Often, when people talk about smoking meat, we need to specify whether it is cold, warm, or hot-smoked. This will often dictate whether you need to cure the meat or not. After studying, teaching, and learning about cured and smoking meats, this article will dive into what I have learned and how it can be effectively categorized. Curing meat before …
Wood Types for Smoking Cured Meats
I’ve used about 15 different kinds of wood to smoke-cured meats. Often, I’ve found it easier to categorize wood used for smoking into light, medium, and intense flavors. The best woods for smoking-cured meats are often found locally in abundance and sustainable. Local, Non-resin-filled, deciduous wood is often the best wood for smoking cured meats. This has been evident for …
Can you Cure Meat with Just Smoke?
Curing and Smoking is often seen as a similar or the same process and are often related or depending on the recipe. However, the question is – is smoking meat a type of curing? Let’s get into this in detail! I have cured all different types of meat whether it’s red meat or different types of fish. For some things …
Different Cuts and Meat to Use for Making Bacon
Pork is the main type of meat you can use for bacon, however, there are many different meats and styles with various cuts, let’s go into some detail and explore the options. I have been making bacon from farmed and wild meat for over 20 years. I have used many different methods and styles, basically every style there is I …
4 Ways to Smoke Bacon (Even Without a Smoker)
I thought it would be helpful to write about the main different ways and methods you can use to get smoked bacon, as I’ve started structuring my masterclass in bacon making. You can choose a variety of ways and equipment, depending on what set-up you currently have. To be hopefully helpful, I will include a method to create smoked bacon, …
The Online ‘Every Bacon Style’ Course
Bacon-making at home can be done in many ways, I am putting together an online course that will show you literally every way possible that I know and have learned over 20 years. I’ve noticed online content has a massive variation in how bacon is made, also there is confusion over the ways you make it. Showcasing it has a …
Is Bacon a Cured Meat? (Explaining Uncured vs Cured Labelling)
Bacon is a cured meat that comes in many different variations, I have made bacon for 20 years and bought and enjoyed many varieties over the years. Bacon is by far considered one of the most popular meat products due to its amazingly robust flavors and versatility of use. But there are some variations and details I want to talk …
Useful Books About Sausage Making (Sausage or Salami)
If you search for the best book on sausage making, you will find a lot of books about this topic on Google, the good old algorithm. However, you want the best of the best. One answer that will give you that answer is someone who actually reads them, crazy! I want to make sure you’re getting the best book if …
Is Cold Smoking Bacon Safe? (Detailed Answer)
Cold-smoking bacon and whether it’s safe depends on how you go about it. Just think about the bacon in supermarkets; most are cold-smoked. I’ve been cold smoking bacon and other cured meats for nearly 20 years, and I write on this site, my online resource, which is all about curing and cold smoking. It all started when I had some …
Cold Smoked Bacon I Make at Home (Guide and Pictures)
Cold smoking bacon at home is probably my favorite type of curing and cold smoking that I do. I have refined my process over many years and wanted to share a breakdown step-by-step on how I do this. For me cold smoked bacon is real bacon. The other main method is hot smoking bacon until it’s cooked means you really …
Dry Curing Vs Wet Brining for Meat Curing
The two main methods of curing meat are dry curing and wet brining. I have done both methods in various ways over the years, and it will be helpful to provide explanations about how I do it. As well as which method suits different types of meat curing better. I start with a quick summary of each method and then …
Smokai Cold & Hot Smoke Generator Video & Review
Being a super keen guy on curing and smoking all kinds of stuff, I’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours smoking over the years (not just meat, either). As I’ve learned many of the ins and outs of cold smoking over 20 odd years, like everything, I’m still learning. But it’s kind of become second nature, too. Smokai is …
Cold Smoking PDF Guide – Theory & Equipment
There is something mystical about cold smoking. Maybe it’s the thousands of years of tradition hard-wired into our genetics. Maybe not. I’ve spent a long time compiling – what I think is a very useful resource for a full rundown on cold-smoking meat (obviously), fruit, spices, or whatever you come with. Cold smoking is a part of meat curing that …
Preserving Beef – Curing, Drying, Pickling and Smoke
You might want to savor your prized cut of beef, but can raw beef be preserved by salt? Whether you are looking to enrich your diet with a high-protein source of beef, or you are simply looking at how to make your share of beef last for longer on your shelf, you might be curious about how to preserve it. …
Difference Between Cured Meat vs. Smoked Meat
Cured meat and smoked meats cross over in some ways but are also different, let’s look at both in detail. While both methods offer their own unique advantages (and flavors) to meat, curing vs.smoking meat has unique properties that make them quite distinct from one another. I’ve been keen on all types for year like dry cured meats made in …
Is Cured Meat Always Cooked or Not (Examples and Explanations)
Cured meat is neither cooked nor raw Dry. Cured meat is often preserved by using salt, drying it, reducing cold smoke, and reducing acidity. The flavor is often enhanced with dry-cured meats due to this drying process, less water, more intensive flavor Cured meat can be dry-cured salami, cooked salami, salt pork, dry-cured salumi, and many other variations. Cured meats …
How Does Smoking Preserve Meat and Fish? (Effects & Method)
Preserving meat and fish with smoke is a straightforward process. Cold smoking helps with preservation but isn’t the primary preserving effect; it is drying the meat and removing the moisture. Summary: Primary Preservation Method: Drying meat and removing moisture is the key to preservation, as it reduces water activity, which reduces the chance of unwanted bacterial growth. Types of Smoking: …
Guide to Using Pink Curing Salt at Home
Pink curing salt or Prague powder can be used in many different ways (and there are many other names for it). I want to explain how I use pink-curing salt and other important details about this ingredient. Summary Points: Pink curing salt is found in many popular foods produced at home or commercially, such as pastrami, bacon, corned beef, pancetta, …
Methods for Preserving Meat at Home – Salt, Acidity Smoke, Fat
This entire website is about meat curing, smoking, and preserving meat, mainly with salt and smoke. This write-up will focus on an overview of all the ways I’ve used and encountered over the years. Methods at home are often quite different from commercial store-bought ways. The magic of salt is the cornerstone of most of the methods you’ll find below, …
Equipment to make Make Delicious Bacon
There are so many options when it comes to equipment for making your own delicious bacon. When I first started planning this write-up, it got a bit scary writing down all the different equipment that you could use- there are so many options! But hopefully, it helps whether you are smoking/cooking the bacon and then cutting it into nice thick …