Curing & Smoking by Steven Lamb

Author:Steven Lamb
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408896662
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Cold-smoked streaky bacon

Barbecue smoking

Perhaps the gentlest way of beginning your smoking adventure is with a barbecue. A simple hot smoker, such as the one described here, sits very happily directly on the embers of a standard family barbie, which is all you need to make the wood chips smoulder into life.

However, with a slight upgrade to a kettle barbecue – basically a round barbecue base with a domed lid – you can cook and smoke a whole range of produce, such as pork tenderloin, mussels, oysters, fish fillets, duck breasts and spiced butterflied leg of lamb (see here).

Cooking with fire

There is no great mystery to cooking with fire – it is one of the most basic methods of creating something edible from a raw state. I think that primeval urge to make fire resonates with us all, however, there are a few simple rules that should be followed in order to move the results away from Palaeolithic towards culinary.

Forget trying to make do with a disposable version from the local garage – they are cheap, inefficient and probably toxic. The smoke generated from the cheapest versions will be black and sooty and this will be transferred to anything you cook on them. You have no control with this kind of barbecue and they burn quickly over a short period.

To get the best results when cooking and smoking with a barbecue, choose a charcoal-fired model, and one that has a lid. In order to successfully smoke as well as cook, it should have both top and bottom vents, which will allow you to control airflow and direct both smoke and heat. A kettle barbecue is relatively inexpensive and, with a small amount of effort – spent tending to the coals and wood chips to maintain temperature and smoke – should serve you well. (A foil pan or stainless-steel bowl filled with water, placed on the cooking rack next to the food, can further moderate temperature.)

If you would prefer something a bit more upmarket that requires less manual input to control temperature (and which can hold temperatures over a longer period, particularly in the lower temperature range) then you should probably opt for a water smoker.

Water smokers look like elongated kettle barbecues divided into three sections. The fuel section is on the bottom and contains a vent for airflow control. There is a middle section that holds a water pan which acts as a buffer between the heat of the fuel and the food on the grill above. The top section will have a lid with a thermometer and also contain a vent.

Because the heat reaches the food indirectly, the cooking is more in the form of convection or roasting than grilling. The separation of the food from the fuel by the water pan means the cooking temperature can be controlled easily and has a range between 80 and 240°C. This is particularly useful for cooking and smoking large items over a long period, such as a whole leg of lamb. Even though this form of cooking is at relatively low temperatures, it is still hot-smoking.

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