Initially, this method was used exclusively for preserving food. And back at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary wrote about “anti-putrefactive properties of smoke”, and not at all about the taste and aroma of smoked fish or balyk. When humanity finally started thinking about pleasure, it turned out that smoking improves the taste. True, carcinogens were found in smoke smoke, but this did not stop smoked ham lovers. Life in general is carcinogenic - as the American critic Alexander Woollcott said, “everything I like is either immoral, illegal, or leads to obesity”…

Cold - hot

There are two types of smoking - hot and cold.

The essence of both processes is reflected in their names: when hot, products are treated with hot smoke(35-50°С - for meat, 80-170°С - for fish), when cold respectively cold(18-22°C - for meat, 20-40°C - for fish). And if for the first a few hours are enough (for small fish - less), then for the second it sometimes takes several days.

For hot smoking, fish with delicate flesh is selected - lean and of medium fat content (the hot method is generally used more often for low-fat products and vice versa), although very fatty ones, for example, eel, are also suitable. This is how they smoke sturgeon (preferably stellate sturgeon), salmon, bream, asp, whitefish, sea bass, herring, cod. Small smoked meats are also tasty ( herring, sprat, vendace), which are prepared at a temperature of 50-60 °C. One thing is bad: tender hot smoked fish is an unstable product, and it will have to be eaten in one or two days.

Ideal for cold: roach, ram, bream, mullet, omul, as well as various balyki, mainly from whitefish, nelma, muksun, sturgeon and Far Eastern salmon. Excellent oily fish - the same acne. Cold smoked fish, due to dehydration and increased salinity, can be stored for a long time, but still not for very long - it will dry out and become tasteless.

You can smoke not only meat or fish, but also barley malt (for whiskey and beer), certain types of tea (lapsang souchong), hot chili peppers and cheeses.

Once upon a time, peasants simply hung heads of Italian provola cheese over the fireplace, and it acquired its famous smoky taste. And Mexican cuisine is simply unthinkable without dried and smoked chipotle peppers - light brown, with a characteristic smoky aroma, in which shades of chocolate and tobacco are noticeable. However, few of us would think of smoking pepper or malt. We are much closer to smoked lard with bacon, a variety of homemade sausages, poultry and game (boar, pheasant).

Is the ambassador ready?

Before smoking, products need to be prepared, since smoke, no matter how good an antioxidant it is, cannot ensure their complete preservation. This is especially important for cold smoking. Most often, meat or fish is simply lightly salted, then dried and only then sent to the smoking hook. However, not everything is simple here.

So, in order to smoke Baikal omul, it is first placed in a solution of table salt (tuzluk) for a day or two, then washed thoroughly in running water and dried, hanging upside down to drain off excess liquid.

Now the fish should hang and dry for a day or two in a well-ventilated shed so that after smoking it turns out golden and not brown. Meat is prepared for smoking in approximately the same way - pieces 3 cm thick are well salted, sprinkled with spices and dried for 1-2 days.

And if you are going to smoke parts of a pork carcass, rub them with a curing mixture (salt, sugar, spices) and place the legs first, then the shoulder, loin and brisket. The hams are sprinkled with a 1 cm layer of the curing mixture, the shoulder - a little less, the loin - even less, and the brisket - only lightly. All this is kept in a container tied with gauze for 12-15 days, then covered with a circle on top, oppression is placed and filled with brine. The ham and shoulder are salted after half a month; for the rest, 5-6 days are enough.

Omul on the ramparts

Now that we have prepared the products, all that remains is to choose a smoking method, or rather, a device. Three components are important here: the hearth where sawdust or firewood smolders, the chimney, the length of which depends on the temperature of the smoke, and, finally, the product itself, suspended on a hook or placed on a grate. In addition to special smokehouses in the country, it can be an old barrel without a bottom covered with burlap, to which they dig a ditch from the hearth, covering it with roofing iron. At home, a regular grill with a hood (hot smoking) or a short chimney with water cooling (cold smoking) is suitable. The rest is details that you can easily come up with yourself.

