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Experiment, experiment, experiment . . . when it comes to home smoking the only thing you need is a creative mind. Henrietta Clancy discovers why science takes a back seat when smoke is involved . . .
PHOTOGRAPHY JO HAMPSON / DENNIS BUTTERY / ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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SMOKING

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fresh features
SMOKING

UISINE of the caveman, staple of the Roman and sustenance of the Eskimo, smoked food has left a sizeable scorch mark on culinary history. Before the invention of the refrigerator in the 1920s, smoking meant that meats and fish could be safely transported and enjoyed far from where they originated. Those Romans liked to travel, and ignorant of food miles they liked to feast luxuriously on their favourite treats regardless of their location. The smoking process would be prefaced with a salting or brining period to enhance its preservative powers, the flesh in question would then be dried out and treated to the smokes antimicrobial properties, resulting in a product with a dramatically increased shelf life. However, as smoking has become less of a necessity and more a question of taste, so our smoking habits have changed. And somewhere along the line, smoked food has become pigeonholed; it is at once regarded as

A* STUDENTS
Fresh from the course in Cumbria, teachers Dennis and Marie Buttery arrived home to mid Wales with their minds full of smoke, ambition and advanced architectural plans. As a carpentry teacher Dennis used his technical wizardry to knock up this masterpiece. Put simply, its a barbecue with a stainless steel cover (foreground), with the opening of a hepsleeve pipe in the back wall that leads underground to the wooden shed (background), which is well lined and has vent holes at the top. Dennis is really quite pleased with his efforts. Fortunate enough to live on a smallholding located in the midst of a big shooting area, rabbit, partridge and pheasant are readily available to the couple and have already made for good smoking, We did our first batch last week, along with salmon, trout, garlic, and eggs. The eggs were particularly delicious: in a game pie, in fish dishes . . . It wasnt rural Wales that drew Dennis to kitchen creativity, but a sabbatical year that the couple spent in a tiny village in the middle of the Loire 25 years ago. Whilst Marie went out to teach English, Dennis was left caring for their young daughter, cooking quince jelly with French housewives and generally turning a bit gastro. When, back on British soil, his interests turned to smoking, he was keen to see how other people did it and took his reading around the subject to the extreme by going on a couple of smokery visits and finally deciding that a course would placate his irrational fear of botulism and take the mysticism out of the process. Marie admits that although she also went on the course, she hasnt been involved with the building process of the smoker, but has primarily been occupied in a tasting role instead. This is no less important, she insists, when youre experimenting so wildly. So far shes been a huge fan of the smoked trout I actually think its better than smoked salmon but the thing that was absolutely, mind blowingly brilliant in her opinion was the smoked chicken,which Dennis whipped into a chicken pie with those lovely smoked eggs.

something of a luxury, usually limited to salmon and reserved for the top of blinis on New Years Eve, and, more commonly, a flavouring, as with bacon. Tragically, many of these smoked or smoky options have had as much contact with smoke as smoky bacon crisps have had with meat, in reality theyve been painted with a liquid smoke thats often had other flavourings added too. As any connoisseur will tell you, this shortcut grossly underestimates the complexity of genuine smoked food, whose appeal lies in its ability to unearth previously undetected flavours, not its smoky mask. But smoking food using traditional methods can be a pricey process not only is it time consuming, but when you smoke something it loses 25 per cent of its weight, giving you less meat for your money. Which is why, if we want genuine smoked food at affordable prices, the only sensible solution is to join the ranks of the home smokers. Of course, it would hardly be worth the effort of adopting a new hobby if it were merely to cheapen your salmon and better your bacon, but for the experimental chef the possibilities are endless. Whereas historically it was mainly perishable goods namely meat and fish that were smoked, nowadays there is nothing to stop you giving your cornflakes an edge or jazzing up your pick n mix. Jo Hampson and her partner Georgina Perkins encourage precisely this type of experimentation on the courses they run in Cumbria, where you can quite feasibly pitch up for a weekend with dreams of smoking traditional cabbage varieties in a treasure chest, and find them eager to help. No previous experience of smoking food is required to join a course in fact, when the couple upped and left their senior jobs at Thames Valley Police almost 10 years ago and bought the already established Old Smokehouse near Penrith, Jo admits that she didnt particularly like smoked food. Luckily, after years spent producing commercial quantities of the stuff, her taste buds acquired a definite fondness for it, and when they relocated to a converted barn on the fells, they reverted to hobbyist smoking and began teaching anyone and everyone foodies, hunters, fishers on their motley crew of home smokers.

the intensity of the brine and flavourings can be experimented with: spices, wine, cider concoct your potions as you see fit. Your choice should also take whether you are hot or cold smoking into consideration. Everything must be cold smoked initially to develop the smoky flavour, and this alone is sufficient if the product can be eaten raw (smoked salmon) or if it doesnt require cooking (cheese), both foods that would happily spend a day in the smoker, developing exciting depths of flavour. Hot smoking is when you give something access to cold smoke for about three hours, before increasing the temperature to finish the cooking. Ideally this would be in the same place, amongst smoke, but you could take it out at this stage and pop it in your cooker.

