SC - smoking

[Richard Kappler II]

My newest toy, _Fast and Feast_, talks about a piece of beef hung to smoke
in the chimney in November (slaughter season), then hung in the chimney
overwinter to be used for Easter supper.

This brings up several questions.
The latest Mother Earth News (okay, not exactly a period resource) declares
in their really KEWL build yer own sauna article, that the chimney is a 19th
century invention.  Now I know this to be far from the truth, but I suspect
from my research its not too durn far.  Any ideas? When did we advance from
the 'hole in the top of the thatched roof' thing to the 'brick in the hearth
and oh by the way put a hole at the top of the bricks' thing?

Secondly, being an avid smoker/ err, ummm... maker of smoked foods, I fully
understand that it takes a good long while to smoke a thick piece of meat
('Lainie, Groucho puns would be appropriate here, doncha think?).  Having
said that, I also know that a whole side of beef smoked for 6 months would
leave the outer bits inedible.  I suspect it was butchered and hung, but
that doesn't really ring true either.  Comments?

curiouser and curiouser was, Puck

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