Page 35 - The Lost Book Preserving Food Naturally

The Lost Book of Preserving Food Naturally

thick skin of collagen (a protein) on the meat, called a “pellicle,” which is impermeable to

bacteria.

The weakness of smoking, as a means of food preservation, is that once you cut through

the outer skin of the meat, you expose meat to the air, which can be infected by bacteria.

This is why those colonial homes had such large chimneys. Once the smoked meat was
cut, it was hung in the chimney once again, allowing the fresh surface to smoke and

protecting the meat. But if you don’t have this, once you start eating the meat, you either

have to use it all fairly quickly or have a way to preserve it until it is used.

To be specific, the smoking I’m referring to is called “hot smoking,” which differs from

cold smoking and smoke roasting:

• Cold smoking – A low temperature smoking process (68 – 86°F) used to impart
smoke flavoring into food products. Cold smoking doesn’t dry out meat, like hot

smoking does. But it doesn’t have any ability to preserve the meat.

• Hot smoking – A two-stage process, which starts with cold smoking, then moves

on to a higher temperature (200 – 225°F) to fully cook the meat and kill

microorganisms. It is during this high temperature phase that the pellicle is
formed.

• Smoke roasting – Barbecuing meat in a “smoker.” This is a method of cooking,

more than smoking; but if the lid of the grille is closed, it does infuse some of the
smoke flavor into the meat. It is not intended for preserving meat, but to prepare

it for eating.

Any smoking method tends to dry out the meat, especially hot smoking. That’s mostly

due to the long time that the meat is exposed to the heat. But hot smoking makes up for

this very well, because of the length of time. Because the meat is cooked slowly over a

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