[Sca-cooks] Smoking

[David Friedman]

Have you, or anyone here, experimented with smoking as a method of 
preservation? Nowadays it seems to be mostly just for flavor--and you 
specified putting your sausages in the freezer. It would be very nice 
if we could use it as one more way of solving the problem of having 
food at Pennsic without a cooler.

>Well, I'd never smoked anything before, so the entire procedure was 
>a new experience for me.  We used "found wood" (i.e., deadfall from 
>the local trees) and charcoal for our smoke, and turned the sausages 
>every half hour or so.  There was water in the bottom of the smoker, 
>as well, which not only provided steam, it also caught any 
>drippings.  The heat wasn't that high; Master A used bare hands to 
>turn the sausages, and we put the top layer of sausage on the 
>bottom, and the bottom on top, once.  We didn't have the time to 
>smoke them a full 8 hours, but they smelled wonderful after about 4 
>or 5 hours.  We didn't try any; they're for an event this weekend. 
>We have three varieties of fresh sausage (nothing dried and 
>preserved in that fashion) for a German-themed event.  They're all 
>currently residing in my freezer right now (the advantage of owning 
>one's own house), so I'll be responsible for getting them there on 
>Saturday.
>Cleanup was interesting; we drained the water-fat mix into a garbage 
>bag (into kitty litter, to absorb it), and the mess wasn't as bad as 
>Master A had feared it would be.
>I think I could do it again, if I had to, and will probably try. 
>How many sausage recipes have "and hang in the back of the chimney, 
>away from the smoke, to dry"?  I know I've seen several.
>
>Regards,
>Brekke
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Huette von Ahrens
>Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 5:16 AM
>To: Cooks within the SCA
>Subject: [Sca-cooks] Smoking
>
>Oh okay.  That makes sense.
>
>Well, the smoked ducks I did for the banquet were
>entirely an experiment on my part.  I bought
>a charcoal smoker and Etien bought an electric
>one.  We spent three Sundays and smoked 48
>ducks for the banquet; 8 ducks per smoker, 16
>total per Sunday.  There wasn't much difference
>between the ducks smoked over charcoal and those
>smoked over a heating element.  The only
>difference was one of maintenance.  Making sure
>that the charcoal remained hot during the entire
>session.  Also, interestingly enough, the
>electric smoker went through the hickory wood
>faster than than the charcoal, so you had to
>keep refreshing the electric one more often.
>
>Since at that time I couldn't find any period
>woods to use as the smoke, I choose hickory
>as being closer to period than mesquite, my only
>other choice.
>
>I took my smoker to a Great Western War a 
>couple of years ago and smoked some more
>ducks for my encampment.  It was nice to have
>a low maintenance meat cooker so that I could
>do other things while they cooked and smoked.
>
>How did your smoking session turn out?  What did
>you learn from the experience?
>
>Huette
>
>--- Carol Eskesen Smith
><BrekkeFranksdottir at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  It was directed to Master A, actually; he made
>>  those sausages by hand Saturday, then smoked
>>  them at my place Sunday, and then complained
>>  about how sore he was from stuffing all those
>>  sausages on Monday, neglecting the work he'd
>>  done smoking them.  First time of smoking
>>  anything for Nikki and me, hence the referral
>>  to an education.  (I hope this makes things
>>  clearer; it would probably work better in a
>>  real conversation than by e-mails passing in
>>  the night.)
>>  That salmon sounds really good, too.
>> 
>>  Regards,
>>  Brekke
>> 
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-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com