[Sca-cooks] Smoked Meats in Northern Europe

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Fri Oct 6 17:08:25 PDT 2006


On 10/6/06, King's Taste Productions <kingstaste at comcast.net> wrote:
> Greetings all,
>            I have a question for the knowledgeable assembly:
>            What woods would have been used to smoke meats and fish in
> Northern Europe around the turn of the millennium?  I am planning a
> Viking Feast for my class, and I'll be doing some smoked salmon.  Since
> I have access to the Viking Culinary School's kitchens, we have a
> stovetop smoker that comes with 6 choices of wood 'chips' (they are more
> like wood confetti), so I have options for the wood smoke flavor I
> impart.  My choices (although they may not all be in stock when I go in
> to do this) are:  maple, poplar, alder, hickory, oak and cherry.
>
>            I am pretty sure maples are New World only, and I know
> cherries were a part of the Norse diet.  Obviously oak was around, but
> I'm not sure about poplar, alder, or hickory.
>            Thanks for being such a vast wealth of knowledge!
>            Christianna

I'd use cherry- it's absolutely killer with lighter flavored meats and
fish, as is apple ;-) Oak is good, too, but would be better with a
stronger flavored flesh- a red meat, usually. Alder can go either way,
as can poplar, but they aren't quite as good with fish as fruit woods
are.

There is an Old World maple, I think, but I'm not sure how it would
compare with the New World maple in so far as flavor goes. It would be
good, I suspect, but not necessarily authentic, if that's what you're
looking for.

-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Has anyone seen my temper?
I seem to have misplaced it at Stalag XXXV....



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