Hot smoking at home. Hot smoking of products at home

Smoking hams, briskets, sausages, lard, fish, poultry carcasses and other products gives them a special pleasant smell, improves taste and appearance, and protects them from spoilage.

When making smoked products, products must be exposed to smoke. The easiest way at home is to smoke food in a chimney in the attic, in which special hangers are installed (to strengthen small hams, brisket, sausages, etc.) and dampers to regulate the intensity of the smoke.

A more complex, but more advanced method is to install a small smokehouse in the attic made of bricks and boards (lined with iron on the inside) in the form of a cabinet with a door with an area of about 1x1 m and a height of about 2 m. The smokehouse should be adjacent directly to the chimney pipe and be connected to it has two holes at the bottom (for smoke entry) and at the top (for smoke exit) with dampers. In such a smokehouse it is very convenient to place products on the crossbars, and it is also easy to regulate proper smoking. A similar type of smokehouse can be installed somewhere in the yard, with a hearth (or something like a stove) below for smoke production.

The smoking chamber is best made of brick or other non-flammable material; you can use wattle and wicker coated with clay and boards lined with iron on the inside. To ensure that the smoke is distributed more evenly throughout the chamber, an iron sheet is strengthened at a short distance (5-10 cm) from the ceiling. To generate smoke, use an iron pan containing smoldering sawdust, or attach a small stove to the smokehouse.

If the farm does not have a special smokehouse, you can use two barrels stacked on top of each other for this purpose. In the upper barrel, at a distance of approximately 10 cm from the edge, transverse crossbars are attached, on which sticks (hangers) with products suspended on them can be placed. An entrance is made in the lower barrel to add fuel. A sawdust hearth is lit on the ground using a small fire of splinters or by pouring hot coals into a hole on top of a pile of sawdust. The top barrel is covered with a lid with a hole (to allow smoke to pass through) or burlap (to trap smoke). This method can be used to smoke hams, brisket, brisket, etc.

In all cases, regardless of the smoking method, the following conditions must be observed: products to be smoked must be salted to avoid spoilage during the smoking process; Smoking should be started with the weakest smoke, and then more smoke should be released, carefully ensuring that the fire is not high.

Deciduous trees are especially good for smoking; Other species are also suitable, with the exception of resinous ones (spruce, pine, etc.), which give smoked meats a bitter taste. Do not use damp wood for smoking.

The best results when smoking are obtained when the combustible material is maintained at a slow burning rate, thereby providing thick but not hot smoke. The smell and taste of smoked products can be improved by adding juniper branches with berries, mint, etc. to the firewood.

There are mainly two types of smoking: cold and hot.

When cold smoking the products are exposed to smoke at a low temperature (about 20 ° C), but for a relatively long time, as a result of which the smoked products are well saturated with smoke and lose a lot of moisture. Cold smoked products (raw smoked sausage, cold smoked fish, etc.) are well preserved for a long time.

During hot smoking products are processed with hot smoke for a relatively short time - from one hour to several hours. The duration of smoking depends on the type of product and the smoking method.

SMOKING HAM

Salted hams are soaked for 2-3 hours (heavily salted for up to 5-6 hours) in fresh water. Then a loop of thick twine is made in the leg of the ham and the ham is hung to dry in a cool room, preferably in a drafty room. The dried ham is placed in a smokehouse.
If the ham is supposed to be cooked, then it is smoked hot, that is, with smoke at a temperature of 45-60 ° C for about 12 hours.
The ham is first smoked with weaker smoke, then the density of the smoke is slightly increased.

To generate smoke, use firewood stacked in a tight pile, covered with a small layer of sawdust on top. Make sure that the fire does not flare up too much, reducing it by adding wet sawdust. The end of smoking is determined by the appearance of the ham, the surface of which should be yellowish-brownish in color and well dried. After smoking is complete, the ham is boiled or baked.
Hams intended for long-term storage in raw smoked form are smoked in cold smoke at a temperature of 20-25°C for 2-4 days, after which they are kept suspended in a dry room for 3-5 weeks. During this time, the hams dry out and acquire the taste and smell of raw smoked ham.

The best source of smoke for hams is sawdust, which produces thick, cool smoke.

JAMBON (HAM)

The most suitable parts for preparing jambon are the front and hind legs. Before cooking, carefully remove the cartilage and bones, since meat spoilage usually begins near the bones. If the bone is not removed, use a wooden spatula to lightly separate the meat from the bone and fill the resulting hole with salt.
Meat prepared in this way is salted. This can be done by dry salting and salting in solution.

When dry salting, meat is rubbed with a mixture of sugar and saltpeter at the rate of 5 g of sugar and 2.5 g of saltpeter per 1 kg of meat. Then the meat is sprinkled with salt (60-70 g of salt per 1 kg of meat), placed in a tub or wooden trough, covered with a layer of salt on top so that air does not penetrate, and kept for 10-15 days at a temperature of 3-4 ° C.

If the salting is done in brine, then the brine is prepared as follows: boil, skimming off the foam, 10 liters of water along with 1800 g of salt, 30 g of saltpeter, 50 g of sugar.

The finished ham is placed in a tub, pressed down on top with a wooden grate or board and poured with cold brine. Keep in brine for 6-8 days. The concentration of the brine can be checked with a fresh egg: after cooling the brine to 10-15°C, lower the egg into it. If the egg sinks, the amount of salt is not enough. In this case, add salt until the egg floats to the surface.

The salted ham is removed from the brine and placed in clean cold water. Keep in water for 2-3 days, and change the water several times. After this, the ham is washed well and smoked for 2-3 days at a temperature of 25-30 ° C, until its surface acquires a reddish-brown color.
The finished jambon is rubbed with red pepper, placed in a parchment paper bag and hung in a cool, ventilated place.
To smoke jambon, you need to use dry wood and hardwood shavings (beech, hornbeam, ash, etc.).

