SMOKING BUSINESS: If you are thinking of smoking your meats, you may find our beginner's guide a useful starting point, writes Keren Sail

摘要

Smoking is a form of preservation, which reduces the moisture content of food slightly and gives it a certain amount of protection against bacteria, due to the chemical changes that take place within the flesh as a result of brining and the effect ofsmoked wood smoke on the salted flesh. Meats that can be smoked include bacon, hams, venison, beef, poultry and game. The terms "hot" and "cooking" smoking can be a little confusing. But purists would say cold smoking, the method by which food is changedin both colour and flavour, is the only true smoking. Ideally, it is carried out in a temperature below 26°C. Temperatures higher than that will cook the food, various components within the wood chips will vaporise and a hard skin will form on the food, resisting wood smoke penetration and resulting in inferior final product results. The usual method of smoking is to apply some heat to dry the meat and then to cold smoke it. This gives a dark-coloured product with very little smoke flavour, apart from the surface area near the skin.