REALLY SIMPLE COLD SMOKING, BBQ AND SALT CURING AT HOME

336 Pages·2013·9.86 MB·English

by  Peter Dugmore

REALLY SIMPLE
Cold Smoking, BBQ
& Salt Curing
AT HOME
by
Peter Dugmore

Cover Photo: Barbecue by alisdair: Flickr Creative Commons

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Author's Note
WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN; WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT – AND FOR
WHOM IT IS INTENDED
As its title implies, Cold Smoking, BBQ & Salt Curing at Home is a book primarily about the
techniques and methods of cooking and curing with smoke and salt – simply ... economically
... and without having to leave the comfortable surroundings of one's own home – or garden!
Its aim is to simplify the process for those who would like to prepare cured food – all types of
smoked and dry-cured food – for themselves (but who may until now have had misgivings
about their ability to do so), and to offer a whole range of new techniques and insights to those
who are already familiar with the process (but who are looking significantly to up their game).
Foundational or "platform" recipes are offered for a wide spread of different foods, but – more
than most other books of its kind – this book focuses on the equipment and accessories
required to smoke or cure them.
The book identifies the unique characteristics (including regional characteristics) of different
woods and fuels used in the food smoking process, and suggests the right fuel for the right
application.
While it gives full, and detailed, coverage to traditional smoked foods like pork, beef, lamb,
poultry and fish, the book also introduces a further range of smoked foods which could, for
many readers, represent new and exciting food territory; – foods like smoked fruit, nuts, dairy
products (cheeses and butters), molluscs and other seafoods which are – quite simply –
delicious!
In terms of its popularity – particularly in the New World – barbecue sits at the heart of all
smoked food cooking.
But – at the risk of being pilloried for heresy – barbecue is not the only means of smoking food
at home! Mention smoked foods in many parts of the world and people will automatically
think of deli-style cold-smoked, or dry-cured, fish, meat and poultry (like smoked salmon and
dry cured and country hams, bacons and sausages).
This is an aspect of home-smoking which doesn't feature strongly in many American books on
smoke cookery and food curing. Yet it's generally less equipment-intensive and costly than
barbecue, and not difficult to do. And the results are every bit as good as those you'll find on
the cold counters of delis and charcuteries around the world – at a small fraction of the cost!
One important aim in writing this book, then, is to de-mystify dry-curing and cold-smoking or
smoke-curing of foods, and show how simple this style of food preparation is, and how
comfortably within the capabilities of most people, at home!
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Photos (l to r): H. Forman Smoked Salmon with Homemade Bagels by Beck (Girl Interrupted
Eating); and Rendezvous-Hams by Southern Foodways Alliance: Flickr Creative Commons
That said, if one Googles "Top Ten American Foods" barbecue will almost certainly feature
in the honours roll. Depending on the regional prejudices of the list compiler, the particular
dish could vary from a Texas barbecued beef brisket, to a Kansas City pork sparerib to an
Owensboro lamb shoulder– with many other regional favourites in between. Barbecue, as a
method of cooking however, is central to all of them – and no book on food curing and
smoking, like this one, could even think of leaving it out.
The appeal of barbecue is not limited to North America, either! Australia (where it's called
"the barbie"), South Africa ("the braai") and a growing number of countries in parts of
Europe and South America are increasingly adopting, modifying and experimenting with
barbecue as a method of outdoor preparation of food, quite distinct from simply grilling.
To extend and hopefully bring new insights into the appeal barbecue has for Americans – and
to internationalise its appeal as one of the most varied and delicious ways of cooking (and
socialising!) outdoors – was another central motivation for writing the book.
Cold Smoking, BBQ & Salt Curing at Home is not a traditional, formulaic, recipe book in the
sense of offering a compendium of smoked food recipes. Instead, it seeks to offer a "building-
block approach" to recipe-creation.
The direction we have taken is to offer a generous, representative selection of "base" recipes,
which cover most of the food types featured, and which provide a launch platform from which
to create more complex and adventurous recipes of your own.
For a more detailed perspective, should you need it, we also provide links to smokehouse and
barbecue recipe books we have personally enjoyed and can recommend.
(Our follow-up book in this series on smoked food cookery – in which we hope you, the
readers of the book, will collaborate – will be a true recipe book in the sense in which the
term is generally used).
For the most part, though, this current book concentrates on the technical aspects of smoked
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and dry-cured food preparation, and as such will, we believe, have an appeal:
Firstly, for everyone who has an existing interest in cooking with smoke and salt as a method
of preparing food, as well as everyone who is attracted to the idea and would like to learn
more about it.
Cold Smoking, BBQ & Salt Curing at Home explores, in detail, not only what makes some
woods and fuels better for one application, and others for other applications, but also which
woods work best in different regions. It considers, in some depth, the different cuts of meat
which are suitable for smoking, and the different methods of preparing foods prior to smoking
or dry-curing them. (While our contention is that it's hard to imagine a cooked fish, meat or
fowl that couldn't benefit from smoking, there are some which qualify for the tables of kings
and potentates, while others probably do no more than top the menus of the Ritz and the
Hilton!)
Illustrated charts are provided showing the major cuts of meat from each of the main animal
groups – pork, beef, lamb and venison.
The book breaks new ground in considering a spread of food types which are not generally
associated with food smoking, and also provides a range of stock or "platform" recipes to
cover them.
And it looks, in detail, at the advantages and disadvantages of a selection of different
commercial home food smoking and dry-curing equipment – pits, large vault and box smokers,
vertical and water smokers, kettle and other grills – even stove-top smokers suitable for the
smallest apartment or loft balcony, or for a quick-smoked, no fuss, convenience meal you can
rustle up in minutes.
Secondly, the book is for readers with rather more specialised interests like those who
want to learn the specifics of dry-curing, and of cold-smoking, or salt and smoke-curing, as
well as conventional hot-smoking (as distinct from barbecue).
A section of the book explores "emergency" food smoking for hikers, campers, hunters,
fishermen and survivalists, who would like, while still in the wild, to smoke any bounty
garnered from the outdoors, but who frequently don't have access to conventional (or any!)
smoking equipment to do so.
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Photo: Hunting-With-The-Boys by Bob G (rjg329): Flickr Creative Commons
And, finally, there is generous space dedicated to the precise how-to of building your own
food smoking equipment at home – partly as a low-cost alternative to the (undoubtedly
excellent, but often fairly expensive) commercial equivalents, and partly for the good, warm
feeling of accomplishment it brings!