SMOKING LARD

The most tender and delicious smoked lard is obtained from the loin. Before smoking, lard must be salted. The fat is separated from the pork carcass the day after slaughter, when the meat has cooled and shrunk.
The lard is cut into regular rectangular pieces, salted by rubbing with copious amounts of salt on all sides, and placed in a tub or jar, skin side down. Large and empty spaces are filled with scraps of lard, smaller ones are covered with salt.
20 days after salting, the lard is ready for smoking.

The lard is removed, the salt is removed and washed with cold water. Smoked for 8-10 days until golden brown in color.
After smoking, each piece is rubbed with red pepper and, if desired, garlic.
Store in a dry, cool place.

SMOKING FILLET

The bones are removed from a piece of pork fillet and placed in digested and cooled brine for two weeks.

To prepare the brine take 5 liters of water, 900 g of salt, 15 g of saltpeter, 25 g of sugar.
After 2 weeks, the fillet is washed with cold water, dried with a towel, tied with twine, dried and smoked until the meat turns brown.

After this, the fillets can be stored in a ventilated, cool place, wrapped in paper or gauze, hanging.
Shelf life 2-3 months.

SMOKING BREAST ROULET

The breast part of the pork carcass is used for the roll. The meat is removed from the ribs and placed in a digested and cooled brine for two weeks.

To prepare the brine, take 1.25 kg of salt per 5 liters of water.
Then the salted meat is washed with cold water, dried with a towel and spread on the table. The brisket is rubbed with crushed garlic, sprinkled with black and red pepper and rolled into a roll, which is tied with twine at intervals of 2-3 cm.
Smoke the roll until it turns brown.
Store it in a cool place. Shelf life - up to 2 months.

SMOKING RABBIT MEAT

Having separated the ribs from the carcass, it is cut into four parts: two shoulder blades and two rear ones. Hang in a draft for 2-4 days. Without this aging, rabbit meat turns out to be harsh after smoking. The temperature during such ventilation should not exceed 10°C. At colder temperatures, the holding time is increased.
After airing, the meat is immersed in brine.

The prepared brine should cover the meat entirely; there is no need to boil it. The rabbit meat is kept in brine for two days, moving the pieces from bottom to top 2-3 times during this time and vice versa.

Before smoking, after removing the meat from the brine, use the tip of a knife to make up to 5 cuts in each piece and insert garlic cloves and lard cubes (lxl cm) into them. The meat is soaked in lard and garlic and becomes tender and aromatic. Next, the pieces of rabbit meat are placed on a kitchen cutting board. They also cover the top with a board and hit it with the butt of an ax to flatten the joints and large bones. Then the finished product will not have the redness that is often found near the bones.

After this, the rabbit meat is placed in the smokehouse. It is better to heat the stove with alder wood. Heat the stove until the meat is hot. After this, the fire is reduced. You don’t need a lot of smoke to smoke rabbit meat, so sometimes a fairly large hole is left for the smoke to escape. As the pieces dry, they are periodically dipped in brine.

Smoke for 3-4 hours, depending on the strength of the fire. Before finishing smoking, it is advisable to add juniper branches to the fuel - their smoke has strong antimicrobial properties, and the meat is less likely to mold and lasts longer.

To check for doneness, pierce the pieces of meat with a sharp wire pin. If it goes through easily, the rabbit meat is ready.
Smoked rabbit meat should be stored in a ventilated area (attic) or in a draft under a canopy. In order to preserve rabbit meat for longer than a month, it is lightly smoked again for 15-20 minutes, adding juniper branches to the fuel.
If mold has formed on the surface of the product, wipe the pieces with a cloth before smoking. After secondary smoking, the meat may become tougher.

MANUFACTURING SMOKED SAUSAGES

Homemade smoked sausage

Homemade smoked sausages are prepared only in the cool season. They usually last a long time.

For 10 kg of main raw materials- 4 kg of beef meat, 3 kg of pork without fat, 3 kg of hard back fat, 400 g of salt, 20 g of sugar, 5 g of black and allspice, 5 g of saltpeter (not a full tablespoon).
Freed from coarse tendons, films and visible fat, the meat is salted and refrigerated (at a temperature not exceeding 4°C) for 4-5 days.

The salted meat is ground in a meat grinder, kneaded thoroughly, adding saltpeter, sugar, spices, and at the end of kneading, crumbled lard. Having distributed the minced meat in a bowl in a layer no thicker than 10 cm, keep it in the cold for 2-3 days, after which the minced meat is tightly stuffed into the small intestines, trying to strongly compact it in the shell and prevent air bubbles under the shell. To get rid of bubbles, the shell in this place is pierced with a needle.

The finished loaves are tightly tied and hung to dry and compact in a cold room at a temperature not exceeding 5°C for 5-7 days. During this time, the minced meat becomes bright red, does not press when pressed, the casing is dry and fits tightly onto the sausage loaf.
After this, the sausage is smoked as continuously as possible with cold smoke at a temperature of about 20°C for 2-3 days. Smoked sausages are placed in a cool, dry place, preferably at a temperature of about 10-15 ° C, where they are kept for about 4-6 weeks.

Homemade smoked sausages are prepared without heat treatment of raw materials. Therefore, it is necessary to use impeccably fresh raw materials, especially strictly observe the temperature conditions for salting meat, aging minced meat and sausages, and maintain the cleanliness of tools and utensils.

Cold smoked sausage

Cold-smoked smoky sausage can be prepared from the meat of any animal, including wild animals. The more varied the meat in the minced meat, the tastier the sausage will be.

Fresh meat is cut into pieces of 2-3 cm, laid out on a board in a thin layer and kept in a draft for 3 days at a temperature not exceeding 5°C. During this period, the pieces are turned over and mixed 2-3 times. If the meat of elk, deer or wild boar is used for sausage, then it is good to add 1/3 of the meat of a domestic pig and more spices. The meat of wild animals, cut into pieces, is kept in a draft longer - up to 7 days.
Ventilated meat is passed through a meat grinder 2-3 times. During the first processing, bay leaves and garlic are rolled through it along with the meat. For 1 kg of meat, use 3-4 cloves of garlic and 2 medium-sized bay leaves.