For example, one of the types of hot smoking can be considered cooking fish (for example, omul) on rods, which Baikal fishermen once introduced us to. 3-4 oblique cuts are first made on the fish - from the ridge to the belly, so that it is better smoked and fried, then rub it with salt. The larger one, which cannot be completely skewered, is cut into pieces. Rozhon is a splinter, split in half at the top, the fish is strung on it head down and stuck obliquely near the fire, as close to the fire or coals as possible. Turn the horns periodically so that it cooks evenly. The wood should not be charred, so larch is most often used. In properly cooked fish, the scales are easily separated from the flesh. It’s better to eat it right away - “hot, hot.”

To cold smoke omul, dig a hole, fill it with sawdust, and lay a chimney from it 3-4 m to the smokehouse. Combustion products are deposited on the walls of the pipe, and cold smoke without soot eventually enters the smokehouse. The sawdust smolders continuously for 2-3 days. For hot smoking, the chimney is made much shorter - up to 1 m. Therefore, the fish reaches readiness much faster. Hot smoked omul “lives” without a refrigerator for a maximum of a day (you can’t even get it home by train), but cold smoked omul allows you to treat distant friends with the delicacy.

By the way, our friend successfully uses a bix (in which doctors sterilize instruments) for hot smoking fish, installing a grill on legs in it. On the bottom - sawdust, on the grill - fish, close the lid on top, snap the locks and onto the brazier (or fire) - after 20-30 minutes you can serve.

Wood shavings and sawdust

Finally, you need to choose firewood - something has to smolder. The best “fuel” is considered to be dried branches, sawdust or shavings of fruit trees (apple, plum, cherry), alder, oak, beech, aspen, walnut and birch (only without bark, it contains tar).

Juniper added at the end (can be combined with berries) gives a refined taste and aroma; heather, sage, rosemary, mint or laurel are also good. Americans use corn cobs and pecans for smoking on barbecues, while the Chinese smoke eggs on poplar sawdust.

However, you can do without sawdust. For example, the Finns prepare their famous hot smoked fish, palvattukala, at home in a rather original way. Place it on the bark of the smoking tree and put it in the oven. Of course, you have to constantly monitor so that the slightly smoldering bark does not ignite, but the fish turns out very tasty, with a delicate smoky aroma.

Traditionally, conifers are considered unsuitable for smoking, since the resinous substances they contain give the product a bitter taste. But there are no rules without exceptions: for example, in French Savoy, sausages are smoked in spruce smoke, and in Charente, mussels are smoked exclusively in the smoke of pine needles. Yes, and we have some time in business
there were also fir cones (on the White Sea) and pine sawdust (on the Volga).

Smoke without fire

Agree, there is something mystical in smoking - the sacred relationship to fire is inherent in us at the genetic level. “Smoky” rituals exist in almost all religions of the world. And smoking is the same sacred, although exclusively household ritual. What advice should we give to those “apostates” who would like to do without all these fire hazards in a five-meter kitchen? It turns out there is a way out for them too. Back in 1814, the Russian scientist Nikolai Karazin obtained the world's first “smoke liquid”. At that time, however, this invention was rejected as fundamentally unsuitable for human nutrition. And only a century and a half later, Soviet scientists realized Karazin’s idea, creating a technology for producing “smoking liquids” on an industrial basis.

The new product was called “liquid smoke.” However, as often happened with us, it was not patented in time. And all the laurels went to the Americans.

The principle of producing smoking liquid is based on smoke condensation, subsequent processing of the condensate by distillation (this is how moonshine is made) and adsorption. The result is an aqueous extract of the products of incomplete combustion of wood, eliminating the need to light campfires in the kitchen. Now we simply immerse the meat (fish) in “liquid smoke” for a few seconds and put it in the oven or in a frying pan. We obtain a product with a pronounced smoked taste and aroma. By the way, “smoke fans” who do not want to put up with the unnaturalness of such smoking can sprinkle the fish with “liquid smoke” and do the rest in the smokehouse - the taste and aroma will only be better. You just need to read the label carefully - usually all smoking preparations are sold in the form of concentrates and require dilution with water.

