Hot smoking

In short

• Hot smoking has three stages: drying at 40–50 °C (105–120 °F), smoke at 55–70 °C (130–160 °F), cooking in the chamber at 75–90 °C (165–195 °F) until the centre reaches a safe temperature.
• In the centre at least: pork, beef and sausages 72 °C (160 °F), poultry 74 °C (165 °F). Measure with a probe thermometer, not by colour.
• Meat is salted by the scale: 13 g of nitrite curing salt (0.6 %) and 7 g of plain salt per 1 kg (poultry 13 + 5 g), which is 80 mg of nitrite per kg; or 1.3 g of Cure #1 and the rest as plain salt. Dry or in an equilibrium brine, at 2–4 °C (36–39 °F).
• Smoke for 1–3 hours only; longer gives bitterness, not a better product.
• Cool in two steps: 60 → 21 °C (140 → 70 °F) within 2 hours, then to 5 °C (41 °F) within another 4 hours.
• Keeping: fridge at 0–4 °C up to 7 days for a whole piece with nitrite, 3–4 days without nitrite and for poultry; longer only in the freezer.

What's inside

Chapters

1. What hot smoking is
2. Equipment and measuring
3. Salting for hot smoking
4. Stages and temperatures
5. Smoked collar and ribs
6. Cooked smoked ham
7. Chicken, turkey and duck from the smoker
8. Sausages for cooking and for stews
9. Cooling and storage
10. When something's wrong
11. Common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Salt and brine calculator
• Date calculator
• Temperature card
• Hot-smoking log
• Hot-smoking calendar
• Fridge labels