The second time, lard is also passed through the meat grinder (50 g of lard per 1 kg of minced meat). The more times you grind the meat and the longer you mix the minced meat, the better the sausage will turn out.
Then the minced meat is placed in a basin and for each kilogram of it, add 1 tablespoon of potato starch, ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds, and scrape out nutmeg with a knife (1 nut per 10 kg of minced meat).

The addition of mashed ginger is required - 2 teaspoons per 10 kg and 5 percent by weight of minced lard, chopped into pieces. No more than 2.5 percent of salt is added. Instead of water, add vodka (0.5 liters per 10 kg of minced meat) - in this case it will act as a preservative, and then the smoky sausage can be stored for up to two years. It is better not to add onions so that the meat does not oxidize.
Mix the minced meat thoroughly with your hands until it begins to stick to your hands (only a layer of fat should remain on them). Now force the minced meat into the intestine as firmly as possible with a mechanical syringe. The ends of the sausages are tied with regular thread or thin twine.

In the smokehouse, the sausage loaves or circles should not touch each other, otherwise they may stick together. The stove is heated with alder wood, and juniper is added at the end of smoking. First, the sausages must be heated strongly, then with the wood smoldering quietly for a week, smoky smoking occurs. You need to constantly monitor the smokehouse, adding firewood or sawdust to the firebox, turning the sausage over, hanging it from the edges of the chamber to the middle and vice versa.
Readiness is determined as follows: when the sausage has cooled overnight, squeeze it with your fingers. If the sausage is a little soft, it is not ready yet. Only elastic, hard sausage can be considered ready.

Hot smoked sausage

Preliminary preparation of meat and additives are the same as for smoky sausage. Bone broth is added to the minced meat (for 10 kg of minced meat - 1 liter of broth). It is useful to replace part of the broth with vodka (up to 200 ml). The minced meat is pumped into the intestine, but not hard, but so that when pressed, the surface of the sausage remains flat. The sausage casing does not need to be pierced.
Smoke intensively for 2 to 3 hours. Make sure that the sausage does not catch fire. At the end of smoking, the heat is reduced and juniper branches are added.
In a drafty attic, such sausage can be stored for six months.

Smoked pork sausage

2 kg of pork must be minced twice, add 50 g of salt, 10 g of sugar, 3 g of black pepper, 4 g of red pepper, 2 tablespoons of starch, a spoonful of crushed coriander, a few cloves of garlic.
All this is carefully mixed, 200 g of broth is added, mixed again, and the intestines are stuffed with the resulting minced meat.
Then they are tied in rings and smoked in hot smoke for 12 hours.
Sausages can be stored for up to 8 months in a cool place.

Sirloin sausage

1 kg of pork fillet with small layers of fat is rubbed with a mixture of the following composition: 15 g of salt, 5 g of sugar, 3 g of black pepper, 3 crushed bay leaves, 2 crushed juniper berries.
The cooked meat is kept for a day in a cool place, then dried with a towel, wrapped in cellophane, tied with twine and smoked in cold smoke.
Store sausage in a cool place.

Dry sausage "Easter"

1 kg of pork, 1 kg of beef should be cut into small pieces, sprinkle with 13 g of salt and put in a cold place for 2 days. Then the meat is passed through a meat grinder twice, 10 g of sugar, 4 g of food nitrate (optional), 3 g of pepper, 2 g of marjoram, 100 g of alcohol are added. The mass is mixed.
Finely chop 400 g of lard and mix with minced pork.
The prepared meat is placed in a flat dish in a layer of 10-12 cm and kept for 3 days in a cold place.
Then rectums up to 0.5 m long are stuffed with this minced meat. The ends are tied with twine and hung in a cool, ventilated room for 3-4 days.
After this, the sausages are smoked in cold smoke until the casing wrinkles.
After this, the sausages are kept for 2 months in a cool room. During this time they ripen and acquire a great taste.

Sausages "Hunter"

1 kg of pork meat, 0.5 kg of veal are cut into pieces and sprinkled with the following mixture: 40 g of salt, 10 g of sugar, 2 g of marjoram, half a spoon of coriander, 3 g of black pepper, 1 g of allspice.
After this, the meat is kept overnight in a cool place, passed through a meat grinder and 2 cups of broth are added to it. All this is thoroughly mixed and the small intestines are stuffed, which are bandaged every 20 cm.
Circles of such small sausages need to be smoked in hot smoke and then boiled for half an hour over low heat.

Sausage "Peasant"

2 kg of pork, 2 kg of boneless beef are cut into thin pieces and beaten well. Then the meat is cut into small pieces. 600 g of lard is also finely chopped.
Place the meat and lard in an enamel bowl, add 200 g of salt, 15 g of coarsely crushed pepper, a teaspoon of crushed coriander, 6 g of cloves, and three glasses of water. All this should be mixed well.
Then the dishes are covered and placed in a cool place for a day.
After this, the cooked meat is tightly stuffed into the washed intestines and cold smoked.

Semi-smoked sausage “Tallinnskaya”

Beef for minced meat is ground in a meat grinder using a grid with a hole diameter of 2-3 mm; lean pork is rolled through a grid with a hole diameter of 5-8 mm. The lard is crushed into cubes measuring approximately 4x4x4 mm.
Spices are added to the chopped beef and pork: ground black pepper, fresh peeled and chopped garlic, ground coriander or cumin, salt, sugar and mixed thoroughly, then add lard and mix all the minced meat again. You can use a 2.5 percent solution of saltpeter (3 ml per 1 kg of sausage) to preserve the red color of meat and as a preservative.

