Hot smoking: how to smoke the meat yourself
It is not necessary to leave a cozy cottage for a trip to the city for smoked foods that most people like. It is enough to have meat (lard, poultry, fish) and a small, simple structurally, smokehouse, and you will be provided with a high-quality hot-smoked product all year round.
The essence of the process of hot smoking
The size of the piece, the type of product, the recipe – all this affects the duration of smoking: a standard piece of pork (store) is cooked at a temperature of 70-1500С for 1-2 hours (lard and fish – 1 hour, pizza – 2.5 hours).
Important! The advantages of smoking over the cold – preserve the juice, the unique aroma of smoke and the complete neutralization of pathogenic bacteria: high temperature is maintained constantly, which allows you to leave the texture of the product soft with simultaneous “disinfection”.
But the presence of high-quality meat and wonder-smokehouse – only half the story: the flavor and duration of smoking depend on the type and quality of sawdust.
Sawdust: high-quality smoke – delicious smoke
Sawdust hardwood (not coniferous) should not be dried perfectly. In the slow smoldering of slightly damp sawdust – the whole essence of the process: with dried sawdust, you will most likely get boiled product.
Important! If there are no sawdust, fine twigs (raspberry, currant, cherry, pear) will do: as is the case with kebabs, smoked meat will absorb all the smells of smoldering wood.
Smokehouse with his own hands
It is not necessary to buy such a device, although stores even offer Universal options for any type of smoking. At the cottage you can always find a metal keg, bucket, pot – the object of any shape, which has an internal volume of 3-5 liters. A prerequisite is the maximum wall thickness (for long-term heat saving) and tightness (the penetration of oxygen inwards and smoke outwards is unacceptable).
The internal equipment is simple: a grille (for the product) and a pallet (for fat). fat flows, but you can do without it. How to smoke meat
The process is simple. Pre-remove the product from the marinade (brine) and dry (do not use the washing machine’s centrifuge, wife’s hairdryer, sun baths are also contraindicated) – enough napkins or paper towels. Pour sawdust at the bottom of your smokehouse (quite a few handfuls), place meat or fish on the grate.
Important! If several pieces are smoked at the same time, they should not come into contact: otherwise, get a half-baked product at the contact points.
We put the smokehouse on the stand, and we put fire under it (we install a powerful electric or gas stove): it is impossible to set fire to sawdust – they will start to smolder themselves. Do not use a fire – you can not regulate the degree of smoldering sawdust. It only remains to follow the heat, checking with the clock: perederite – get a wonderful snack to beer in the form of fragrant crackers with the taste of meat (poultry, lard, fish).
How to store smoked homemade products
If the finished product is prepared for today’s event, cooked meat can be left in the smokehouse: it will keep meat or fish for 10 hours without losing its taste or technological properties (it will not deteriorate).
Important! The shelf life of products for hot smoked is less than that of cold-smoked products.
In a cold place, the prepared meat or poultry will be stored for 3-5 days: to extend the period, you need to use low temperature, preservatives or vacuum packaging.
