Concept
Smoked meat is the result of a method of preparing red meat, white meat, and seafood which originated in the Paleolithic Era. Smoking adds flavor, improves the appearance of meat through the Maillard reaction, and when combined with curing it preserves the meat. When meat is cured then cold-smoked, the smoke adds phenols and other chemicals that have an antimicrobial effect on the meat. Hot smoking has less impact on preservation and is primarily used for taste and to slow-cook the meat. Interest in barbecue and smoking is on the rise worldwide. Generally meat is smoked using hardwood or wood pellets made from hardwood; softwood is not recommended due to increased PAH from the resin. Wood smoke adds flavor, aroma, and helps with preservation. There are two types of smoking: cold smoking generally occurs below and has more preservative value. Hot smoking generally occurs above . Most woods are seasoned and not used green. There are many types of wood used for smoking; a partial list includes: Woods with a mild flavor: Alder, apple, apricot, ash, birch, cherry, maple, peach, pear. Woods with a medium flavor: Almond, hickory, pecan, post oak, pasania. Woods with a strong flavor: Acacia, black walnut, chokecherry, grapevine, mesquite. Other woods and organic matter: Avocado, bay, beech, butternut, carrotwood, camphor, castanopsis, chestnut, citrus woods, cottonwood, crabapple, fig, guava, gum, hackberry, kiawe, lilac, madrone, mulberry, olive, peat, plum, persimmon, pimento, tea, and willow. Close to 80% of all fish caught in most African nations is smoked. Traditionally the processing and smoking of fish has been done by women. The primary method of smoking is hot smoking, the flavor from hot smoking preferred by local consumers. Traditional smoking methods include using bamboo racks over smoky fires, mud ovens and placing the fish directly on smoldering woods and grasses. Modern methods of smoking include using re-purposed oil drums, brick ovens, and Chorkor ovens.