Using a meat grinder with an attachment, stuff the prepared sausage casing with minced meat. Form loaves 25-30 cm long, tying them at both ends with twine. If small air cavities have formed during filling, the shell is pierced with a needle to release the air.
The tied loaves are kept in the refrigerator at a temperature of 4-8 ° C for 2-4 hours.

After this, the sausage is placed in a suspended state in the oven and processed at a temperature of 90-100 ° C for 30-40 minutes. The end of the process is determined by the redness of the surface of the loaves.
Then the sausage is cooked in a kettle or pan at a temperature of 75-80 °C until the temperature in the middle of the loaf reaches 70-72 °C. To do this, as a rule, the sausage is cooked for 40-80 minutes: the thicker the loaf, the longer it should be cooked.

Having done all this, the sausage is smoked for 6-8 hours at a temperature of 35-50 °C.
At the end of the heat treatment, it is advisable to dry the sausage at a temperature of 10-12 °C for 1-2 days.
For 1 kg of sausage 550 g of beef, 200 g of lean pork, 250 g of lard, 30 g of salt, 1 g of sugar, 1 g of ground black pepper, 0.4 g of fresh peeled and chopped garlic, 0.25 g of ground coriander or cumin are consumed.

Smoked goose breast sausage

The skin is removed from the breast and two legs of the goose, the meat is taken out and the whole thing is cut into small pieces. The resulting minced meat is mixed with 1 tablespoon of salt, 1/4 clove of garlic and spices (pepper, marjoram, cumin).
Medium pork intestines are stuffed with this mixture and smoked for a day in warm smoke so that the sausages are lightly cooked.

Semi-smoked nutria sausage

In terms of its qualities, nutria meat has much in common with rabbit meat.
Fresh nutria meat is seasoned with coarse salt (25 g of table salt per 1 kg of meat) and placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours to age. After this, the meat is passed through a meat grinder equipped with a grid with large holes.
Add 10 g of granulated sugar, 5 g of black pepper, garlic to the finished minced meat and mix everything well.
The resulting mass is stuffed into cleaned and well-washed intestines, the ends of which should be tied with thread.
The sausage loaves are fried in hot smoke for an hour, then simmered over low heat for 90-100 minutes, after which they are smoked again for 12-24 hours.
The finished sausage is stored in a cool place.

Trojan Lukanka

Troyan Lukanka is prepared from boneless pork, hard lard (from the shoulder) and brisket in a ratio of 1:3:5.
The meat is cut into pieces of 100 g, mixed with 25 g of salt, 1 g of saltpeter and 3 g of sugar (per 1 kg of meat) and placed for a day on an inclined board in a cold room with a temperature of 4 ° C to drain the water.

Then the meat is passed through a meat grinder with a large grid.
The minced meat is mixed with seasonings: 4 g ground black pepper, 3 g crushed cumin, 1 g crushed allspice, 1 clove of garlic per 1 kg of meat. The minced meat mixed with seasonings is again passed through a meat grinder with a fine grid.

The next day, wide beef intestines, previously soaked in cold water and cut into pieces 40 cm long, are filled with ready-made minced meat. The filled intestines are tied at both ends with strong thin twine and pierced with a needle to remove the air that has entered the loaf along with the minced meat.

Lukanka is hung on a rod and left for 2-3 days in a room with a temperature of 10-12°C to allow the water to drain.
Then the lukanka is cold smoked at a temperature of 14-16°C, lighting a fire from raw sawdust for 2-3 days.

Drying at a temperature of 8-12°C and a relative humidity of 75-80 percent lasts from 30 to 60 days. At this time, the lukanka is rolled and pressed so that it dries evenly.
Store Lukanka in a dry, cool, well-ventilated place. It keeps well if wrapped in paper and placed in a box of water.

SMOKING POULTRY

Cold smoked poultry

The carcass of a chicken, duck, goose, or turkey is thoroughly processed, washed, small feathers (hemps) are removed, the entrails are removed, cut in half lengthwise and processed.

The carcass is placed between two kitchen cutting boards and beaten with the butt of an ax to flatten the bones and joints, release the brain fluid and make the carcass pieces flat.
Hang in a draft for 2-4 days. Without this aging, poultry meat after smoking turns out to be harsh. The temperature during such ventilation should not exceed 10°C. At colder temperatures, the holding time is increased.
After airing, the carcasses are immersed in brine.

For each carcass add 0.5 tablespoon of salt, 2-3 bay leaves, 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, several black peppercorns, 5 ripe dried juniper berries, cinnamon, 0.5 teaspoon of crushed ginger to lukewarm boiled water. 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons 30 percent vinegar.
The prepared brine should cover the entire poultry meat. There is no need to boil the brine.

The poultry carcasses are kept in brine for two days, shifting the pieces from bottom to top two or three times during this time and vice versa. The more components are added to the water, the tastier the poultry meat will be. After the carcasses are removed from the brine, pieces of lard and cloves of garlic can be inserted into shallow cuts into lean chicken half-carcasses, which will give the chicken meat a special flavor. Duck and goose carcasses are not stuffed with pieces of lard.
Before smoking, pieces of meat are hung out to dry a little, and during smoking, on the contrary, they are periodically dipped in brine.
When smoking, maximum heat is immediately applied so that a shiny film forms on the surface of the meat. When the film begins to separate easily, the meat is considered ready. Goose half-carcasses are smoked longer, since its meat is fattier, and the excess fat must be rendered out. The aroma of smoked poultry is well preserved by parchment wrapping.
Poultry ribs can be smoked separately, but be sure to dip them in brine when smoking.

Hot smoked GEESE and DUCKS

Geese or ducks are carefully processed, washed, small feathers are removed, rubbed with salt, placed in a deep bowl and placed in a cold room for 3-4 days.

Then you need to boil water with spices based on 1 kg of processed goose or duck - 1 liter of water, 100 g of salt, 0.5 g of cloves, 0.5 g of cinnamon, 0.3 g of allspice, 0.2 g of bay leaf, 10 g sugar. Cool the boiled water in a sealed container.
Then this broth is poured over salted geese or ducks so that they are covered with brine, stirred until the salt dissolves, and kept in a cold room for 2-3 days.