With “liquid smoke” the smoking process is simplified to the limit. For example, cut 1 kg of meat or poultry into pieces, put it in a pan, grate the onions, salt, sprinkle with pepper, pour in about a third of a glass of smoking liquid and dry white wine, mix and put away overnight. In the morning, preheat the oven to 250 °C and after half an hour put the campfire-smelling kebab on a plate. Or so. We place small fish tightly in layers in a three-liter jar, sprinkle with salt, spices, add smoking liquid (in the same proportion as for kebab), close the lid tightly and do not forget to turn over from time to time. After 2-3 days, we take it out, hang it on the balcony to dry, and in about another day our “cold smoked” fish is ready. Salsa will also turn out smoked if you boil it for a couple of minutes in water with the same “smoke” added, let it salt for a couple of days, and only then grate it with garlic and put it in the freezer...

Smokeless smoking is not just for home use. The rather lengthy traditional method also confuses large manufacturers - it is very difficult to achieve uniform quality in large batches of products. It is much easier to use smoking preparations, which is what is done today, for example, in the production of raw smoked sausages.

“Liquid smoke” is added to minced sausage, and then the meat products are placed in a high-voltage electric field - as a result, the “smoking” period is reduced from several days to 4-6 minutes. Even “sprats in oil” are usually made this way now. Such “hot smoked” fish can be stored five times longer than those cooked in smoke and soot. But you won’t get an appetizing golden crust with “liquid smoke”...

Smoke at home-2

After listening to all these “smoky” stories, our regular co-author and friend Ilya Lazerson, to whose help we resort in a wide variety of culinary situations, took out a frying pan with high sides, foil, some jars from the cabinet and declared: “Smoking - so smoking! » By the way, once in Texas, Ilya smoked pork belly with Tom Perini himself, the famous chef, restaurateur and President Bush’s ranch neighbor. Tom became famous throughout America for his unique smoking (the secret is simple - the brisket is smoked over mesquite coals at a temperature of 100 ° C for 12 hours). This time it was like this.

Ilya poured a layer of oak sawdust on the bottom of the frying pan, covered it with a sheet of foil, made holes in it with a fork and put the structure on the fire. When a light smoke began to curl over the foil, I placed chicken wings on it, sealed the “smokehouse” with a heavy lid, sealed the cracks with a wet napkin and screwed on the “wick” (burner). “That’s it,” said Ilya, “we’ll wait about ten minutes.” And he opened the window... Soon the simple device was removed from the heat, and under the lid a completely smoked chicken was discovered, which he deftly fried until cooked in another frying pan and put it on the table.

Would you like some oriental fish? For her, Ilya mixed rice, dry black tea and sugar in a bowl (for 2 tablespoons of tea - 1 tablespoon of white rice and a teaspoon of sugar), sent the mixture to the bottom of the “smoking” frying pan (instead of sawdust) and exactly repeated the whole process (foil, holes, burner, smoke, pieces of salmon, lid, wet napkin, 10 minutes, regular frying pan)... The result was unexpected - fish with an unfamiliar (but very pleasant!) taste and aroma that no one dares to name not "eastern".

By the way, the Chinese also use something similar for smoking, calling this process “xun”. A piece of hot iron or hot charcoal is placed in a metal dish, covered with a layer of sawdust, a thin layer of granulated sugar is poured on top, a metal sieve is placed (it should not come into contact with sawdust), food is placed on it and the dish is covered with a heavy metal lid. Peanut shells, dry tea leaves (after brewing), bamboo leaves, coniferous tree branches, fennel, and cinnamon are often added to sawdust.

