Cold Smoking- Another Way of Smoking
Are you aware of the word cold smoking, seems very scientific to me!
I was in complete awe when I knew that cold smoking also exists and wondered to myself have I been living under a rock all this time.
Cold smoking is when you give minimal heat to your meat to give it that smoky flavor. This way can preserve food for longer periods of time, you need to smoke your meat below 80 degrees and it may take up to several days.
There are many items that you can cold smoke such as; tofu, veggies, cheese, nuts, and fruits. But is it safe? Long ago when there were no refrigerators people used to use this method to preserve food. It can be safe if you do it the right way. If you fail to monitor the temperature and the temperature goes to 40-140 degrees there is a high chance that your food will be a target to bacteria and that may cause some serious illness or death in most cases but if done right there is nothing to lose.
So How do you do it??
First, set up your smoker. You need to modify your smoker as finding a cold smoker almost impossible. You need two chambers; one where there is fuel such as the burning of wood and the other chamber must be connected to the meat chamber where the meat can get slow heat. For good smoking, you will need wood as charcoal will create more heat than smoke.
Secondly, choose your way of curing.
Dry curing:
In dry curing, first coat the meat with salt for a day.
Use curing salt with added preservatives. Add flavors as you like.
Weigh the meat and rub 3% salt to the meat and vacuum seal it for 5 days
Wet Curing:
Use 1 tbsp. per cup of water ratio. Add your favorite flavors.
Soak your meat in the brine for a day.
Now, that’s done, you can now move on to smoking. Take the meat to the smoker and add it there. Let it reach room temperature before smoking it. Monitor the temperature carefully, don’t let the temperature fall in the danger zone (40-140 degrees).
Uncooked meat can be stored for up to 2-3 months while cooked meat can take about 1 month. Be sure to refrigerate it well.