After this, the bird is removed from the brine and hung for 3-4 hours to dry. The prepared poultry is placed in the smokehouse for 12-15 hours, and the initial temperature in the oven should be 70-80°C, then it should be maintained between 50 and 60°C.
After this, the geese or ducks are removed from the oven. If the bird is not ready yet, it is smoked again.
Hot smoked geese and ducks should be stored in a cold room for no more than six months.

SMOKING FISH

Which fish is best to smoke?

There are no categorical recommendations in this matter - it all depends on individual preferences and tastes.
The main types of fish popular for smoking: roach, silver bream, flounder, crucian carp, beluga, rudd, pike perch, salmon, mullet, bream, tench, burbot, perch, sturgeon, halibut, stellate sturgeon, kaluga, sterlet, roach, carp, trout, saury, pike, herring, mackerel, catfish, mackerel, sterlet, ram, silver carp, cod, eel, ruff, sabrefish, shemaya, ide and others.

About wood

The best wood for smoking is alder and juniper. When preparing the latter, carefully break off only dry branches; besides, raw ones are still not suitable. Just a few branches of this wonderful plant are enough to give the fish both a golden color and a unique aroma.

If there is no alder, you can use dry wood of any hardwood: oak, hazel, ash, maple, apple, pear, cherry, plum; It is necessary to remove the bark from a birch tree - it contains tar. Under no circumstances should you use pine, spruce, or cedar - they contain a lot of resin. The wood must be chopped into small pieces or chips of 4-6 cm. When smoking, you can also use sawdust. Chicks, branches and sawdust are poured into an even layer on the bottom of the barrel. They will begin to smolder and emit smoke as soon as the bottom of the barrel or bucket is heated from a fire built below.

A few words about the fire itself. When smoking fish, it should be small, but give a lot of heat - you can choose any kind of wood. Keeping a fire burning evenly for a long time is an art that can only be acquired through personal experience. But the quality of the prepared smoked fish depends on this experience.

How to prepare fish for smoking?

1) Gutting

After gutting, it is most convenient to cut large fish into two halves (lengthwise). Medium-sized fish are subject to ordinary gutting. Well, small fish don’t need to be gutted at all. There is no need to remove the scales.

2) Salting

At this stage, the fish must be thoroughly rubbed with salt. If the dorsal part of the fish is quite thick, then it is recommended to make longitudinal cuts on it and rub salt there too. The approximate amount of salt is from 3 to 6% of the weight of the fish (large ones require more than small ones).

There are also methods for keeping fish in a container with a saline solution under pressure.
In addition to salt, some recipes call for processing fish with all kinds of herbs and spices.
The duration of salting can be different (from 5 to 16 hours), but preferably at least three hours. If, after smoking is complete, traces of salt are visible under the fish scales, then the amount was excessive.

3) Drying

Salted fish should be dried - to do this, you can hang it for a couple of hours in a well-ventilated place. Remains of brine and salt must be removed (for example, you can wash the fish and then wipe it with a clean cloth, or simply dry it).

Hot smoking

This method has many advantages. It's fast, reliable, simple; The fish is immediately ready to eat. And there is no need for complex structures. There is a metal barrel - great, no - you can get by with an old bucket, but they need to be thoroughly calcined. A prerequisite is well-fitting lids. How to use these containers is clear from the pictures. The insert nets on which the fish are placed are made of annealed steel wire with a diameter of 4-6 mm.

In the barrel you can place a fish insert made of annealed steel fish on 3-4 grids. wire. The diameter of the wire of the supporting structure is 4-6 mm, the mesh is up to 1.5 mm.

This is how the bucket is placed over the fire.

So, if you are planning to smoke hot, small fish are not cut, medium ones are gutted, large ones are cut into a layer or flank - cutting along the spine into two fillets. The cut fish is washed and salted dry. To do this you will need a board or piece of plywood and coarse salt. After sprinkling salt on the board and the fish, rub the salt into the carcass, moving it along the table with slight pressure.

The inner surface of the abdomen is rubbed with salt by hand. If the fish has a thick back, make a cut in it along the ridge and rub salt into it.

Salting oily fish (capelin, mackerel, halibut, horse mackerel, catfish, flounder, silver carp, catfish, burbot) is somewhat different from what was described above. Each fish, grated with coarse salt, is wrapped in parchment or tracing paper to prevent the fats from oxidizing. Then the fish is placed in layers in enamel dishes, preferably in trays with a lid. The top is covered with parchment and the edges are folded in. It is advisable to place the fish in a small mound and press it down with a lid, securing it with a rope or wire.

Salting fish thawed in cold water lasts slightly longer than fresh fish - from 4-6 hours to a day.

Under the influence of salt, proteins coagulate, the taste and smell of raw fish are lost, its meat thickens and becomes edible without further cooking.

The next operation is drying the fish for 40-60 minutes. During this time, its salinity reaches the required 1.5-2%, and the fish is partially dehydrated as brine - a salt solution - drains off. The fish is tied with twine, hung on hangers and covered from flies with a gauze canopy.

Now you can smoke the fish. A mixture of alder or other chocks with the addition of juniper is loaded into the bottom of a bucket or barrel, and fish is placed on metal wire grates in the middle and upper parts of the container, with larger ones at the bottom. It is laid loosely in one layer. The harness made with harsh twine (do not use synthetics!) is not removed. Make a fire under the barrel and, if possible, close it tightly with a lid or metal sheet. After 30-60 minutes. (depending on the size of the fish and the smokehouse), the smoke from under the lid becomes dry and acquires a characteristic aroma. The final readiness is determined by the appearance of the fish: golden tea color and dry surface of the skin. In this case, the smokehouse can be opened only for a very short time, so that the lumps do not ignite due to air access.

