Putting Food By - Janet Greene [167]
SMOKING IN THE BARREL
Get the fire or smoke-maker well established and producing evenly before hanging the meat to smoke. There should be good ventilation from the top in order to carry off moisture the first day (to keep the fire from getting too hot, though, reduce the air intake at the bottom of the fire pit as much as you can without letting the fire go out).
Hang the ham, shoulder, and chunks of bacon (or comparable sizes of beef pieces) from broom handles or stainless steel rods—not galvanized, not brass, not copper—laid across the top of the barrel. Stagger the meat so that none of it touches other pieces or the sides of the barrel; suspend smaller pieces on longer loops of strong steel wire so they drop below the large pieces. Hang your thermometer.
Over the whole business lay a flat, round wooden cover slightly bigger than the barrel’s top. It will be held up from the rim by the thickness of the supporting rods. If this isn’t enough clearance at the beginning, or if the draft seems to be faltering, prop the lid higher with several cross-pieces of wood laid parallel to the supporting rods.
Close down the ventilation on the second day by draping a piece of clean burlap or several thicknesses of cheesecloth over the supporting rods under the lid. The cloth will also protect the meat inside from debris, or from insects attracted to it if the smoke stops. Weight the lid down over the cloth with a good-size rock to keep it in place.
Smoke barrel made from a 55-gallon oil drum.
(Drawing by Irving Perkins Associates)
HOW LONG?
Smokiness—color and flavor of the meat—is a matter for individual taste. If it’s oversmoked, the meat is likely to be too pungent, especially on the outside. And you can always put the meat back for more smoking if the flavor isn’t enough for you.
So try out your system in a small way. Give a shoulder of cured pork, say, 45 to 55 hours of smoking; take it out and slice into it—you may want to give it a few hours more: 60 hours is about average for a smoked shoulder.
The average ham takes about 72 hours of total smoking time.
Bacon, being a thinner piece of meat, is usually smoked enough in a total of 48 hours.
BUT ALL THESE TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE—they’re mentioned merely as guides.
Smoking Fish
The following procedure deals with coho salmon and related species.
Pre-Smoking Preparation
Dress, scrub, and fillet your salmon, taking special care to remove the dark lateral line of flesh that is capable of harboring unusually large numbers of spoilers; hold the pieces as close to 32 F/Zero C as possible. In your largest kettle or tub—enameled, ceramic, stainless steel, or wooden, never one that can corrode—prepare enough ice-cold brine to cover your fish, made in the proportion of 3 cups pure pickling salt dissolved in each 1 gallon of fresh drinking water. Depending on the thickness of the fillets, hold the fish in this 30–40 F/ −1–4 C brine for 1 to 2 hours, during which time diffused blood will be drawn out, the oil in the tissue will be sealed in to a large extent, and the flesh will be chilled so much that the following dry-salt cure will not penetrate too rapidly.
Remove the fillets, drain, and scrub away debris. Using pickling salt in the proportion of 3½ pounds (5¼ cups) for each 10 pounds of fish, dredge the pieces completely in salt and pack them in a large non-corrodible container with plenty of salt between the layers. Put the pieces skin-side down, except for the top layer; cover the top layer with salt. Keep the container as cool as possible, and hold the fish in it for 3 hours.
Remove fish, rinse well. Air-dry in single layers away from sun or heat for 1 to 3 hours until a thin shiny “skin,” or pellicle, forms on the surface. The fish is now ready to smoke.
Cold-Smoking the Fish
Many beginners are confused by the term “hot-smoking,” which is a sort of slow barbecue in which the flesh reaches an internal temperature of up to 180 F/82 C after which it is eaten within a couple of days—as with any cooked food—or is frozen.