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DIY smokers you can make at home from readily available bits and pieces: Clockwise from
top left: Double drum smoker; Cold-smoke smoker and curing cabinet; double-skinned vertical
smoker; and permanent brick-built hot, cold, and dry-cured, smokehouse.
Diagrams, lists of materials, and assembly instructions are covered in some detail.
Concluding Note: No book is worth anything without the goodwill of its readers. And most
authors will readily acknowledge the immense value of the comments, suggestions and
contributions of those readers.
I most certainly do! .... I'd like to thank you for it. ..... And I'd like to take it further...
For our next book, already fairly well advanced, we are inviting the readers of this book to
collaborate in its authorship by contributing a favourite smoked food recipe. All
contributions will be examined by an editorial panel, and every contributor, whether their
recipe is used or not, will be given advanced warning of when the book is to be published, as
well as the means to obtain a free copy.
All published contributions will be acknowledged, by the contributor's name.
You'll be asked to certify that the recipe is your own (or, alternatively, that you have the
permission of its originator, if it isn't your own). Photographs will certainly be welcomed.
Additionally, if contributors are involved professionally in the business of smoked foods
(restaurants, cookery writers, equipment and comestible suppliers – anyone looking to make an
income out of food smoking!), and their recipes are used, a link will be supplied to them in
appreciation of their contribution.
At this stage, what we're looking for is simply an indication of your interest. We aren't ready
to accommodate your recipes – yet! If you'd like to see your name in lights as a contributor, or
would simply like to get onto our waiting list for notification of when this and other planned
books are published (Really Simple Sushi at Home is one which is already on the drawing
board!) please email me at [email protected] , with the following in the subject
line: Subscribe me for updates and/or I'd like to contribute a favourite recipe.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author's Note
Dedication
About the Author
A SUGGESTION ON HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART 1: HOME SMOKED? WHY BOTHER?
Photo: The Chef by Bev Sykes (basykes): Flickr Creative Commons
PART 2: EQUIPMENT: THE (REALLY VERY SIMPLE!) BASICS
PART 3: FUELS
Photo: Logs by Timothy Crawshaw (crows_wood): Flickr Creative Commons
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1. The Chemistry of Smoke:
2. What Wood Can I Use? And Which Should Be Avoided?
3. Local Is Generally Best – But Some Local Is Better than Others!
4. Different Woods for Different Applications...
5. Charcoal
- Lump Charcoal vs Charcoal Briquettes
6. Starting the Fire
PART 4: FOOD SELECTION AND PREPARATION
Photo: Dried Fish by ume-y: Flickr Creative Commons
FOR COLD- AND CONVENTIONALLY HOT-SMOKED FOODS
1. General Considerations
2. Brining and Salting.
3. Hot Smoke Salting and Brining.
4. Cold Smoke Salting and Brining.
5. "Wild" Smoking
Photo: Hunting-With-The-Boys by Bob G (rjg329): Flicker Creative Commons
PART 5: TOOLS AND ACCESSORIES
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Photo Charcoal Companion
PART 6: PRE-EMINENTLY BARBECUE!
Rubs and Pastes:
Marinades:
Mops and Bastes:
Sauces:
Injection Liquids:
A List of Seasoning Ingredients:
PART 7: FOOD, GLORIOUS SMOKE-CURED FOOD!
Photo: rib closeup by Daryn Nakhuda (ddaarryynn): Flickr Creative Commons
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