No one wants to work all day in a smoky environment but during a cold winter there is still something strangely warm and comforting about the smell of a real wood fire.

Having recently returned to smoking food, I can better understand others who smoke; it’s not so much the act itself more the time in which you do it. With internet shopping and daily deliveries of every conceivable product from all over the world, coupled with better refrigeration and packaging, the need to preserve our food has fallen from the list of necessities, smoking being one of them.

So why take what appears to be a retrograde step and return to smoking your own?

For one thing you’re aware of what’s on as well as what’s in your product because you put it there, unlike some commercial products. But the main reason must be the quality of the end result. The euphoria must be similar to that of “growing your own”.

Being involved personally in the whole process, the anticipation/expectation slowly grows with the smells alone hourly reminding you of what’s to come until you are ready to burst with excitement at the final result. If you have judged and matched correctly the quality of the base product and the smoke medium, then the taste will equal the anticipation.

While some restaurants include smoked products on their menus, it is more likely to be hot smoked in minutes which although not preserving or improving the shelf life of the product, does cook it while enhancing the flavour albeit only on the surface. This combination is common in the orient where products such as oily fish are steamed then briefly hot smoked before drying.

The obvious advantage of cold smoking, at ideally about 25°C, other than that of preservation, which incidentally if not specifically smoked for preservation must still be treated as raw product, is that the low temperature smouldering of wood releases vapour rather than harmful carbon particulates. Cold smoking one assumes evolved naturally. Freshly killed meat hung from the rafters, presumably to keep it away from the animals and the flies, kept longer when subjected to smoke from the hearth.

The tarry substances in wood smoke not only help kill bacteria, it forms a protective layer on the surface of the food sealing it from the air. Coastal dwellers may have had their catches lasting longer because they washed their kill in the sea rather than fresh water, hence salting became part of the preservation process allowing them to sell any excess to inland communities.

Perhaps the reason that cold smoking has reduced in popularity is the increase of water retentive chemicals being used commercially to supposedly enhance juiciness, or added to increase the selling weight of the product, makes smoking almost impossible, requiring more salting to extract the added water content before smoking can take place.

Salt is introduced to the product by two methods: as a dry salt or as a brine solution called osmosis, being the process by which the cells in the product try to equalise with the salt or solution outside the cells – a little water out, a little salt in. This part of the salting is similar to the salting process used in the preparation of the famous ‘jamon’ from Spain before their process of drying.

Choosing your products well for smoking is a must as although there is no guarantee that the first attempt will produce the results you hoped for, poor quality product will not increase in quality no matter how long you smoke it.

The degree of salting and the length of the smoke are questions of individual taste but good preparation is essential to reduce the risks. Although there are some readymade mixtures of curing salts that permit small quantities of potassium nitrate (saltpetre) and sodium nitrate, I prefer my smoking naked.

There is no need for my method to use saltpetre. Although a permitted preservative, its use is strictly controlled and is usually used to keep bacon pink. Nor do I favour the practice of injecting any product with any solution, as any route for solution becomes a potential route for bacteria.

So the secret to smoking is in the quality of the product, the brining by salt or solution, the time and recipe, hot or cold smoke – and no, liquid smoke will not do and is not the same – the temperature and length of smoke and of course the type of medium and wood you use. Simple really. I try to use a minimum of salt and prefer cold smoking to hot and use chemical free oak chippings.

Start simply, at home perhaps, and choose a well known favourite such as pork to start. As our last smoking session proved, two slices of fried own smoked bacon between two slices of homemade bread makes the best bacon sandwich ever. At the same time we also produced two sides of smoked salmon, four ham hocks, a couple of racks of ribs, some quail and even some smoked salt.

It is worth mentioning that I’ve not forgotten the complicated American style of smoking and all its variations and styles more commonly referred to as Barbecue, Bar-B-Que or even just BBQ. But there needs to be a lot more room for research, which we are currently engaged in as well as print space before I can interpret it properly without offending too many aficionados.

After much searching I have at last found a source of French oak wood chippings at a very reasonable price but unless I can find a way to transport them to Spain cheaply I shall have to continue explaining to airport staff why my bags are stuffed full of sawdust. “Pinocchio has committed suicide” or “my ventriloquist dummy has fallen victim to a veracious African termite” may work as an excuse once or twice but the trouble is, if I’m honest and say that I’m a smoker, I’ll probably get locked up.

Words - Edwin Cheeseman