In order to prepare hot and cold smoked dishes, different technologies are used. Accordingly, the structure of the smokehouse will be different. If smoking in a smokehouse is supposed to be done outside, then you can install a cold smoked smokehouse. Of course, it will take longer to cook in it, but the shelf life of the product is much longer.

Currently, the industry produces many options for smokehouses: for home and outdoor use, electric, gas and simply wood-burning. You can also set up a camp smokehouse yourself. To properly prepare dishes in each of them, you need to know certain nuances.

Types of smokehouses

Smokehouses are classified according to the method of preparation:

• cold smoked;

• hot smoked.

Smokehouses are classified according to heating method:

• wood-burning These are smokehouses for installation on a personal plot. Wood shavings in the heating chamber are ignited in an open way.
• electric. The best option for apartments. Fuel is heated by heating elements (thermal electric heaters)
• gas. Also used in apartments. Installed directly on the gas burner of the kitchen stove.

The most popular are outdoor and home hot smoked smokehouses. The process of preparing the product in them is much faster. In addition, due to the special cooking technology at high temperatures, the raw materials almost do not lose moisture, so the finished dish turns out to be quite fatty.

In cold smokehouses, the product is processed with cold smoke at low temperatures, and the moisture gradually leaves it. This dish will last longer, but it will also take several days to prepare.

Therefore, most often, recipes for various smoked delicacies are created for hot smoked smokehouses.

Preparing a hot smoker

In order to properly prepare smoked delicacies, you need to prepare a smokehouse. To do this you should:

1. assemble the device and check the serviceability of the firebox;
2. clean the smokehouse from combustion products, baked seasonings and other contaminants;
3. Heat the device to 200˚, then cool to 100.
4. pay attention to the choice of wood chips. The type of wood greatly affects the taste and smell of the prepared product. It is best to choose sawdust from fruit trees, willow, linden, walnut or alder. It is strictly not recommended to use softwood fuel for smokehouses.

Factory chips for smoking

Food preparation

Hot smoking process

Smoking time

• meat is cooked at a temperature of 100-150 degrees. The estimated time is about 2.5 - 3 hours per kilogram of product.
• The lard will also have to be cooked for about two hours at the same temperature. Its readiness can be easily determined by its golden color.
• fish up to 25-30 centimeters long are cooked for about an hour. The temperature in the smokehouse should be very low at first, 60-70 degrees, and after half an hour it should be raised to 100.
• the chicken, depending on its volume, will be smoked for about 1.5 hours at a temperature of 110 Celsius. Its readiness can be easily checked using a special thermometer. At its thickest part, the cooked bird should reach a temperature of 80 degrees.

Smoked products are easy to make yourself at home. Their cost will be very low, and the process will not take much time and effort. The benefits of smoked products cooked on natural sawdust or coals, without the use of chemical smoking liquids, are undeniable. After all, with this method of cooking meat, fish, poultry or seafood, significantly more useful substances remain in them than when frying. Smoked meats do not provoke the appearance of excess cholesterol in the blood. They retain almost all the vitamins and beneficial properties of protein.

The hot smoking method gives a lot of scope for experimentation. Indeed, in addition to classic dishes of meat or fish, you can smoke hard cheeses, fruits, vegetables and even eggs. A variety of marinades and brines will allow you to prepare new dishes from familiar products, and a variety of special seasonings for smoking will decorate any delicacy.

By following simple rules for operating smokehouses and preparing semi-finished products for smoking, you can easily create real culinary masterpieces at home.

Smoking any food - be it meat, fish, cheeses, fruits or vegetables - is historically one of the earliest methods of canning.
Hot smoking is one of the options for this method of applying heat to products. Its essence is to process edible raw materials with smoke at a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius and above for several hours.

In general, hot smoking is a fairly simple and time-consuming method of cooking.

Selection of products for smoking

Meat, poultry, game, fish, sausages, and cheeses are smoked. Much less often - fruits, vegetables and nuts.

The basic principle of proper smoking is a careful approach to the selection of raw materials. For example, the freshness of meat is determined by assessing its appearance, smell, color and consistency.

