Smoking (cooking)

Smoking is a way to add flavor, brown, cook, or preserve food by letting it meet smoke from burning or smoldering material, usually wood. This method is often used for meat, fish, and even tea. The smoke gives these foods a special taste and can help keep them fresh for longer.

Meat hanging inside a smokehouse in Switzerland

In Europe, alder wood is traditionally used for smoking, but oak is now more common. In North America, many different woods are used, such as hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and even woods from fruit trees like apple, cherry, and plum. Sometimes, other materials besides wood are burned to add flavor to the food.

There are different ways to smoke food, like cold smoking, warm smoking, and hot smoking. These methods mainly affect the surface of the food and don’t preserve it on their own. To keep food fresh longer, smoking is often combined with other steps, like chilling and packaging. People can also add a smoky flavor to food using liquid smoke. Historically, farms in the West had special buildings called smokehouses where meats were smoked and stored safely away from other buildings.

History

The smoking of food probably started back in ancient times. People used to smoke food along with salting it, which helped keep the food from spoiling. Many cultures used this method for a long time.

When transportation improved, it became easier to move food around, so people didn’t need to smoke food as much to keep it safe. Instead, smoking became a way to add flavor to the food. In 1939, a new device called the Torry Kiln was created in Scotland, which made smoking food on a large scale much easier. Even with new technology, the basic way of smoking food has stayed the same for many years.

Types by method of application

A "Little Chief" home smoker and racks with hot smoked Pacific salmon

Cold smoking

Cold smoking is different from hot smoking because it does not cook the food. After cold smoking, the food is still raw. The temperature for cold smoking is usually between 20 and 30 °C (68 and 86 °F). At these temperatures, food gets a smoky flavor but stays moist. Meats should be fully cured before cold smoking. Cold smoking can add flavor to foods like cheese, nuts, chicken breasts, beef, pork chops, salmon, scallops, and steak. The food is often hung in a dry place first to form a thin layer before being cold smoked for several days. Some cold smoked foods are then baked, grilled, steamed, roasted, or sautéed before eating.

Warm smoking

Warm smoking uses temperatures between 25 and 40 °C (77 and 104 °F) to add smoke flavor to foods.

Hot smoking

Hot smoking cooks food while adding smoke flavor, usually in a special oven or smokehouse. The temperature and amount of smoke need careful control. Some smokers have their own heat source, while others use heat from a stove or oven. Like cold smoking, the food may be hung first to form a thin layer before smoking for 1 to 24 hours. Foods hot smoked at temperatures between 52 and 80 °C (126 and 176 °F) are usually fully cooked and safe to eat without more cooking. At higher temperatures, above 85 °C (185 °F), food can shrink or split, and less food is left over.

Liquid smoke

Liquid smoke is made from smoke mixed with water and is used by spraying or dipping food.

Smoke roasting

Smoke-roasting combines roasting and smoking. It can be done in a special smoker, a closed wood-fired oven, or a barbecue pit. In North America, this method is often called "barbecuing," "pit baking," or "pit roasting."

Types of fuel

Wood smoke

Hickory-smoked country-style ribs

Hardwoods are mostly made of three materials: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose are the basic building blocks of wood cells, while lignin acts like glue that holds the cells together. Some softwoods, especially pines and firs, contain resin, which creates a harsh taste when burned and are not usually used for smoking.

When burned, cellulose and hemicellulose turn into sugar molecules that create sweet, flowery, and fruity smells. Lignin burns to produce smoky, spicy, and pungent smells, including vanilla-scented and clove-like aromas. These smells give food its smoky flavor. Wood also contains small amounts of proteins that add roasted flavors to food.

Different types of wood give food different flavors. The temperature at which the wood burns also matters. Burning wood at very high temperatures breaks down the flavor molecules into less pleasant ones. The best flavor comes from burning wood at low, smoldering temperatures between 300 and 400 °C (570 and 750 °F).

Types of smokers

An example of a common offset smoker

The offset smoker has a cylindrical cooking chamber with a smaller firebox attached at the bottom. A small fire is lit in the firebox, and the heat and smoke travel through a pipe into the cooking chamber, where they flavor and cook the meat before escaping through an exhaust vent.

A reverse flow offset smoker changes the direction of the smoke flow, making cooking more even. The upright drum smoker is made from a steel drum and uses charcoal and wood for smoking. The vertical water smoker adds a water bowl to keep temperatures steady and add flavor. Propane smokers use gas burners to heat wood or charcoal for smoke. Traditional smoke boxes have separate fire and food boxes. Electric smokers use heating elements to maintain temperatures but provide less flavor. In the trench method, a fire burns in a trench to smoke food placed in a chimney above it. Commercial smokehouses use advanced systems to control temperature and humidity. Pellet smokers burn wood pellets to create steady, controlled smoke for cooking.

Preservation

Smoke helps keep food safe because it can stop some germs and protect against spoiling, but it does not go deep into meat or fish. So, to really keep food for a long time, smoking is usually done together with adding salt or letting the food dry out.

Smoked omul fish, endemic to Lake Baikal in Russia, on sale at Listyanka market

Smoking is great for fish with a lot of oil because it stops the fat on the surface from going bad and keeps the oxygen away from the fat inside. Some fish that is smoked a lot and salted well can stay good without refrigeration for many weeks or even months.

Artificial smoke flavoring, like liquid smoke, can be bought to give food a smoky taste, but these products do not help keep food fresh.

Competitive smoking

Competitive BBQ smoking is growing in popularity, especially in the southern United States. People who love BBQ gather over weekends to cook different kinds of meat, like a whole hog or beef brisket.

Groups such as the Kansas City Barbeque Society organize contests all across America.

Health concerns

See also: Smoked meat § Health concerns

Eating smoked meats and fish often can raise the chance of getting some kinds of cancer. It's good to know about this before enjoying these foods.

List of smoked foods and beverages

Some common foods and drinks are smoked to add flavor. These include:

Beverages

Lapsang souchong tea leaves are smoked and dried over pine or cedar fires
Malt beverages, such as the malt used to make whisky, Rauchbier (smoked beer), and Grodziskie (smoked beer)
Maté, where traditional yerba mate leaves are smoked