[Sca-cooks] Re: smoking meat

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear asked me:
> Hey, Stefan, do you have any tech data on the smoking point of wood?
Nope. Not much in the Florilegium, either. However, I am rapidly 
accumilating enough info to start such a file. :-)
>
> It just occurred to me that in a stove wood doesn't start to burn until
> it
> is over 212 degrees F and that it begins emitting smoke about 300
> degrees F.
> Oxidation is somewhere around 500 degrees F, IIRC.
>
> That means that the source of the smoke in a smoke house needs to be
> close
> to 300 degrees F and that over time it will attempt to raise the
> temperature
> of its surroundings to that level.
Yes, its immediate surroundings. However, none of this says that the 
food to be smoked is directly over the fire. It actually doesn't even 
have to be in the same room since you can vent the smoke from the fire 
in one room into an adjacent room where the food is hanging. Of course 
there may be other reasons to smoke the meat over the fire, such as the 
drying effect of the additional heat. But then, that was why I asked 
the original question.
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****