The meat should be elastic, dense, with a dry surface. When you touch it, nothing should stick to your hand. Its color should be typical for a certain type of animal, for example, a pig - pinkish-red. Raw meat produces clear juices.

When forming sausages, you should also use exclusively fresh meat products, this directly affects their shelf life. In addition to standard types of meat (beef, pork, veal), horse meat, lamb, venison, poultry, and game are also used for sausages. It is better if it is the meat of an older individual, since young meat is loose and oversaturated with moisture.

Carcasses of rabbits, poultry and wild poultry should also be selected as fresh as possible.

The main “meat” spices are all types of pepper (white, black, capsicum, allspice). Traditionally, bay leaves, coriander, cloves, dried onions and garlic, nutmeg and cardamom are used.

Only fresh products will be required for smoking.

You should choose only fresh fish for smoking. The one that bends and sags under its own weight when held vertically. A good live fish is always mobile, its scales are not damaged, and have no spots. The gills are red and rise and fall rhythmically. The fish should smell like the river, algae, and not rot.

Before smoking, fish are usually not scaled. Its mission is clear: it is to protect fish meat from soot that occurs during the entire process.

If the fish is frozen, then before smoking it is thawed in several changes of cool water and then salted.

In any case, the fish is first gutted and then, if necessary, cut. Large fish are flattened - cut into halves along the spine.

Cheeses are not further processed before smoking due to their soft, delicate consistency. There is only one preparation option: large heads of cheese can be cut into pieces of acceptable size. Large chunks of cheese, due to the speed of the smoking process (just a few minutes), simply do not have time to become saturated with smoke as they should be.

The most commonly smoked vegetables are sweet bell peppers, eggplants, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, and corn. They can be used as a side dish for the main dish or as a base for independent meals. Once chopped, smoked vegetables can be turned into a decent pate. They are also frozen for storage.

Fruits are also smoked: cherries, plums, apricots. Recently, it has become fashionable to prepare nuts this way. Smoked peanuts, almonds, cashews are an excellent beer snack. When crushed, they can be used to make a good salad or sauce dressing.

Of the huge mass of edible mushrooms, white mushrooms, aspen mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, boletus mushrooms and champignons are smoked. First, they need to be processed in a simple marinade from a mixture of several vegetable oils, soy sauce, ground red or black pepper. Then place on the smoking rack, without separating into caps and legs, entirely.

Mushrooms prepared in this way can then be used to bake wonderful pies.

Hot smoking technology

The temperature range for hot smoking is 40 degrees Celsius and above. It is very important to know how much to smoke. The duration of the process ranges from several minutes to two days. It depends on the original product and its size.

The essence of hot smoking lies not so much in the role of smoke, but in the complete heat treatment of raw materials. The determining factor is the correctly selected type of smokehouse. This can be either an industrially produced hot smoked smokehouse or a homemade one. Making a smokehouse from available materials is not so difficult. Most often, in country or garden conditions, it is made from a barrel or other container with a good volume. The main thing is to have both heat and smoke at the same time.

The advantages of this smoking method are obvious: the speed of preparation greatly reduces labor costs. At the same time, as often happens, the main plus always contains negative sides. Quickly cooked foods retain too much moisture and are poorly processed by smoke, so their shelf life is not very long.

Hot smoked fish can be stored for no more than three days. Meat – more, from a week to three, depending on the temperature at which it will be stored.

Such products have a lot of taste benefits, an appetite-stimulating smell, a delicate, juicy texture, and a minimal salt concentration. This is why smoking is very popular among people.

So, the two most common methods of hot smoking are:

• at a temperature of 40 - 60 degrees, in time - from half a day to two days;
• at temperatures from 90 degrees and above, for a time from several minutes to several hours.

The first method is used for those smoked meats that will then be cooked. These are hams, boiled smoked sausages, brisket, pork knuckle.

The second method is similar to baking in the oven, only with the participation of smoke. Everything happens as quickly as possible, the products are brought to full readiness during the smoking process. This is how fish and poultry are mainly prepared.