Special smoking packages that have appeared on sale are also designed according to the “Chinese” principle. Alder sawdust is placed in the double bottom of such a fairly capacious “bag” made of foil with holes. Place the fish or meat in a bag, seal it tightly and place it in an oven preheated to 275-350 °C. In about an hour everything will be ready (instructions on the package). Anyone who wants to get a drier fish can try inserting a small grid with short legs inside so that the juice drips down and the fish does not “swim” in it...

We often have to compare not only certain products, but also methods of preparing them, and today I would like to talk about whether hot or cold smoking is healthier. When we talk about smoked meats, we immediately remember the aroma and unique taste of products processed with smoke at different temperatures. It is the number of degrees on the thermometer that makes the main difference between these types of cooking, and you can smoke not only meat, fish and lard, but also fruits. We’ll talk about how healthy such products are and how often you can include them in your diet.

Composition of nutrients

When we say that hot or cold smoking is better, like other types of cooking, we first of all take into account the composition of the products, and with any smoke treatment the main thing happens - most of the harmful bacteria and microbes die. Accordingly, they do not cause rotting, and this is not to mention the ideal gastronomic qualities of the dishes. Meanwhile, not everything is going well with the annoying helminths - they are not afraid of smoke, in principle, but they cannot live for long in non-living fish and meat, so there should be no problems in this regard either. Cooks all over the world often choose smoked meats, since fish and meat are stored longer in this form, but this is not all the “usefulness”.

I would like to say a few words about the fat content of food and its connection with these cooking methods. If you want to know what tastes better, then remember that with any type of smoke treatment, the number of calories does not increase. In this regard, fried food loses greatly, since the amount of harmful calories increases significantly. And also, if we talk about the same fats, they do not change in smoked foods, and they certainly do not contain trans fats, the “benefits” of which have been said a lot. At the same time, the products do not mix and enter the body in their natural form (without excess salt and acids), which means that the digestive tract, oddly enough, is not irritated. You may ask, is it really difficult to answer the question of whether cold or hot smoking is healthier? It’s difficult, although there are still some differences.

What are the differences and similarities

It’s difficult to say unequivocally which is better, we’ll just talk a little about the vitamin composition, but in products prepared with cold smoke, a greater amount of vitamins is retained. This is quite understandable, since many vitamins do not like high temperatures and die. In this case, minerals are also better preserved, and this is especially important if we are talking about fish, and useful iodine and phosphorus will be preserved better if the smoke is at a low temperature.

Probably, this is where the differences end, but this is enough for many to answer that cold or hot smoking is tastier. More vitamins mean more benefits, but when it comes to taste, you can argue, and it’s not for nothing that there are gourmets who prefer the same sea fish prepared by processing with hot smoke. It is truly very tasty, and it becomes even more difficult to say whether hot or cold smoking is better.

In conclusion, I would like to say a little about the dangers of smoked meats, and this is due to the characteristics and composition of the smoke. It contains carcinogens and other substances that cause cancer and other health problems. Many are sure that the specially created analogue (“liquid smoke”) is also harmful, but all those harmful components that are harmful to our health have been removed from it. Meanwhile, we do not recommend overusing such dishes, since excesses in any form are harmful.

First, people learned to make fire, and then began to use smoke to preserve food. The ancients liked the result. Otherwise, this method of processing meat and fish would never have reached us. Today, smoked products are offered everywhere and are always in growing demand among customers. Those who have such an opportunity have autonomous smokehouses in their yards and dachas in order to enjoy self-prepared smoked meats more often.

Who cares?

However, not every ordinary buyer is able to understand, for example, the difference between hot and cold smoked mackerel while standing at the store counter. For ignorant consumers, both fish are simply smoked. But experts in the smoking industry and the resulting aromatic products notice this difference and can explain it.

Cold

When it’s cold, the difference is primarily in the temperature regime.

