Smoking

Some time ago I built myself a cold smoker out of old wooden pallets. I had a number of aims in building this smoker.

• It had to be big enough that I could get a whole (at least partially butchered) deer in it.
• It had to be pracical enough to be used for small items too, like trout and even for chillies.
• It had to be a COLD smoker; I didn't want a hot smoker. 
• I wanted the smoke to some from a real source; actual smoke from an actual fire, not that fke smoke-in-a-can stuff.
• I wanted to have the flexibility to be able to make smoke from a variety of things; like wood chippings, shavings, dried herbs, whatever.

It went ok. The smoker I ended up with is about a metre cubed, so I have lots of room. It is water proof, but had a few holes from which the smoke can escape; it is important that you don't have stale smoke, you want it to be constantly flowing through the smoker and whatever you are smoking. Here is a picture of the smoker I ended up with. You can see there is an inner lining; I thought this would be useful to keep some of the smoke in, but ended up ripping most of it out as you will want the smoke to escape. Other than that, the design worked really well.

I dug a fire pit and lined it with bricks. I used terracotta piping to feed the smoke from the brick lined fire pit to the smoker, a few feet away, raised on blocks. My method was to get a good fire going and let it burn until you have some good sized coals smouldering away nicely. 

Then cover these with your wood shavings/chippings/dried herbs or whatever, and cover the pit with a good cover; I found a sheet of corragated iron worked really well. When covered, the smoke gets drawn through into the smoker and out the holes at the top of the sides. 

There are three main things that I have smoked that I have had real success with.

Trout - If you like smoked salmon, you are highly likely to think smoked trout is just as good, if not better. I am lucky enough that my father loves to fish for trout and so I end up with a nice bag full of trout every now and then. Usually, these are cured and then smoked. 

The cure I use is 1kg salt, coarse if possible, with a big handful of soft brown sugar. Then you can add any herbs you like; I like to throw in some fennel, lemon wedges, parsley, peppercorns, celery leaves, anything like that is good. Give it a really good mix together. Pack your trout fillets into the box in layers covered in the cure, then put into the fridge. After a couple of days take them out and turn them over, and pack them back in for another couple of days. The cure will pull out moisture from the fish and penetrate it with those flavours too.

Then wash the fillets off with water and line them on grills ready for the smoker, skin side up as shown above. Smoke them with something like oak chips or shavings if you can. Give them a good steady smoking for five or six hours. Make sure the smoke is cool and not hot; trout will hot smoke easily and that is not what we are going for here. Then, remove and slice and enjoy. Fillets can be frozen and taste just as good after defrosting, so worth doing a big batch if you have the fish available.

Venison - Living in the New Forest, venison is pretty common. I made friends with someone local who shoots deer and so I have a good source of fresh venison which I can butcher and cook any way I like. A very good use for an abundance of venison is to cure and smoke a haunch. Imagine a Parma ham, but made from a haunch of venison. It is much easier than you might think too. (You can see below I have most of the deer in the smoker - don't forget the liver too - smoked venison liver is superb!)

Take your haunch of venison, on the bone, and make sure is it stripped of fur, unwanted fat and sinew. I would then smoke it for about 6 hours at least (as shown above - on a grill so the smoke can get to the meat), using oak and whatever dried herbs I can get hold of. Then it's time to cure it. Prepare a brine for your curing; for venison I would generally take a plastic (food quality) box (make sure it fits in your fridge), put in one kilogram of salt, a bottle of red wine (good stuff, not cheap), stir together well. 

Then you can add all manner of herbs and things to flavour the cure. I might add pepper corns, juniper berries, slices of lemon, lime or orange, herbs like rosemary, sage, parsley, bay, thyme, mint, anything you like. Stir this in well. It will look a mess, but it's ok. Put the haunch, still on the bone, into the wine-brine cure. Use a metal spoon to spoon the cure over the haunch; make sure it gets into all the nooks and cranies. Then put it in the fridge, covered. 

Every morning and every night you will need to pull it out, turn over the haunch and spoon the salty cure over the meat. Repeat this for at least 3 days for a small haunch and 5 days for a big one. Then pull the haunch out and it is time to clean it and air dry it. 

This is easy - just wrap it in muslin (so the flies cannot get to it) and hang it outside, in the shade, for at least 10 days. Then pull it down, unwrap it and clean/scrub it gently with cider vinegar to kill any mould that might have formed (this is normal). 

Then run it under the cold tap, let it dry, and then slice it into very thin slithers to taste.

Chillies - Chipotle chillies are smoked hot chillies; traditionally a Jalapeno chilli, but you can smoke any type you like and I tend to smoke slightly hotter chillies like a Ring of Fire chilli. My method differs from the traditional, on the basis that I don't live in a hot climate and therefore some of the preperation needs some technological aid. I grow my chillies and pick them when very ripe. Then I will use a dyhydrator (similar to this one) to partially dyhydrate the chilli - don't completely dry it out or it will struggle to soak up those smokey fumes. Then I smoke them for at least 5 hours; 8 hours is best. 

When they are done, I like to take some of them in this state and use them partially dehydrated; they dont keep so long, but the smoking will dehydrate them a little more than they are already and they work great chopped into stews and chilli (of course!). 

The rest I will then dehydrate more so they are almost completely dry, but not quite brittle. In this state they will last for at least a year in a sealed jar, keeping that great smokey taste.