Before smoking, the meat is pre-soaked and slightly dried. Different brines are used to impart the desired saltiness and special taste, which will reveal itself even more after smoking. Without brine, smoked meat will be inedible: the desired taste will not be formed, and it will be impossible to thoroughly salt it.

The finished smoked meat will be elastic, shiny, with an appetizing golden or red-brown crust.

Fish is smoked using smoke in a temperature range from 60 to 140 degrees. It is kept in the smokehouse for several hours (up to three), after which it is simultaneously baked and smoked

For smoking, dry alder and juniper branches are used. Under no circumstances should you use coniferous wood that produces excess soot. Other hardwoods are also suitable: beech, oak, chestnut, maple, fruit trees. For additional flavoring, add dry heather, dried grapevine, fresh hay, field herbs (sage, thyme, etc.).

Raw juniper branches are often placed along with berries. The smoke they produce is highly bactericidal. As a result, it is stored a little longer and does not immediately become moldy.

As for the great variety of fish, almost any fish can be smoked. This cooking method is best suited for salmon, carp, sturgeon, and cod.

Before smoking, fish must be salted in a well-concentrated brine (0.5 kg per 10 liters of water) for half an hour. Then it is soaked for a day and washed. Next comes the drying stage: small specimens are dried for two or three days, large specimens for five.

Spread out large fish have spacers placed in their bellies. The most delicate fish are wrapped in thermal paper before smoking.

The appearance of a golden color on the scales is a sign that the fish is ready. The finished product is cooled in the open air, protected from insects for a couple of days. This slight drying will only improve the taste of the fish and slightly increase its shelf life.

Popular hot smoked recipes

There is no need to think long about what can be smoked. In practice, almost all parts of the meat carcass, any edible game, poultry, and fish are smoked. Let's look at the most popular recipes.

Smoked marinated brisket

You will need: a piece of brisket (1 - 2 kg), tomato paste, vinegar, garlic, salt, ground red and black pepper.

For the marinade, chop three cloves of garlic, mix it with 100 grams of tomato paste, a tablespoon of vinegar, a pinch of black and red pepper, and salt.

Cut the washed brisket into several pieces and marinate for about half a day. Smoke on a grate or tray, depending on the type of smokehouse, over moderate heat for two hours. Turn the pieces over after about an hour. As the process progresses, you can add the remaining marinade.

Smoked-boiled pork ribs

You will need: a good piece of the rib portion of the carcass, cleared of skin and subcutaneous fat. Prepare the brine from 2 liters of water, 300 g of salt, 1 g of saltpeter.

Chop the rib parts into slices weighing about 500 g. It is advisable that the meat between the ribs be in a one-to-one ratio. Clean the pieces of meat from films and keep them in the cold in brine for two to three days.

Then rinse them and dry them on hooks for three hours. Smoking at a low temperature of about 40 degrees for 4 hours, preferably using wood from fruit-bearing fruit trees.

Place in boiling water and cook for about half an hour.

Pastrami

You will need: pork neck, garlic. Brine of 10 liters of water and 2 kg of salt per 10 kg of meat.

Clean the meat from lard and films, cut into approximately equal slices 3 cm thick. Use a large saucepan for salting, put the meat in it, pour in the previously prepared brine. Exposure time – 3 days.

Rinse the salted meat and dry thoroughly. Chop a few cloves of garlic and rub the surface of all the slices with it. Next, place the meat in an enamel bowl and let sit for about half a day.

Salo with paprika

You will need: a kilogram of lard, garlic, ground sweet paprika.

Cut a large piece of lard into small rectangular pieces, roll them well in salt on all sides, put them in a jar and do not touch them for three weeks.
Wash the salted lard, remove excess salt, and dry. Smoke until a delicious golden crust forms.

Rub the finished pieces on all sides with sweet paprika and chopped garlic.

Smoked chicken breast

You will need: two chicken breasts. For the marinade - soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ground ginger, vegetable oil. For flavoring - a little rice, a bag of black tea, sugar, cinnamon.

Cut the washed chicken fillet in half. For the marinade, mix a tablespoon of soy sauce, vegetable oil, balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of ginger. Marinate chicken overnight.