The temperature inside the barrel is about 80 degrees during drying, which is about a quarter of the time, and about 100 degrees during direct smoking. As a result of this process, proteins coagulate, low-resistant organic compounds are destroyed, some nitrogenous substances are lost along with moisture, and fat is rendered.

Determining the temperature is simple - just splash water on the lid, if the water does not boil, but simply evaporates, the smoking mode is maintained correctly.

The finished dish cannot be stored for long; it must be eaten within 2-3 days.

Cold smoker, but 100 x 100 or 1 50 x 150 mm. The top is covered with boards and turf. Below is a fire pit. On top is a smoking box.

Cold smoking

This method is more labor-intensive. It is necessary to build a special smokehouse, salt the fish longer, and the process itself takes from 2 to 3 days.

The structure of the simplest smokehouse is clear from the figure. The optimal length of an inclined chimney should be at least 7-10 m. If there is a cellar on the site, you can use it, but if not, you will have to build an artificial embankment.

Fresh fish is salted for 5 days, defrosted - twice as long. Moreover, the fish placed in trays is additionally sprinkled with salt. Soaking also lasts longer - 4-6 or more hours. After this, the fish is tied and dried for 24 hours. The smoke temperature in the smokehouse should be no more than 35 degrees. After smoking, the fish can be dried for 24 hours - this will increase the shelf life.

During cold smoking, the fish loses a significant part of its moisture and becomes saturated, as if preserved, with smoke from a fire. And one more addition: the more salt in the fish, the lower the temperature should be.

Semi-hot smoking

Fish that has been salted for more than a day is suitable for it; soaking can be done “by eye.” As a smokehouse, they use an ordinary iron stove “potbelly stove” with a couple of additional elbows on the pipe so that the smoke temperature is 50-60 degrees. The blower is covered to ensure smoldering in the firebox, and the fish is hung at some distance from the end of the pipe in the area where the smoke mixes with air. One day of light is enough for smoking. The taste of the fish is somewhat unusual, and the appearance and aroma are closer to hot smoking. This technology is currently not widely used, but is interesting in its simplicity and great opportunities for experimentation.

Smoke the simple way

A convenient option for smoking fish directly near the body of water from which it was caught. Materials needed: metal bucket with lid and grid, metal rods or wooden stakes.
Sawdust is poured into the bottom of the bucket. The fish is placed on the grill and placed in a bucket. The bucket is closed with a lid and suspended over the fire using stakes or rods.

The temperature is adjusted by adding firewood or raking coals, as well as by the distance from the fire to the bucket. To make it easier to determine the temperature, you can drop water on the lid of the bucket: if the water immediately starts to boil, then the temperature is too high, and if it evaporates without boiling and does not hiss, everything is fine.

At the end of the smoking process, you should wait until the bucket and fish have cooled down, and then dry the fish.
Do not forget that before smoking river fish, it must be salted for at least several hours.

The two most common smoking methods are cold and hot. They differ in the temperature and time of product processing: in the first case (hot) it is 45-120 °C and only a few hours, in the second (cold) it is 20-25 °C and lasts several days. Most often, hot smoking is used, since the result is achieved much faster, but at the same time, cold smoked products have greater preservation, without becoming covered with mucus, like store-bought ones.

It is very important to observe the temperature regime regardless of the chosen smoking method. Since a thermometer for measuring temperature may not always be at hand, learn to act without it: to determine +50...+60 °C, touch the smokehouse with the back of your hand; it should be hot, but tolerable. 90-95 °C is determined using water - you need to spray it on the smokehouse: the water should evaporate quickly. If you have a tall smokehouse, the temperature in different zones may vary. So, at the top it will be lower than at the bottom. I would like to note that there is no need to maintain the temperature regime exactly to the degree – the smoking technology allows for inaccuracies of up to 5-10 °C.

After any smoking, it is necessary to keep the smoked meats in a cold room for the diffusion of the smoking components into the pieces. If the hams, loins, and rolls were not sewn into gauze (fabric), then after smoking their surface should be lightly rinsed in cold water.

Cold smoking
During cold smoking, products are exposed to smoke for a long time, the temperature of which usually does not exceed 25 °C. This type of smoking has a strong bactericidal effect on products. Thanks to this processing, you can preserve the resulting smoked meats for a long time. For example, loin and brisket are cold smoked, which are previously dry-salted.

When constructing a cold smokehouse, it is necessary to regulate the uniform heating of the smoke admitted into the smoking chamber, which should not exceed 30 °C. That is why, when constructing a cold smokehouse, the hearth with the firebox, where shavings or sawdust smolder, must be located at a certain distance from the smoking chamber. As a rule, this distance is from one and a half to two meters. It should also be noted that this method uses a fire made from smoldering components. It usually consists of 20% firewood and 80% sawdust. To obtain thick smoke and combustion without flame, a thick layer of sawdust and wood chips is poured on top of the firewood. The fire should not burn, but smolder, producing smoke that enters the smoking chamber.

When products are processed using the cold smoking method, more than 90% of nutrients and vitamins are retained. Using other smoking methods, this figure is slightly lower, but much higher than for products that are prepared with high heat treatment: fried, stewed, boiled products.

Hot smoking
To prepare hot smoked products, not only smoke is used. During such processing, the temperature regime is important, which should not fall below 50 °C throughout the entire smoking process. With this kind of smoking, the raw materials are processed not only by smoke, but also by heat, which also has a bactericidal effect on the final product and gives it a unique taste and aroma.

The hot smoking method of meat is not a difficult task. It is important that the smoking chamber has a large number of shelves or hooks. The size of the smokehouse is also important. The fire that heats the bottom of the smoking chamber should warm it up to 300-350 °C. At this temperature, fruit tree chips smolder, which releases smoke at the required temperature. If the heat of the flame under the bottom of the smokehouse is high, this can lead to charring of the sawdust, which may result in the release of soot and carcinogens.

