Smoking (cooking)
Ancient method of preserving and flavoring food with smoke.
Smoking is a method of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food, particularly meat, fish, and tea, by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. The practice likely dates back to the Paleolithic era and was later combined with pre-curing in salt or brine, becoming a remarkably effective preservation process adapted by numerous cultures worldwide.
- field
- Food preservation and cooking
- known_for
- Flavoring and preserving food through exposure to smoke
- methods
- Cold smoking, warm smoking, hot smoking, smoke roasting, liquid smoke
- common_fuels
- Wood (alder, oak, beech, hickory, mesquite, pecan, maple, fruit woods), corncobs, peat, sawdust, dried sheep dung
- health_note
- May introduce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, possibly increasing cancer risk; association is debated
Lore & Background
The smoking of food likely dates back to the Paleolithic era. This process was later combined with pre-curing the food in salt or salty brine, resulting in a remarkably effective preservation process that was adapted and developed by numerous cultures around the world. Until the modern era, smoking was of a more 'heavy duty' nature as the main goal was to preserve the food. Large quantities of salt were used in the curing process and smoking times were quite long, sometimes involving days of exposure. The advent of modern transportation made it easier to transport food products over long distances and the need for the time and material intensive heavy salting and smoking declined. Smoking became more of a way to flavor than to preserve food.
Reader's Guide
Smoking (cooking) holds significance as one of humanity's oldest food preservation techniques, with roots in the Paleolithic era. It evolved from a necessity for long-term storage into a method primarily used for flavoring, especially after modern transportation reduced the need for heavy salting and prolonged smoking. Different cultures employ various fuels—such as alder, oak, hickory, mesquite, peat, corncobs, and even dried sheep dung—each imparting distinct flavors. The process involves three main temperature ranges: cold smoking (20–30 °C), warm smoking (25–40 °C), and hot smoking (52–80 °C), with hot smoking cooking the food while cold smoking leaves it raw. Liquid smoke, derived from smoke compounds in water, offers an alternative for adding smoke flavor. The practice may introduce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are debated as a potential cancer risk. Despite technological refinements, the basic steps of smoking remain essentially the same as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Did You Know?
- In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is now more commonly used.
- In Iceland, dried sheep dung is used to cold-smoke fish, lamb, mutton, and whale.
- Cold smoking does not cook food; meats should be fully cured before cold smoking.
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