Place the breasts on a wire rack or hang them up, smoke for 10 minutes at high heat, and another half hour at moderate heat.

Smoked chicken wings

You will need: several dozen chicken wings, salt, sugar.

For brine - for 5 liters of water: 100 g of salt, bay leaf, dried cloves, allspice peas.

The wings need to be washed, dried, and rolled in a mixture of salt and sugar.

Then fill them with cooled, strained brine. Place some kind of pressure and do not touch it for about six hours.

Dry the salted wings, wrap in thick thermal paper, smoke at moderate temperature until they turn golden brown. Air smoked wings for several days in dry, warm conditions.

Homemade smoked meats prepared in this way will certainly become a real decoration for the home table, enrich the holiday table, and will undoubtedly surprise and delight guests.

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.

Who among us has not tried smoked meat or fish at least once in our lives?

There are probably no people who do not remember this amazing aroma and great taste of smoked meats.

Of course, because of the great love for smoked meats, many people buy them in stores and supermarkets, for example, for a holiday table, but such products are very often of dubious quality.

What should you do if you want to enjoy smoked chicken, but you don’t want to take the risk of buying “store-bought” products, and they are by no means cheap?

There is a solution, and it is very simple - smoke your food at home! This can be done much easier than you think, and such products are stored much longer than usual, since smoke has the ability to preserve and also destroy all harmful microorganisms and bacteria.

Types of smoking at home and necessary equipment

Home smoking can be done both in the courtyard of a private house and in a city apartment. If you want to regularly or occasionally treat yourself to aromatic smoked meats prepared at home, then first of all you need to take care of a good smokehouse, and it must be factory-made. Finding such a smokehouse is not at all difficult, since there are a huge number of them on the market today. Factory smokehouses make home smoking safer and also eliminate problems with removing excess smoke.

You can make a smokehouse with your own hands, using an ordinary tin bucket or metal box. The capacity can be of any volume, here everything will depend on your requests for the number of products produced per unit of time. A stove can be used as a heating element.

Before you start smoking at home, you need to prepare the following list of components:

• a bucket or box (in the absence of a ready-made factory smokehouse);

  lid with oppression;

There are only two smoking methods: cold and hot.. Smoked products also have their own classification: smoked, smoked-baked and smoked-boiled. The latter includes poultry and meat products, while smoked and baked products include fruits and vegetables, but not necessarily, it all depends on everyone’s personal preferences. It is also worth noting that only cold smoked products are boiled and baked; this does not apply to hot smoking.

General principles of smoking at home

Before proceeding directly to the preparation of smoked meats, you need to follow a simple technology for the smoking process:

1. Do not start the smoking process in unfavorable weather; it is better to wait until it is “calm” - calm, windless weather, no precipitation is expected.

2. It is better to start the smoking process in the morning. The fact is that if you decide to smoke fish, rabbit, sausage or small pieces of meat using the cold smoking method, then this procedure will not take you too much time. But if we are talking about smoking, for example, whole hams, when the process can drag on for several days, it is better to have a good supply of time to set the mood for the smoker before going to bed.

3. To allow smoke to pass freely, you need pallets that are somewhat smaller than the dimensions of the base of the smokehouse itself. They need to be placed between the source of smoke closer to the base and the food. You will need pallets for two reasons:

firstly, when smoking using the hot smoking method, the tray will cover the sawdust from the flowing fat, that is, the quality of the smoke will not deteriorate and the sawdust will still give off its aromas;

secondly, during hot smoking, the suspended products can break off at any moment, and the first thing that will be on the way of the products to the sawdust will be the pallet.

4. Do not open the lid unnecessarily, because each such curiosity will cost you an extra 10 minutes of smoking.

6. Maintain the required temperature for each smoking method. It is advisable to have a special thermometer with you, but you can do without it. You can determine the temperature without a thermometer like this: 50–60 °C can be determined with the back of your hand, it is quite hot, but tolerable. To determine higher temperatures, for example, 95 °C, you need to spray a little water on the smokehouse; it will not hiss, but should evaporate immediately.