During hot smoking, the smoke is heated to 80-100 °C. This is the skill of a smoker - the ability to maintain the heat of the smoke required for smoking. This is the most difficult moment with this smoking method. The larger the smokehouse, the easier it is to prepare a high-quality smoked meat product compared to a small smokehouse, where even slight overheating can spoil the meat.

Hot smoked foods do not last as long as cold smoked foods and should be consumed within a few days of preparation.

Experienced cooks know that the recipe for smoked beef and pork has slight differences. Overall the process is very similar. Any type of meat is first marinated and then placed in a smokehouse.

The smoke temperature is the same - for cold smoking the degree should not be higher than 25, and for hot smoking about 100 degrees.

The time it takes to prepare the product varies. In general, young pork can be cooked faster than beef. In order to smoke cow meat, on average it will take from 3-4 hours to 8-9 hours. But pork can be cooked in 2-3 hours, a maximum of 5. If the product was pre-cooked, then the smoke treatment time should be reduced by about half.

Which smoking method is best for pork and beef? In general, it is acceptable to use both hot and cold. But some people note that beef tastes better if it is treated with chilled smoke.

Preparing meat for smoking

Before you cook a product in a smokehouse, you should prepare it. It is not enough to just buy a fresh piece; you will need to make a brine for it. But first you need to wash the meat and, if necessary, peel the skin. If desired, the skin and excess fat can be trimmed off. The pieces themselves do not have to be divided into several parts. This will only be needed if they are too large. And so, there is no need to make it smaller than the palm of your hand.

Always choose fresh meat

You will need the brine to prepare your beef and pork for the cold or hot smoker. It will help make the product softer, more delicate and spicy. There are different marinade recipes, and each is interesting in its own way. You can also use the standard one.

To do this you need:

Pour water into a saucepan. Add spices to taste, a few slices of lemon, bay leaves, onion rings, a glass of soy sauce and a couple of tablespoons of salt.
Light the fire and wait until the brine boils. After this, you can either turn it off and cool, or throw in pieces of meat to cook.
If you don’t want to cook beef or pork, you should pour cooled brine over it and put it in the refrigerator for several days. Those who decide to cook the product need to boil it for 30-45 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator.
After the product has been pickled, it can be hung in the fresh air for about 5-8 hours, or can be kept for about a day. After this it should be smoked.
You should not greatly reduce the marinating time, since it would be correct to keep the beef or pork longer in the brine. It must have time to absorb all the spices to become aromatic.

Hot smoking of meat

As already mentioned, there are several ways to prepare the delicacy. Hot smoking of meat is the simplest and fastest. To do this, you will need to get a special smokehouse or make it from a metal container with a lid.

Having built a fire, you need to place a smoking container on top of it. Place chips of fruit trees on the bottom and place grates on them. The recipe requires that the pieces of meat on the racks are not right next to each other. This way they will be better prepared. Now you need to close the lid and leave the product to process the smoke.

Leave space around each piece

How long does it take to check the meat? About half an hour later. It will need to be turned on the other side so that it smokes evenly. The action should be repeated approximately once every 30 minutes.

The recipe will take about 2-3 hours for pork and about 5-6 for beef. Hot smoking of meat will go faster if the pieces are pre-boiled. When the dish takes on the desired appearance, the fire will need to be extinguished, and the product itself will need to be hung in the fresh air. In a few hours it will be ready to eat.

The recipe for cold smoking meat is more complex and time-consuming. In this case, the pieces must be treated with chilled smoke. This happens as follows. Cooled smoke enters a special metal compartment, inside of which the carcasses hang on hooks. It can come from a fire or, for example, from a barbecue. The temperature inside the compartment should be maintained up to 25 degrees, but not lower than 20 degrees.

How long does the cold method take? At least two days, and preferably 5-6 days. Beef can even take a week to cook. It will be more convenient to store such a product, since it remains suitable for food longer.

You can prepare a recipe for smoking meat using the cold method only if you have special equipment. Without it, it will not be possible to do everything as it should.

Homemade meat smoking without a smokehouse

Smoking meat can be done not only in a smokehouse, but also using liquid smoke. It is a flavoring agent that gives the dish the desired taste. If you marinate meat in it, it will become almost the same as after processing hot or cold.

Using liquid smoke is easy and accessible to everyone. On average, a bottle costs about 100 rubles, and it lasts several times, or even more. You can cook smoked meats with it if you follow the recipe.

Liquid smoke allows you to do without smoke and fire

Ingredients:

meat – 2-3 kg;
liquid smoke - 6 tbsp. spoon;
Bay leaf;
onion peel;
spices.

You need to pour a liter of water and add liquid smoke, salt and spices. You can also add bay leaves and onion peels. The last ingredient is needed for the smoked meat to acquire its characteristic color. Next, turn on the heat and wait until the liquid boils.

The meat should be thrown into hot water, brought to a boil and reduced heat. Cook for about an hour, maybe a little less. After this, you need to let the product cool and then hang it in a ventilated area or outside.

If desired, you can grate with pepper, garlic and other spices. Can be stored in the refrigerator, wrapped in cling film or foil. In general, liquid smoke gives a good aroma and taste. By the way, nowadays it is often used to prepare smoked meats, which are then sold in the store. Of course, it cannot be classified as a useful ingredient, but if you do not use it often and in large quantities, then there will be no harm from it. Although, according to experts, it is still better to cook beef and pork in a smokehouse.

How to store smoked meat

Cooking meat in a smokehouse using a recipe is only half the task. It is equally important to know how to store it correctly so that it does not spoil. This question is not relevant only for those who are going to eat the delicacy either immediately or within a week. But the rest should find a place where it will be best stored.

To keep the product fresh and healthy longer, it should be left in a dry and well-ventilated area. The sun's rays should not reach there. It is advisable that the temperature be 5 degrees, maximum 8.

It is better to store smoked meats in a ventilated and cool place.

