How to smoke meat at home

It is difficult to imagine a festive feast without a meat dish. You can try to master the smoking of meat at home, so that both guests and you yourself are satisfied with the treat. Of course, delicacies are sold in markets and shops, but those prepared by one's own hands command more respect. Homemade smoked meat is considered to be of higher quality, the owner can fully control the entire process.

This article will be useful for those who want to try smoking something for the first time. Seasoned and experienced smokers are unlikely to find something new for themselves here.

First of all, you need to understand that hot and cold smoking differ significantly in technology. Accordingly, they require smokehouses that differ in design. But sometimes there are also universal (two-mode) devices; they are most often factory-made.

hot smoker

Hot smoking is easier than cold smoking, and it can be organized using improvised means that any owner can easily find in his barn or country house. An old bucket, for example, can almost always be found. If you need a larger volume, then you can take an old iron barrel or a refrigerator case. In all cases, such an impromptu smoking chamber is simply put on fire (bonfire, barbecue, gas or wood stove) and loaded with food. Here are some examples.

A smokehouse in the form of a simple bucket (although there is a fish in the photo, but the meaning is the same):

Inside, the bucket should have a grate on which food could be laid out.

And here is the smokehouse from the barrel:

There are also grates or crossbars on which you can hang meat for smoking.

Here is a popular solution that allows you to smoke meat right in the kitchen, and at the same time not be afraid to fill the entire apartment with smoke:

This is a metal box with a tight-fitting lid, which is equipped with a water seal and a pipe to remove excess smoke.

cold smoker

As you can see, you can organize hot smoking of meat in just half an hour, especially in a bucket. It will be more difficult to smoke meat in a smokehouse in a cold way. Its peculiarity is that the smoke in the smoking chamber must be cooled. The temperature there should not be higher than room temperature. Therefore, you can not put the smokehouse directly on the fire! It is necessary to apply various methods to cool the smoke.

Here, for example, is a handicraft smokehouse from a barrel with a long chimney from a pipe:

Here's another option; here the chimney is a trench dug in the ground:

There are factory-made smokehouses that can be bought in stores. They are adapted just for cooling the smoke. You can also use such devices in a city apartment, because the device is equipped with a pipe through which excess smoke can be removed through the window.

And you can also buy (or) a smoke generator - a device that produces cold smoke. This smoker can be attached to any smoking chamber made from anything up to a cardboard box!

Often, for the operation of such a smoke generator, a compressor is required, the task of which is to force the smoke formed inside into the smoking chamber.

Wood

To smoke meat, you will need chips or sawdust of certain types of wood. The success or failure of the process largely depends on this.

You can remember only one, but a universal recipe suitable for all types of smoking - alder chips. This is considered a classic.

In second place in popularity is the wood of other hardwoods. For example, oak, aspen, willow, beech, and so on. Almost all hardwood trees are suitable, with the exception of birch.

Those who have such an opportunity appreciate sawdust from fruit trees - apple, pear, apricot, plum, and so on.

It is often not necessary to make sawdust for smoking on your own, as they are sold in stores, already packaged in convenient bags of different sizes.

And finally, one more rule to remember: coniferous wood cannot be used. It contains too many resins, which will almost certainly spoil the taste and aroma of smoked meats.

Meat preparation

Any meat can be smoked; it is clear that pork and beef are the most popular, but you can also smoke lamb, horse meat, and all sorts of hunting trophies - wild boar, roe deer, beaver, hare, and so on. Of course, there are nuances for each type of meat, but this article is about general principles.

Usually meat for smoking is taken along with the skin. Pieces 4-5 centimeters thick are cut from the carcass. However, there is no general standard here - everyone cuts it in such a way that it is convenient. It happens that large pieces are smoked, for example, a whole pork leg, but in this case there may be features in salting and in the process itself. Homemade smoked meats, these are almost always small portioned pieces. And small game can be smoked whole.

Cut pieces of meat are washed well with cold water. After that, they need to pickle or pickle. There are a lot of salting methods, both dry and wet, and how to do it correctly - each owner has his own opinion. ???? There are separate articles on the site for specific recipes for smoking delicacies.

We will give one recipe for smoked meat, for example.

For one kilogram of pork you will need:

• 100 grams of salt;
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped or minced;
• ground black pepper to taste;
• a few bay leaves.

Mix all this, finely chop the bay leaf there. Roll the cut pieces of meat in this mixture. Put in a large bowl under oppression, refrigerate for 3 days.

After salting, rinse the meat in running water and air dry for 3-4 hours.

As you can see, nothing complicated. This is a dry recipe that does not require any marinade, but wet recipes are a little more difficult.

Smoking

Hot smoking, as mentioned above, can be organized in any old bucket by putting it on a fire. This method can help you out if you urgently need to smoke something in the field, for example, while fishing. In most cases, the smoking technology assumes that a special smoking chamber is used, which you can buy or make yourself (the links are above).

The process in such a device is as follows:

1. Several handfuls of wood chips or sawdust are poured onto the bottom of the smokehouse (depending on the volume of the apparatus). Chips can be pre-soaked in water to give more smoke.
2. A tray for fat is placed on the sawdust. Almost always, during hot smoking, fat drains from the food, and it should not drip onto the hot bottom, otherwise the meat will get a burnt taste. This tray is usually included with a finished smoker if you buy it from a store. If you make it yourself, the pallet must be made too.
3. Above this tray is a grill with pieces of meat. They should be placed freely so that the smoke flows around the meat from all sides.
4. The smokehouse is closed with a lid. If this is a device that is adapted to work in a city apartment, then it is almost always equipped with a water seal. Then you need to fill the water seal with water. This will prevent smoke from entering your kitchen. In addition, you need to put a tube on the outlet pipe, which should also be on the lid, and bring it out through the window - excess smoke will be vented out. If you smoke outdoors (in the country, for example), then a water seal and smoke extraction are usually not required.
5. A closed smokehouse is put on fire. It can be a fire, a brazier or a gas stove.

Let's not forget that this is a feature of hot smoking - the temperature inside should be about 100 degrees, so the smokehouse is directly heated from the fire.

The duration of hot smoking of meat often depends on its type (pork, beef, lamb, and so on) or on any other subtleties. You need to note the time not from the moment when you closed the lid, but when the first smoke appeared from under the lid (or from the nozzle). This will mean that the smoke has filled the entire volume of the smokehouse entirely.

On average, in a small metal smokehouse set on an open fire, the preparation of smoked meats lasts from 40 minutes to one hour. In stationary smokehouses of other designs, the time may be longer - two or four hours.

Cold smoking lasts much longer - at least a day, and usually three days.

1. Due to the peculiarities of the technology, during cold smoking, smoke is produced not inside the smoking chamber, but in a separate device. Therefore, wood chips or sawdust are not placed inside the smokehouse.
2. Instead, an external smoke generator is prepared. You need to fill it with wood chips, ignite it and turn on the compressor.
3. Prepared meat is hung or laid out inside the smoking chamber.
4. A drip tray is not needed in this case, because the temperature is low and fat from the food usually does not drip.
5. The smokehouse is closed and left for the required smoking period. A properly made smoke generator can work without any supervision for many hours, you just need to add sawdust there in time.

There are universal smoking devices in which you can do both hot and cold smoking. Their characteristic detail is that inside the smoking chamber there is a heater, for example, an ordinary electric stove. And switching between two modes is very simple: if this tile is turned off, then cold smoking is in progress, and if it is turned on, it is hot.