Cold is produced at normal temperatures: from 18 degrees to 40 degrees. The increase, as well as the decrease in temperature, will be related to what product will be subjected to smoke treatment. If these are meat products, the temperature is lower. If fish products - higher. In cold and hot smoking, the difference also lies in the goals that are pursued through such an action. For example, for cold - the main goal, however, is to preserve the finished product. Therefore, meat, lard or fish undergo the necessary preparation: salting, drying. Cold smoking helps to compact the fibers in the texture of the product.

Cold working result

The difference between cold and cold smoking will be noticeable in its pulp. Cold - dense pulp, hot - loose pulp. During the smoking process, you need to monitor the uniform flow of smoke from the burnt chips into the chimney and further to the product. And the process, it must be said, can be very long. Cold smoking sometimes takes up to several days! But the end result is a fragrant and long-lasting product.

Products smoked using this processing option have certain contraindications for use. These products should not be on the menu of people who have any digestive problems. It is logical - after all, the product is very difficult for the gastrointestinal tract. It usually contains a high amount of salt.

Hot

Next, considering the cold and the difference between them, we will talk about the hot method. This processing method is carried out using elevated temperatures. Hot smoke can reach from 35 degrees to 180 degrees. In essence, the product is simmered in its own juice and with the addition of smoke aroma. Products subjected to a hot method of such processing are ready after just a few hours, or even after an hour and a half. The process most often takes place in a smokehouse, which looks like an iron box with a lid. The smaller the gap between the container and the lid, the higher the smoke temperature.

The resulting result

The difference between cold and hot smoking in this case is obvious - the product obtained through hot processing of smoke looks very appetizing, is saturated with fat (its own) and has a delicate juicy consistency. It turns out to be a tasty and beautiful, aromatic snack, but it has a very short shelf life. Delicious hot smoked delicacies will keep for about two days in the refrigerator.

How and what to smoke?

For home smoking, wood chips and sawdust are usually used. These wood materials can give off a lot of smoke. But not every tree is suitable for such a mission. The appearance, aroma and taste of smoked meats will be different when using different types of wood.

For example, pine, spruce and other conifers will not make your smoked piece of meat or lard tasty. The wood has a high resin content, which gives a strong bitterness when producing smoke. All the bitterness will end up on the product and it will become tasteless. In addition, such wood chips, or rather, products processed with them, can cause poor health. Birch wood is also bitter and should absolutely not be allowed into the smoking procedure.

To smoke lard, it is better to use alder chips and sawdust. You need to practice the cold method - about 35 degrees. Smoke the product for one week a day for three hours.

Fish can be smoked using slivers of alder and oak. The hot method is most preferable. After an hour, you can already try the finished snack.

Everyone's favorite chicken will become even tastier and more aromatic if you use alder chips without other impurities when processing it. It needs to be prepared using the following method. The temperature during processing is approximately one hundred and fifty degrees. In an hour, the smoked chicken will be ready to eat.

Game also becomes even tastier after smoking. It needs to be treated with alder sawdust and wood chips (smoke from them). for game - one hundred or one hundred twenty degrees for three to four hours.

This type of smoking is especially common among lovers of tasty and juicy smoked meats that do not require long cooking. The main difference is the smoking temperature. It ranges from 45 to 120 degrees, and the process usually takes no more than two hours; in rare cases, the process can last up to 4-5 hours. After cooking, the food acquires a golden hue, becomes juicy and very aromatic - this is also one of the features of hot smoking.

And hot smoked dishes do not require additional drying or drying. They are immediately ready for use, which cannot be said about the opposite smoking method.

All you need to cook juicy chicken or mackerel right in your own kitchen is a small cylindrical smokehouse. This simple device is capable of preparing several kilograms of product at a time. Moreover, it does not require special intervention: you load the food, wood chips, put it on heat and that’s it. The device will do the rest itself.

Distinctive features of cold smoking

Cold smoking is a technologically more complex process; it requires additional processing of the product, in particular, good salting. In this case, the ambassador can last up to 2 weeks. The smoking temperature during this process does not exceed 30 degrees, so the processing process takes a much longer time - such smoking can take several weeks or more. But usually it lasts from 3 to 6 days.

