SC - Smoking Questions

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Kea ErisDottir wrote:

> I am a blacksmith and technology researcher whose preferred medium is
> fire(surprise) and am the perpetrator of the ongoing Iron furnace research
> at Pennsic.  Recently, I have become very interested in how cooking related
> fire works.  In the last 3 years, I have built two beehive style ovens at
> the Pennsic War and have also undertaken building one in the back yard, as
> a means to study both their use and maintenance.
> 
> Anyone who could send/direct me to good resources for recipes and related
> information(in modern english, please) would be very appreciated.

Suggest you take a look at "Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book", dated
1604. Hilary Spurling, ed., copyright Hilary Spurling, 1986, Viking
Penguin, Inc., New York ISBN 0-670-81592-6. This has several recipes for
baked goods which are described in a relative sequence indicating which
items are put into the [hot] oven first, which ones are then baked at a
moderate heat, and which ones as the oven becomes cool again. Of course,
we don't really know that much about how hot the oven needs to get, with
how big a fire and for how long it is heated. I suppose if you follow a
bread recipe and tinker with the process until the bread is fully cooked
but not burned, then you'd have a pretty good idea.

Alternately, you could talk to one of the 18th century re-enactors who
use similar ovens (at least as far as operation goes), or perhaps even
the baker at one of those chi-chi wood-burning pizza oven restaurants,
if you have access to such a thing.
 
> In addition, I have plans to built and make an attempt to run some kind of
> small smoke house.  I would love information on what we actually know about
> period methods and structures so that i may build something and play with
> the fire :) :) :)

This is a tough one. We know that, for instance, Smithfield hams from
Virginia were made from some time in the 17th century, with little or no
change in the process. It's a pretty safe bet that smokehouses existed
in period. Unfortunately there are few written accounts (in fact, none
that I'm aware of, but I'm trying to hedge my bets here ;  )   ) of
smokehouse operation. What we do have are recipes for various smoked
foods, from ancient Roman sources like Cato the Elder and Apicius, and
later sources like Sir Hugh Plat. They all describe smoking meats over
an all-purpose cooking fire, and by hanging sausages up in the chimney,
in the case of Plat. Obviously this suggests that these recipes aren't
intended for mass production. I seem to have misplaced my copy of Le
Menagier de Paris, so I can't tell you if there's a description of the
smoking process there.

Much as I hate to do it, I recommend you check some modern sources on
the subject. Apart from the occasional suggestion that some kind of
anti-oxidant or preservative other than salt be included in some of the
pre-smoking cures, at least we have a fair sense that the modern process
is pretty similar to the period one in most cases, but also probably
safer in the long run. Generally you know when something has been cured
and smoke-dried enough when insects don't try to land on it (smoke tars
repel them), and when it has lost a certain amount of water weight
(generally about half, in the case of meats).
 

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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