thumb|17th-century diagram for a [[smokehouse for producing smoked meat]]

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.

Smoking with wood

Generally meat is smoked using hardwood or wood pellets made from hardwood; softwood is not recommended due to the resin producing a larger quantity of PAHs. Wood smoke adds flavor, aroma, and helps with preservation. 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.

Types

African fish smoking

thumb|Smoking fish near Dakar, Sénégal

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. When Europeans first came to North America, they brought with them smoking techniques from Europe and Central Asia and combined those with the Native American techniques.

Bacon

thumb|American "streaky" bacon

Bacon originated with petaso, a Roman version of what is now called bacon. The etymology of the word bacon has four possibilities; the Franceis word bacon, the Althochdeutsch word bahho, the Old Low Franconian word baken, and the Common Germanic word bakkon. John Harris of Calne, England, was the first to commercialize production of bacon in the 1770s. Bacon is primarily pork, depending on the type; it can come from the belly, back, loin or side. The preparation of bacon varies by type, but most involve curing and smoking. Some of the types of bacon include American ( side bacon or streaky bacon), buckboard (shoulder bacon), Canadian (back bacon), British and Irish (rasher), Australian (middle bacon), Italian (pancetta), Hungarian (szalonna), German (speck), Japanese (beikon), and Slovakian (oravská). Bacon can also be produced from beef, lamb, and wild game.

Country ham

thumb|Country ham

Country ham is a popular ham originally developed by American Colonists who took traditional Native American fish smoking practices and used them for pork. Country hams traditionally were made in the American Southeast from Virginia to Missouri. Most country hams are trimmed, wrapped, cured in salt, sugar, pepper and various spices. In modern times, some preparations add nitrates for food safety. After curing the hams are smoked for at least 12 hours, then hung to dry for 9 to 12 months. Some traditional processes can take years from curing to being ready to consume.

Finnan haddie

thumb|Smoking Finnan haddie

Finnan haddie is a cold smoked haddock that originated in medieval times in the Scottish village of Findon. Traditionally the haddock is smoked with green wood and peat. Smoked finnan haddie is the colour of straw, newer commercial methods of drying without smoke produce a gold or yellow colour. Katsuobushi is made from skipjack tuna that is washed, quartered smoked with oak, pasania, or castanopsis wood, and cooled repeatedly for a month. Some producers will spray the fish with Aspergillus glaucus to promote further drying. After one to 24 months the fish will be katsu (hard) and ready for use. To make bonito flakes it is shaved very thinly using a Katsuobushi grater box.

Montreal-style smoked meat

thumb|Montreal smoked meat sandwich from [[Schwartz's.]]

A type of kosher-style deli meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket with spices. The brisket is allowed to absorb the flavours over a week, is then hot smoked to cook through, and finally is steamed to completion. The preparation method may be similar to New York pastrami, but Montreal smoked meat is cured in seasoning with more cracked peppercorns and savoury flavourings, such as coriander, garlic, and mustard seeds, and significantly less sugar.

Pastrami

thumb|Pastrami

Pastrami is most often made with beef brisket; it can be made with other cuts of beef. The meat is cured in a brine (most often dry), after drying, it is coated in spices and smoked. Romanians first started brining, spicing, and smoking the beef and created what is now called pastrami. Those that immigrated to Canada mostly settled in Montreal used a different brining technique and spices and called it smoked meat. Pastrami is still produced in Southwest Asia and the Middle East and is called Pastirma, basterma or basturma. The duck is marinated in a pickling liquid then smoked with camphor and tea leaves. After smoking, the duck is deep fried, boned and served over rice. However, the study was restricted to a small Slovenian population in Hungary, where the local smoke curing process produces levels of contaminants roughly eight times as high as standard processes elsewhere.