Demystify please cold smoking and traditional European cold smoking

[curiosity]

G'day all,

Ok my grandmother lived in a small house central europe, mud straw walls dirt floor wood stove, she smoked various meats (winter only) bacon, sausages etc etc under the roof, near the stove exhaust, so it would get continuous smoke until it was done.
I asked her once why under the roof she look and said well for the smoke thinking me a dope for asking not realising the closest I got to smoked meat was from a super market and not having lived in the country since age of 3.
The other reason she gave was so that the cold draught could further dry out the meats.

Living downunder and having many of my European friends here kindly supplying smoked meats from time to time do a similar thing - exception being that its not smoked under the roof but in an outdoor smoker.

Generally all of them do it in this way more or less - the argument amongst them is how long to smoke for and various other small details.

They all in one form or other do the following.

To cure the meat salt and various other spices to taste, they place their meats in tubs or the like for up to 3/7 days. Once that is done they hook the meat and take it to their respective smoke houses.

Wood is per choice but they all seem to use a small barrel of some sort to place the wood into it light it ans smoke, there is of course heat of some sort produced but its fairly well monitored so smoke is there this is done from 2/3 days for several hours each day.

All of their smoke houses have either a fine wire mesh around the top of the sides for a draught and to keep the good old aussie flys away. They all then tend to leave the smoked meat in these smoke houses for several weeks - some for 3/4 weeks others 5/7 weeks that want the meat further dried.

Well what to say the various smoked product they produce is tasty - they remove refrigerate some  remove from the smoke house and have mini meshed boxes where they hang their product unrefrigerated for use as needed.

My grandmother god rest her soul would climb up to the roof take what she needed when required.

In all this, reading about the bradley smoker - it seems to me too good to be true to produce a European type smoked product in so short a time.

I humbly beg forgiveness for any offence by that statement but I am uneducated in the ways of smoked meat BUT I have finally come to a decision to make my own and release myself from the dependence and various other arguments as to whos meat was better smoked. I just want to eat it and enjoy with a cold beer a good wine and fantastic company.

I'm a computer nurd digital is good and anything easy is better still.

Can I achieve the grandmothers tasty smoked meet and be able to show off my product to those that profess to know how in a short tasty effective way with the bradly cold smoke option.


Regards,

[Salmonsmoker]

Welcome Curiosity, the answer is yes. There are many techniques employed by the members here and they will be glad to pitch in their knowledge. You've come to the right place for answers, and they will be along shortly. G'day mate! ;D

[curiosity]

Hey g'day,

Thank you for the quick reply - looking forward to being educated. Will also save some wife agro as well, she spent half the day complaining about how expensive it was to buy good quality smoked product. I let loose the monster, only myself to blame. I've been doing some more research trying to find out how much time is required after smoking to air dry product, so far its almost like asking how long a piece of string is.

Basically being a nurd I'm looking for a formula - 1 lb of x = x days of smoking = x days of left in a breeze to air dry... please don't laugh at my poor terminology - if it was bits and bytes I'd do a lot better.

Regards to all..

[JZ]

Welcome aboard. I can't help with the cold smoking and DRYING part but I can tell you once you start there will be lots of "bites" and no "bits" left over.  :D Sorry I couldn't help myself.   ;D

Others will be along shortly that have done a ton of cold smoking and Drying.

[Salmonsmoker]

Curiosity,
Do a search on the forum for a thread titled Sausage Ingredients. There is a 19 page post( I think by Habanero Smoker) of the different additives used in making sausage and the function they perform. It will help "flesh out" your knowledge base. It's most likely in the susanminor.org recipe section. If I'm pointing you in the wrong direction someone will correct this. I'm 180 degrees opposite to you re: computers.

[RonFromMn]

I also am familiar with "cold smoking" sausage although not leaving it hanging or "curing/drying" for days. That is the way I was brought up was all of our sausage, with the exception of summer sausage, needing to be cooked after taking it out of the freezer. Cure content is a must to ensure safety use appropriate amounts in your sausage and you dont need to worry. Most smoke sausage I do after hanging overnight to dry off, I apply heavy smoke for from 4-6 hours at temps usually not exceeding 75-80 degrees. If you like a smokier taste simply leave it under smoke longer. As far as summer sausage you need to get internal temp up to 150-155 to ensure a fully cooked variety. I know some meat markets smoke their summer sausage in 4 hour increments for as long as 3 days or more.

[3rensho]

In these parts people will cold smoke things like Schwarzwälderschincken for six days or so.