Some people prefer to cellar the product. However, it is not recommended to store the delicacy in it, since the air is too humid and the temperature is lower than expected during the cold season. All this will contribute to the fact that pork or beef will become moldy earlier than expected.

Of course, if there is no attic or suitable pantry, you can store the product in the refrigerator. It is even permissible to freeze it if you need to extend the shelf life.

As for the shelf life, it can vary greatly. It is influenced by the method of preparation, the type of meat, its original quality, and storage location. On average, a product can remain edible from several weeks to six months. It should be checked from time to time. If a foreign smell or a slippery coating appears, the smoked meat should be thrown away.

We will tell you everything in order. I would like to note right away that the taste of the products largely depends on where you want to smoke: in the courtyard of a private house or in the kitchen of a multi-story building.

For smoking in an apartment, it is better to buy a factory smokehouse; there are many of these on sale. This way you will protect yourself from fires and excess smoke. But let’s say right away that the taste of smoked meats in such devices is not the best - it’s much more pleasant to smoke chicken or sausage in the open air, using the technology of our grandfathers.

The most delicious smoked meats are those that you prepare yourself, using hot or cold smoking.

Smoking methods are divided into two main groups: cold and hot. Using them, you can smoke fish and meat, but each product has its own nuances and temperature conditions. Depending on which method you choose, some preparation of the products will be required.

You can prepare mouth-watering delicacies in any container - it all depends on your requests and the amount of products produced in a certain time.

Rules for delicious delicacies

To prepare delicious delicacies, it is not enough just to know how to choose a smoking method (cold or hot), you need to delve into the general rules, following which your smoked meats will turn out really tasty.

To make smoking easier and the result to exceed all your expectations, you need to:

About meat and fish

Goldfish

Fish can be smoked either hot or cold. The most common option is smoking with a smoke-air mixture.

It is worth noting that the quality of the finished fish depends not so much on the smoking method, but on maintaining the temperature, time and selected wood. It is best to use fruit sawdust. Coniferous trees are not recommended because they produce a lot of resinous substances. In addition to proper preparation and cooking of fish, it is important to learn how to store and serve it. On our website you can read secrets and much more.

The meat is to die for

At home, you can smoke meat cold or hot, and quite easily. So, the refrigerator or any other one is ready. It remains, but before that, rinse it properly. Once you have decided on the method, you can start smoking. Don’t forget to take into account all the points that we talked about at the beginning of the article, and the meat will turn out delicious, and most importantly, healthy, because it is prepared without the use of liquid smoke and other unnecessary ingredients.

If you want to get first-class smoked meat, smoke it yourself

Let's sum it up

Whatever smoking method you choose, remember that it will be delicious in any case. By choosing a hot method, you will spend less time on smoking, but a cold one will make fish and meat more flavorful, and such delicacies will last longer. So, it all depends on your goals and preferences.
and enjoy the process itself: preparing the smokehouse and products. Then it will certainly turn out delicious!

Smoking, the basics of which we will now tell you, allows meat products to be preserved for a very long time. At the same time, any product becomes very piquant in taste and pleasant in smell. You can smoke hams, brisket, sausages, lard, poultry carcasses and any fish. Only large pieces of meat or fish are suitable for smoking - the juiciness of the final product depends on this. If you take meat or lard in small pieces, they will dry out and become tough under the influence of smoke.

The simplest smokehouse involves placing several metal pins in the chimney on which sausage or meat can be hung. When the stove is fired, smoke comes out through the chimney, which smokes the food.

The second way to build a smokehouse is to attach an additional pipe made of boards, lined with metal sheets on the inside, to the main pipe. The size of the attached smokehouse-pipe should be as follows: cross-section - 1 by 1 meter, height - 2 meters. In this case, both pipes, the main one and the attached one, must have one common inner wall. In the main pipe, it is necessary to provide two dampers - upper and lower. In the future, they will need to regulate the flow of smoke into the smokehouse from the main pipe. This method allows you to regulate the amount of smoke entering the chimney in a more standardized manner, which will have a positive effect on the quality of smoking of a particular product.

Another way to set up a smokehouse is to use two metal barrels (the top one without a bottom). The barrels are stacked on top of each other. In the lower part of such a smokehouse, it is necessary to cut a window with an autogen for storing firewood. In the upper barrel, at a level of 10 cm from the top, you need to weld several metal crossbars, on which you can then hang meat and fish products. From above, such a smokehouse is covered with a metal sheet with holes through which smoke will escape. If there is no such sheet, then you can use old burlap - it also allows smoke to pass through well.

Taking the design of a homemade smokehouse from barrels as a basis, it can be built from bricks or even boards. The inside of such a smokehouse must be covered with metal, and a tray, also metal, must be built at the bottom. It is needed so that coals are formed on it during the fire, which are then covered with sawdust.

See also video: Cold smoking of fish and meat. Smokehouse 18+!!!

What kind of firewood and sawdust are needed for smoking?

How to smoke in a smokehouse

To start the smokehouse, thin twigs and larger trimmings are first laid on its bottom, covered with metal. The bottom layer is ignited with matches and when the upper large fractions burn out well, dry sawdust is poured onto them. In order for the smoking to be slow and even, you should not pour a lot of sawdust at once. Only when the first part is almost burnt out can you add the next portion. To prevent smoke from leaving the smokehouse very quickly, its outflow can be regulated by closing the damper or covering the holes in the lid.

Requirements for meat for home smoking

Any products must be well salted before smoking - this can be done dry or wet. Before smoking, it is advisable to remove dry salt from meat or lard using a knife.

Smoking methods and how long to smoke

Processing products with smoke at home can be done either cold or hot. During the first one, and it can last up to several days, the smoldering of the sawdust should be very slow. This will ensure a low smoke temperature, up to only 20 degrees. Hot smoking involves very fast preparation of the product, even in an hour or a little more. The smoke temperature with this method must be kept quite high.