Interactive lesson

Smoking basics, step by step

Interactive lesson: what smoke does, cold and hot smoking, salt first and then smoke, what gets smoked, a smoker for your holding, the equipment and three exercises for your first season.

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The whole lesson as text

1. What smoke does, and what it doesn't

Smoke is a seasoning and a shield for the surface, not a cure-all.

Smell and flavour — Phenols in the smoke give the smell and taste of smoking and slow down bacon and fat going rancid. While it lasts, smoke also keeps flies away.
Colour and skin — Carbonyls react with the meat proteins to give a golden to brown colour and a thin, firm skin. It holds back mould and bacteria on the surface.
The centre stays without smoke — Smoke doesn't go deep. Sausage and ham spoil from the inside, where smoke doesn't reach, and smoke doesn't kill germs in the centre.
The last line of defence — Smoke doesn't kill Trichinella and doesn't put right meat that has started to spoil. Healthy meat, an unbroken cold chain and proper salting come first.

Why: Smoke gives flavour, colour and a thin protective skin, but it only protects the surface. What keeps meat safe is salt, nitrite, cold and loss of water. The old saying that well-smoked meat never spoils isn't true.

Good smoke is thin and bluish, from hardwood that smoulders. Thick, yellow or black smoke carries tar and PAHs.
Wood gives the best smoke when it smoulders without flame, at 300–400 °C.

2. The three ways of smoking

The method is set by the temperature at the meat, not by how big the fire is.

Measure at the meat — The temperature is measured with a thermometer at the level of the lowest row of meat. That's the warmest spot, and it's the one that counts.
Cold smoking — Up to 20–22 °C (68–72 °F) at the meat, best 10–18 °C (50–64 °F). Roughly 4–8 hours a day, then a rest, for days or weeks. The meat is never warm to the touch.
Warm smoking only briefly — At 25–50 °C (77–122 °F) bacteria grow fastest. Raw meat without nitrite stays here no longer than about 2 hours in total, so warm smoke only serves as the start of hot smoking.
Hot smoking — Chamber at 60–90 °C (140–195 °F), 1–6 hours, until the centre reaches a safe temperature: pork and sausages 72 °C (160 °F), poultry 74 °C (165 °F), fish 63 °C (145 °F) for at least 30 minutes.

Why: In cold smoke the meat stays raw and keeps for a long time; in hot smoke it cooks and keeps like cooked meat. Between them lies the zone where bacteria grow fastest.

If the meat warms above 25 °C (77 °F) during cold smoking, the fat melts, the product “sweats” and spoils from the inside.
Hot-smoked food keeps like cooked meat: up to a week in the fridge, longer only in the freezer.