The Barbecue Smoker Science of Food Preservation……and a bit of fun too!
Smoker Recipe Evolution
Smoking has evolved as a means to preserve food before refrigerators were invented or the canning process. How old is the art of smoking? Well no one really knows for sure but it’s been around a lot longer than any evidence that documents it. I’ve read that there’s a smoking pit in China that’s believed to be 5000 years old so we can safely assume that it’s been around for some time.
Traditionally the food preservation would have started with either curing or brining and then the smoking process would follow on. In this day and age, with the advent of refrigerators, smoking and indeed brining or curing is more concerned with flavour rather than food preservation. For me and many people it’s about enjoyment too, getting the best ingredients and taking time over preparing food is a dying industry in this age of globalisation when the pace of life is so fast. Life’s too short, let’s slow down and savour all that’s to be experience with traditional food preparation.
Curing
Curing using smoke works well for both meat and fish. The most common chemicals used for curing today include ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or sodium nitrate albeit ascorbic acid is used also to maintain the colour of the meat at the same time. In days gone by the preferred choice would have been potassium nitrite but at the end of the day, it’s a salt.
Things have of course started to develop from tradition with the quest to add flavour by curing so it’s now common to include some sweet flavouring with the salt such as sugar, treacle, molasses etc or to spice it up with chilli powder or cayenne pepper. The fundamental point however is that curing is a dry process.
The curing process then can take many weeks or months and the end results are well worth it. The classic commercial curing that we see day in day out comes from curing belly pork and we end up with bacon. It frustrates me that even today there’s so much water in commercially prepared bacon and if this isn’t a reason to try home curing, I don’t know what is. It’s a easy process too.
Ask your butcher for a pork belly or part of one depending on how big you want it. Rub the belly all over with a 75%:25% mixture of salt and brown sugar and add a bit of chilli or cayenne to your taste. Place the pork belly in a plastic container and bung it in the fridge for 2 months. Be patient and you’ll never want to buy commercial bacon again!
Brining
Brining is the wet process where we simply immerse the meat in a salt solution or brine - and that's it. It works well for salt beef, barbecue turkey and fish (salmon in particular) as a precursor to smoking and the basic method is outlined below.
The important thing is to create a salt solution that is completely saturated. Stir salt into water until no more will dissolve, now heat it gently and see how much more you can get to dissolve. When finished, let it cool and immerse the meat for a few days making sure that the meat is kept fully immersed in the brine.
That’s all there is to it, just wash of the brine and the meat is ready for smoking.
I hope you try it, I’m sure you’ll like it.
Resource Information:
Easy Barbecue Recipes - Free barbecue grill recipes & meat smoker cooking ideas.
Smoker Grill Recipes - Outdoor grilling tips, easy fire pit menus, healthy rotisserie suggestions.
Barbecue Grill Sales - An independent buyers guide.
Barbecue Smokers - Buyers Information for Barbecue Smokers
About the Author: Paul Yates is the self styled Barbecue Smoker Recipe Man. He started writing because of his genuine love of outdoor life and cooking. It also occurred to him that a little help and support with easy recipes may transform many barbecues from a cremated health hazard to a delicious cookout.
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Print Article | Download PDF | 78 views | Jun 23 2007
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