The temperature can vary depending on the height of the smokehouse; it is usually higher at the bottom. Thus, temperature measurements should be taken at the level where the products are located. There is no need to worry too much about temperature accuracy; smoking technology allows temperature differences of +/- 5 °C.

Recipes (ingredients and method of preparation)

Now we come to the most interesting part - the actual smoking process. As already mentioned, there are two types of smoking: hot and cold. Let's look at how you can cook smoked fish or meat at home.

To prepare food using the hot method, you need to place sawdust (preferably alder) at the bottom of the smokehouse, pre-moistened in water, increase the temperature to 90–100 °C and gradually reduce it. The products will be prepared quite quickly, in an hour and a half you will already have ready-made smoked meats, but they also have a very short shelf life.

Preparing food using the cold smoking method is a much more complex and time-consuming process. It occurs by long-term supply of smoke while maintaining a low temperature level:

meat – 20 °C;

fish – 40 °C.

You also need to prepare the firebox. It is necessary that a trench extends 3–5 meters away from it, at the end of which there should be a container. Products will be suspended in this container, but not too tightly to cover each of them with smoke. We put firewood in the firebox, with alder sawdust on top and maintain a low burn for five days.

Cold smoked products can retain their original taste and aroma for a long time, and their shelf life in a cool room is 6 months.

First you need to prepare the products necessary for smoking. To do this, meat or fish must first be salted. This is done like this: thoroughly sprinkle pieces of meat 2.5–3 cm thick with salt and grease with spices. It is not recommended to smoke meat that has just been slaughtered; it should be kept in the cold for at least 72 hours. As for the fish, it needs to be gutted and placed in a solution of table salt for 25–36 hours, then rinsed thoroughly under running water. Then the meat and fish are hung in a well-ventilated area and dried for a couple of days, the fish should be hung head down.

There are 2 methods of pickling: dry and pickling in brine. When preparing food using the first method, you need to thoroughly rub it with salt and place it in a container. When salting in brine, you need to put the food in a barrel, but not too tightly, and fill it with pre-prepared cooled brine. To do this, pour into a container such an amount of water to completely cover the product, add 10% of its weight of salt, 1 tbsp. l. saltpeter and 2 tbsp. l. sugar per 5 kg of product. To prepare using the cold smoking method, meat must be salted for 30 days, lard and fish - 5 days.

If you need to smoke large pieces of meat, such as ham or shoulder, you need to mix spices, sugar and salt in a separate plate. Rub the meat on all sides with the prepared mixture, place it in a bowl with a deep bottom and generously sprinkle the same mixture on top. Then cover the bowl with gauze, fill it with brine and leave it under pressure for 1-2 weeks. The aging period depends on the size of the pieces.

Sawdust must also be prepared first; almost any wood species that does not contain resins is suitable for smoking; juniper chips give a very good aroma. We chop the wood into small pieces, remove the bark from it, moisten it a little and scatter it along the bottom of the smokehouse. After this, we install it in the smoking grate for food and a tray for draining the juice. Make sure the lid closes tightly.

Place food on racks in one layer. Place the smokehouse on the fire and close the lid tightly, pressing it down with pressure. Make sure that the internal temperature does not exceed 120 °C.

If you smoke small pieces of meat and fish, then 30–50 minutes will be enough. Before removing, taste to see if it is smoked enough. After several independent smoking sessions, you will be able to more accurately determine the required smoking time.

If you cook food using the hot smoking method, make sure that the smoking lid is tightly closed. It should be installed above the firebox or fire and produce hot and thick smoke;

The shelf life of hot smoked products is short - only 2-3 days, the most delicious products are smoked meat or fish, cooked fresh;

try adding herbs (sage, mint, rosemary) to the sawdust; this will give your products an amazing flavor;

Do not forget that smoking smoke contains carcinogenic substances, so there is no need to get too carried away with smoked products.

That's probably all you need to know before you start smoking at home. If you are planning a holiday table, you can please your guests with meat or fish prepared using the hot smoking method, because they cook very quickly - only 1-2 hours.

Cook with pleasure!

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.