The Maze of Smoked Meat

As I sit here again thinking about what an article explaining smoking meat should consist of, I am still amazed at the amount of data there is to relate about the different types of curing and cooking techniques available. So this post is still going to be a kind of incomplete outline of what’s what in the world of smoked meat.

First, the history of smoking meat goes hand in hand with the history of civilization. The details maybe lost in the sands of time. The needs, however, are not difficult to conjure up. One key motivator was the need for a way to preserve meat, a precious commodity, for extended periods without refrigeration or canning.

Cooking at what we would call normal temperatures (above 300 degrees f) was the first answer. This was good for dinner but had some disadvantages for long term preservation. Cooking alone makes meat safe to eat but leaves the meat open to attack from bacteria, fungus or mold, and oxidation. In a relatively short period of time the quality of the meat is affected and then the edibility starts a short trip downhill.

I suppose adventurous souls experimented with different additives and processes until the tribes folk survived the experiments. Noting what seemed to make the meat more durable, they may have even found ingredients that made the meat more tasty. As is so often the case, there was more than one way to accomplish the goals of longer lasting meat products.

The process can include 3 steps.

1. Curing or brining
2. Rinsing
3. Cooking

So simple, but there are many choices in these three simple steps.

Curing or brining is done to load the meat with preservatives and flavorings. The curing process can involve a liquid brine in which the meat is soaked for many days or it can be a dry cure that the meat is coated with day after day until the meat is ready to be cooked. It can even be a process that cures the meat without any cooking needed. There is even a process where the cure is placed into the meat as it is ground up and then cured in casings without the need of cooking. Another method does not use preservatives added to the meat in these ways but is simply the long application of wood smoke in a warm environment. The smoke acts as a preservative in this case and the cooking (more like drying) is done at very low temperatures (about 100-120 degrees f). The processes are as varied as the imaginations of the people who developed them.

After the curing/brining process there is a cooking process. At least in many smoked meats, cooking is used. We can break these down into three categories.

1. Low heat cooking
2. Very low heat cooking
3. Cold cure techniques (Where time is inserted in place of heat)

They are not interchangeable. The cooking process will dictate the amount of cure needed and the type in some cases. It’s important to have an idea of what is needed to make a product in a safe way. These cooking techniques are low enough in temperature and slow enough that bacteria can grow to dangerous levels unless there is enough preservative in the meat to keep the bacteria in check.

Not all processes will produce a meat product that will be desirable to the modern palette. Many of the ways of the past were necessary, but not always tasty. Some of the products were so salty we couldn’t stand to eat them, like salted beef. These products were durable but loaded with so much salt they had to be soaked for hours just to make them edible. Modern preservatives allow us to make food safe without depriving the ocean of all of its salt (yeah, humor is in short supply). This gives us better control over flavor and a safer finished product. We also can leave more moisture in the meat since refrigeration and freezing allows us to store the meat without affecting the flavor.

I haven’t covered everything but that will give an idea of the scope of the topic I plan to cover in these articles. If you learn of other techniques or have a different point of view about these topics let me know. I have some experience on the subject but I also know there are many other people with more to add.

Have a great day and look for more on smoked meat to come.