that starts at about 30 and can be popped on any heat source stove, campfire or barbecue to a more serious piece of stand-alone equipment that resembles R2D2 at 300. As with any hobby, if you want to bankrupt yourself getting the gear, you can do so with ease. A smoker that looks like its been created from the dismantled parts of an eighteenth century steam engine is available at just under 2,500, although purchasing this one slightly invalidates the savings youll be making by smoking your own salmon. The basic model will start you off, and the fancy one will certainly make a grand statement in the garden (and allow you to regulate heat and smoke), but there are plenty in the middle that will do the job effectively.

of the fish, only to be served something quite different. The smoke emanating from my plate was so strong that it attacked my nostrils before my taste buds had even registered its presence. It wasnt unpleasant, but it certainly wasnt what I was used to; the arctic char had been smoked using sheep dung, imparting a strong earthy flavour that masked the true character of the fish. The use of dung is a result of the scarcity of trees in Iceland; similarly the English preference for oak is a result of its abundance here. Although a variety of smoking materials are out there, Jo generally uses oak as it gives a good taste and it burns at a lower rate than a lot of other woods something that makes cold smoking easier to regulate. Its also interesting to note that what we want out of a wood has changed throughout time. The Scandinavian black ham was originally smoked with a coniferous wood for the purpose of imparting a thick tarry residue, which ultimately served as a shield to keep flies out. With flies being less of a concern these days, we tend to prefer hard woods to soft, as they dont leave a residue something that is now believed to be carcinogenic. If we do use a hard wood its usually used at the end of smoking to impart a flavour, rather than overwhelm. And again, if you want to spend you can, and pre-packaged smoking wood pellets, dust and chips are readily available to buy online in flavours ranging from maple to Jack Daniels.

NO SMOKE WITHOUT FUEL

Oak is used traditionally across the UK and in most parts of Europe, and is undoubtedly the most popular fuel. Two types of oak are used red and white. Both give a heavy smoke flavour, but red is sweeter. Beech is used in Germany, and is one of the preferred woods over which the famed Nurnberger Bratwurst are grilled. Hickory is a deciduous tree with native species in the USA, China and Mexico. It is especially popular in Southern USA where they are abundant and commonly used for smoking and barbecuing. Often used for commercial smoking, including ham and bacon. Alder is a traditional smoking wood in Europe, although these days it tends to be less popular than oak and hickory. Its also common in the Pacific northwest salmon industry in the US, where it is available in large quantities. It lends a hint of sweetness to game and seafood. Like mulberry, citrus and willow it is a mildflavoured, softer wood and doesnt produce the same potent embers as harder woods. Fruit woods like apple, pear, quince and cherry are aromatic woods, a small amount of which can be added towards the end for a special fruity flavour. They give off less smoke than other woods because their bark is so thin, and are often used for poultry. Mesquite is a deciduous tree that grows in northern Mexico and the south-western USA, and as such is the cowboys choice of smoke. Its a powerful flavouring wood that gives a good smoky flavour, and is most commonly used for poultry and meat. Sheep dung is used for traditional Icelandic smoked lamb, somthing that youll find holding court at the centre of an Icelandic Christmas meal. Strong and earthy. Pecan is a cousin to hickory and also a powerful flavouring wood. Sassafras generates an extremely sweetspicy smoke, often used for jerky in the Deep South. Like bay and pimiento, it produces identifiable flavors which some might find intrusive. Use sparingly until you are familiar with the taste.

Light the fire

When youve hung or placed your food in the chamber, light your fire, lick your chops in anticipation and wait to be pleasantly surprised, as Jo insists that you never know what youre going to get, when you smoke a piece of food properly the smoke brings out flavours that were unnoticeable beforehand. One of the most vital things to remember is to keep the temperature under control (you dont want a flame!), and Jo suggests smoking a cheese with other goods to act as an indicator; if it begins to melt, reduce the heat. And when it comes to time, take the weather into consideration; a windy day is ideal because the smoker wont get too hot, on a rainy day things will take longer because of the moisture in the air. And Jos parting words of wisdom? Remember that home smoking is not a science, its an art. Even if youve done everything according to the book, the weather may change. And have fun, theres a theatre to smoking food so have people round for dinner and smoke their salmon starter in front of them whilst you sip Champagne. (No, the cavemen might not have done it quite like that, but Im sure the Romans werent too far off).

