1. Smoking Sausages and Meats
Chapter 5
Smoking Sausages and Meats

2. Topics Covered Why Smoke? The Process of Smoking Smokehouses/Smokers
How a Smokehouse Operates
Preparing Salmon for Smoking

3. Why Smoke? Preserve Add flavor and aroma Add color Maintain freshness
Protect against oxidation

4. Why Smoke? (cont’d.) Cold smoking: Imparts aroma and flavor
Some drying and weight loss will occur
Temperature for cold smoking is 70°F–90°F or below
Higher temperature will cause fat to liquefy and may cause rancidity

5. Why Smoke? (cont’d.) For successful smoke absorption:
Sausages and meats need to be air dried before placed in smoker or smokehouse
Allows smoke vapor to cling to surface
Helps color to develop

6. Why Smoke? (cont’d.) Warm smoking:
For light, tender seafood: salmon, trout, catfish, shrimp, and lobster
Done by maintaining a temperature of 85°F to 120°F

7. Why Smoke? (cont’d.) Hot smoking:
Temperatures high enough to cook meat
Adds mild and pleasant smoky aroma
Temperature of 120°F–180°F
Process takes two to three hours or longer

8. The Process of Smoking No precise formula
Thickness, humidity, type of wood, smoke density, amount of meat, and smoking temperature all make a difference

9. The Process of Smoking (cont’d.)
Requires close attention:
Check temperatures at all times using an instant-read thermometer
Hardwoods are best for smoking

10. Smokehouses/Smokers Range in price and capacity:
$300 to $2000
20 lbs to 50 lbs or more
When in use, make sure damper is open wide:
Allows moisture to escape
Keeps sausages from sweating
Never overload

11. Smokehouses/Smokers (cont’d.)

12. How a Smokehouse Operates
Operation:
Smoke is generated in smoke chamber
Travels up into smokehouse
Exits through damper
Wood selection:
Resin in wrong types (e.g. cedar):
Creates undesirable aromas and tastes
Gives black, sooty appearance
Hardwoods are the best

13. How a Smokehouse Operates (cont’d.)

14. How a Smokehouse Operates (cont’d.)
Use a mixture of wood to create other aromas and flavors
After smoking, cool in cold water to internal temperature of 140°F
Then refrigerate

15. How a Smokehouse Operates (cont’d.)
Sodium nitrite:
Used in curing to prevent growth of botulinum toxin and other noxious organisms
Fresh raw sausages and some poached sausages do not require curing salts
Kept refrigerated or frozen
Cooked at high enough temperatures to kill bacterial activity

16. How a Smokehouse Operates (cont’d.)
Hobby cooks and professional chefs:
Should buy prepared curing salt
Four ounces nitrites with 100 pounds of kosher (natural) salt and tinted with red dye
Tinted curing mixture (TCM)
Kosher salt, sea salt, and curing salt (TCM)

17. Preparing Salmon for Smoking
Salmon with intestines removed
Making an incision around the salmon’s
head

18. Preparing Salmon for Smoking (cont’d.)
Continuing the cut over the bone and removing the fillet; the cut is repeated on the other side
Removing the pin bones

19. Preparing Salmon for Smoking (cont’d.)
Salting the salmon
Smoking the salmon

20. Summary This chapter reviewed: How to smoke meat and sausages
Flavors various woods impart to smoked foods
The importance of proper temperatures for cold, warm, and hot smoking
Scientific insight into how smoking process works