Products retain more beneficial properties when cold smoked due to drying. Due to the effects of smoke, foods also become surprisingly tasty and aromatic. The color of products smoked in this way will be golden or cherry.

Preparing cold smoked products is not difficult if you use the right equipment. An excellent option would be cold smoked smoke generators. These devices are convenient and compact, and can be used even in city apartments.

Which method is better and more effective?

“Which way is better?” - you ask. It all depends on what goals you set for yourself. Each method has its pros and cons. If we consider the technical side, then, of course, hot smoking wins. It requires less time for the process of preparing products and for processing raw materials before smoking. To taste smoked fish, you don't have to wait long before the fish is salted and then smoked.

The main disadvantage of hot smoking will be the shorter shelf life of the finished dish compared to cold smoking.

Despite the fact that cold smoking lasts much longer, it has its undeniable advantages. The most important advantage is that minerals, amino acids and other substances beneficial to humans are perfectly preserved in products.

The long shelf life of the prepared dish is another very important advantage of cold smoking. On average it is 2 weeks. At the same time, throughout the entire storage period, smoked meats perfectly retain their beneficial properties.

You can find out a little more about smoking

What is the difference between hot and cold smoking technologies? The difference between them is quite significant. The time spent on the process, smoking temperature, methods of preparing raw materials - all this has its own characteristics when using one or another method. Let's try to figure out what is the best way to smoke fish and other products so that they retain their beneficial properties as much as possible - let's try to figure it out.

To maintain your health and enrich your diet, you should choose cold smoked products, despite the significant time investment.

This method is most common among smoked fish lovers, as it allows not only to improve the taste of the product, but also to make it softer and juicier. The main difference between hot and cold smoking technology is temperature. When using this method, it ranges from 45-125 degrees, but sometimes it can reach up to 150 degrees. The process itself takes on average from 40 minutes to 1.5-2 hours, but often the procedure lasts up to 24 hours. After completion, the products acquire a beautiful golden hue - this is also one of the distinctive features of this method.

Food prepared using the hot smoking method does not require drying or drying - it is immediately suitable for consumption, which cannot be said about the cold smoking method.

When using this technology, food requires additional preparation - for example, salting. Salting the fish in this case can take from two days to two weeks. Cold smoking occurs at a temperature of 30 degrees and takes a fairly long period of time. In some cases, it can take a month or even more, but most often the process takes from three to five days. Products during cold smoking are preserved mainly by drying. The smoke of a smoldering fire only fills them with an excellent aroma, giving them a special taste and piquancy. The color of fish smoked in this way will be from light beige to brown.

Read also:

How to make a smokehouse from a cold smoking barrel

This smoking method is widely used when preparing sausages, as well as fatty fish (salmon, mackerel), as it allows you to maintain the density of the product (in some cases even increase it). When cut, such a product will not crumble and fall apart, and the meat will be quite difficult to separate from the bones.

Which way is better?

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. If we talk about the technical side of the process, then the hot smoking method definitely has more advantages. It takes much less time, including the preparation of raw materials. When using it, you do not need to wait several days to taste delicious smoked fish. In addition, you can eat the food immediately after the process is completed. One of the disadvantages of hot smoking is the short shelf life of such a product. It lasts only a week at temperatures no higher than five degrees. The cold smoking method, although it takes much longer, nevertheless also has its advantages. The most important of them is the preservation of all vitamins and substances beneficial to the human body. When using this method, there is no strong thermal impact. It is thanks to this that food prepared in this way contains the maximum amount of various mineral and vitamin components. Another advantage of cold smoking is its longer shelf life. It lasts about two weeks, and throughout this entire period of time, the food retains all its beneficial properties. Products prepared using this method should also be stored in the refrigerator (at a temperature of 0 to +5 degrees). So which of these two methods is better? The answer to this question is clear.