The machine
The smoker can be constructed from pretty much anything, from the discarded shell of a car to a hollow tree, just so long as you have the imagination and patience to make it work. Jo assures me that its all been done: a biscuit tin, wardrobe, old privy and a filing cabinet, the latter being a personal invention and favourite, I light a fire in the bottom drawer and put the salmon in the top drawer!. The most important thing is that the smoke must rise, but this doesnt mean that the smoke chamber has to be directly below the food; it can just as easily be positioned to the side with a tunnel connecting the two. Of course if youre willing to part with the pennies you can speed things up at this stage by buying a home smoker. There are plenty to choose from, from the basic stovetop smoker

Chips, pellets and dust

The same level of thrift can extend to your smoking fuel you dont have to spend a fortune on West Country Salt and Hickory Chips, Jo says and there is nothing to stop you chopping up old furniture and collecting pencil sharpenings to toss on the smoker and give your food that personal touch (Kitchen Chair Smoked Duck Breast seasoned with Caran dAche Smoked Peppercorns anyone?). Easier alternatives might be paying your local timber merchant a visit, or befriending a carpenter for his scraps. Oak tends to be the smoking fuel of choice in the UK, but different materials are used in different areas of the world, and this isnt necessarily limited to wood; on a recent trip to Iceland I ordered some smoked artic char, expecting something that resembled smoked salmon, with a subtle oak smokiness that complemented the velvety flavour

Salt at the very brining

Jo promises that its easy, cheap and fun and can be broken down into several simple steps. Anything can be thrown on to the smoker, and pretty much everything has been, most of which required either dry salting or wet brining first to bring down the moisture content and help with flavouring. As a matter of course Jo always uses dry salt for salmon and brine for meat, but

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THE EXPERIMENTAL SMOKER

A self-professed aspiring Heston, Ben Norum, 21, from Chichester in West Sussex was given a smoker by his parents for Christmas last year and has hardly stopped using it since. A compact, portable smoker that relies on two meths burners placed beneath the tray, it measures just 14 x 11 x 4 inches and costs around 50. This type of smoker can be used indoors and, although his family have certainly enjoyed the culinary results of their gift, Ben admits that they have also suffered for their kindness, There has been frequent coughing and watering of eyes as Ive smoked indoors on wet and cold days and the smell does tend to linger . . . Ben is into his kitchen gadgetry in a big way and also owns an espuma, ice-cream-maker and food dehydrator but declares the smoker to be his favourite toy. This isnt simply the result of a passion for smoked food either, but rather the endless possibilities that the process creates, The length of smoking, temperature of smoking and, of course, medium of smoking all impacts so much on the flavour of the food that virtually any result can be achieved. Im also yet to discover a food that cant be smoked. Obviously some of my experiments have been less successful than others, but all have been very edible. Having spent the past 12 months avidly smoking away with a range of raw ingredients, cooked staples, and a variety of woods, Ben has provided a couple of tasting notes . . . His only tip being not to overdo it with the smoke, as all youll end up with is an overriding smoke taste. Oak-Smoked Potato Wedges Cooked as normal and then smoked for a few minutes, these are great with paprika or a barbecue sauce. Sweet potatoes also work well. Hickory-Infused Barbecue Sauce Much better than anything you can buy. I make a simple tomato salsa with tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli then place it in a bowl in the hot smoker for about five minutes. Cherry-Wood Smoked Liver Simply hotsmoke from raw for about 10 minutes. Any liver works well, as does venison and pigeon. Jack Daniels Cinnamon-Smoked Bananas Hot smoke bananas in their skins for 15 minutes with a mixture of Jack Daniels whisky barrel wood and cinnamon bark, and serve with ice cream as a twist on banana split. What is also nice is pureing the bananas and making a smoky banana ice cream. Both go well with a chocolate and/or whisky sauce. Pine-Smoked Chicken I tried this after Christmas and used our old Christmas tree needles to make the smoke. The pine flavour is quite subtle so chicken lets it come through better than stronger meats. The first time I did this, I smoked the chicken from raw but by the time it was cooked it was very smoky, so would recommend partially cooking it and just smoking for about five minutes. Smoked Black Olives These are great with drinks or as part of an antipasti, any smoke is good but hickory is my favourite. They also make a nice tapenade. Smoked Prunes I just bunged some prunes in when I was smoking some garlic on one occasion and discovered that they are really moreish. The softer the better, so tinned ones work quite well. A dark smoke like cherry is particularly good. Feeling particularly experimental that day, I also made them into both a prune vinegar by blending with balsamic and an ice cream and would highly recommend both despite how bizarre they sound! Smoked Coffee This was inspired by my curious liking for coffee mixed with Lapsang Souchong tea, which is smoked. Cherry wood, bourbon-soaked oak and, of course, Lapsang Souchong tea itself are my favourite smoking mediums. Smoked Dark Chocolate This works well in savoury dishes such as mole or in desserts. Lapsang Souchong is also good here but a mix of Bourbon soaked oak and Jack Daniels whisky barrel wood is my favourite. Simply place the chocolate in a bowl with a little milk to stop it sticking and in about five to six minutes youll have melted smoky chocolate.

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Smoky Jos Course

Enjoy a one day or weekend course at Smoky Jos in Cumbria for 99 and 199 respectively. Special B&B packages and the option to buy a smoker and 1 day course combined are also available. www.smokyjos.co.uk

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