger zone for cooked meat. A firebox or a pellet grill's lowest setting is far too hot. A cold smoke generator solves this: it produces a steady stream of smoke from smoldering pellets, sawdust, or chips with almost no heat, and it turns any enclosed grill, smoker, or even a cardboard box into a cold smoker. This guide ranks the options and explains which one fits your setup. For the technique itself, see our cold smoking cheese guide.
How Cold Smoke Generators Work
There are three designs on the market:
- Pellet tubes and mazes. A perforated stainless tube or a serpentine tray is filled with pellets or sawdust, lit at one end with a torch, and allowed to smolder. No power, no moving parts. A 12-inch tube runs roughly 4 hours; a maze tray can run 8–12 hours. They produce a little heat — enough to raise a closed kettle by a few degrees on a cool day — which is why cold smoking is a cool-weather activity.
- Chamber attachments. A separate small firebox that bolts onto or sits beside the smoker and pushes smoke in through a port or hose. Some are powered by a small fan or a heating element and run for hours on a hopper of chips or wood bisquettes. They generate more smoke with more control and add essentially zero heat to the main chamber.
- Handheld smoking guns. A battery fan blows smoke from a tiny chamber of wood chips through a hose. Great for smoking a cocktail, a bowl of butter, or a cheese board under a cloche for a few minutes; not an option for an hours-long session.
The Picks
A-MAZE-N 12-inch Pellet Tube SmokerBest overall
$ · pellet tube · ~4 hours
The tube that made cold smoking accessible. Fill with pellets, torch one end for a minute, let it flame for a few minutes, blow it out, and it smolders for hours. Works in a kettle, a kamado, a gas grill with the burners off, or a pellet grill for added smoke during hot cooks too. The hexagonal version doesn't roll.
A-MAZE-N Maze Pellet Smoker TrayLongest burn
$ · pellet maze · 8–12 hours
The serpentine tray version. Fill each channel with pellets or sawdust, light one end, and it burns slowly through the maze for a much longer session than a tube — long enough for a full day of cheese or salmon without relighting. Lies flat on a grate or the bottom of the chamber.
Smoke Daddy Big Kahuna Cold Smoke GeneratorHeaviest smoke
$$ · chamber attachment · fan-driven
A steel canister firebox with an air pump that pushes smoke through a tube into any enclosure. Burns wood chunks or chips for hours with no meaningful heat transfer to the cook chamber. Popular with people who cold smoke in a dedicated cabinet or want heavier smoke than a tube produces.
ProQ Cold Smoke Generator
$ · sawdust maze · 8–10 hours
A compact, square maze designed for fine sawdust rather than pellets. It produces a very thin, clean smoke that suits delicate foods — salmon, cheese, salt — and runs for the better part of a day. Small enough to fit in a cardboard box with a wire rack.
Bradley Cold Smoke Adapter
$$ · for Bradley smokers · bisquette-fed
If you own a Bradley, this kit separates the smoke generator from the cabinet with a length of ducting so bisquette smoke arrives cold. It turns the smoker into a set-and-forget cold smoker with the bisquette feeder handling fuel.
Handheld smoking gun
$ · fan-driven · minutes
For finishing rather than preserving: smoke a cocktail, a bowl of butter, or a cheese plate under a dome in a couple of minutes. Uses a pinch of fine chips and runs on batteries. Fun, fast, not a cold smoker for real sessions.
Choosing Between Them
| Design | Heat added | Run time | Smoke density | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pellet tube | Slight | 3–5 hrs | Moderate | Cheese, nuts, adding smoke to pellet grill cooks |
| Pellet/sawdust maze | Very slight | 8–12 hrs | Light–moderate | Salmon, salt, all-day sessions |
| Chamber attachment | Negligible | Hours (fuel-limited) | Heavy, adjustable | Dedicated cold smoking, cabinets |
| Smoking gun | None | Minutes | Light | Cocktails, finishing plates |
Match the fuel to the food
Delicate foods — cheese, butter, fish — want a thin, clean smoke from mild woods like apple, cherry, alder, or pecan. Heavy hickory or mesquite smoke over hours turns cheese acrid. Sawdust and pellets both work; pellets are easier to find, sawdust burns cooler. See our smoking wood guide for species pairings.
Ambient temperature is your thermostat
A pellet tube in a closed kettle can raise the interior 10–20°F above ambient. On a 75°F afternoon that's warm enough to sweat cheese. Cold smoke in the morning, in the shade, or in cool months, and keep the lid or a vent cracked to let heat escape while trapping smoke. A tray of ice below the food buys margin. For anything perishable that isn't cured — raw meat, raw fish — cold smoking is a preservation technique with real food-safety rules; cheese and cured products are the safe place to start.
Lighting technique
Tubes and mazes are lit with a propane torch, not a lighter: hold the flame on the end for 45–60 seconds until pellets glow, let them burn with an open flame for 5–10 minutes to establish a good ember bed, then blow the flame out. If you skip the open-flame phase the ember dies within the hour. Wind kills a smoldering tube; keep it out of direct drafts.
Using a Tube in a Hot Cook
Pellet-grill owners buy these tubes for a second reason: pellet grills produce relatively thin smoke at higher settings, and a lit tube on the grate adds visible, tasteable smoke during a brisket or pork butt. It's the accessory behind our smoke box pellet grill flavor guide. Same tube, same lighting method, more smoke.
Setup Ideas
- Kettle grill: tube on the charcoal grate off to one side, food on the cooking grate on the opposite side, vents cracked.
- Gas grill: burners off, tube on the flavor bars, lid closed. The largest gas grills make the best cold smokers because of the volume.
- Kamado: tube on the fire grate, deflector in place, top vent barely open. Kamados hold smoke exceptionally well and stay cool with no fire.
- Cardboard box or cooler: a maze at the bottom, a rack above on bricks, a few holes for airflow. Ugly, effective, and the way a lot of people start.
Bottom Line
Start with a pellet tube — it's cheap, it works in whatever grill you already own, and it doubles as a smoke booster for pellet grills. Move to a maze if you want all-day sessions, and to a chamber generator if cold smoking becomes a regular thing and you want heavier, controllable smoke.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cold smoke generator?
A device that produces smoke with almost no heat — usually a perforated stainless tube or maze tray of smoldering pellets or sawdust, or a separate small firebox that pipes smoke into a chamber. It lets you smoke cheese, butter, nuts, salt, and cured foods at temperatures below about 90°F.
How long does a pellet tube smoke for?
A 12-inch pellet tube typically smolders for around 4 hours. Maze-style trays run 8–12 hours because the fuel burns slowly along a serpentine path.
Can I use a pellet tube in a gas grill?
Yes. Turn the burners off, set the lit tube on the flavor bars or a grate, and close the lid. Large gas grills make excellent cold smokers because of their volume.
Why does my pellet tube keep going out?
Usually because the open-flame phase was skipped. Torch the end for about a minute, let it burn with a visible flame for 5–10 minutes to build an ember bed, then blow it out. Wind and damp pellets also kill the smolder.
Is cold smoking safe?
For cheese, butter, nuts, salt, and properly cured products, yes, provided the chamber stays cool. Cold smoking does not cook food, so raw meat and uncured fish require a proper cure and further cooking — don't start there.
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