Smoking Meat

Cooking meat with smoke preserves in two ways; by dehydration, and by the curing properties of the chemicals in the smoke. Each prevent bacterial growth, making it possible to store the meat for extended periods without refrigeration. Smoke curing and drying meat were the only preservation methods besides salting that were available before refrigeration.

It's possible that early people used smoke to keep flies away from drying meats, and later realized that the meats and fish dried with smoke lasted longer than foods dried without smoke.

I think you can safely assume that wherever people cooked food with fire, they also realized that the smoke from the fire acted as a preservative when it was absorbed into foods. And another thing they realized was that the right amount of smokiness improved the flavor of the foods.

Smoking Meat Today

Smoking Meat. Any Thoughts?

I know you love smoked meats, but what do you feel when you're eating smokey meat? Do you have any thoughts or theories on the history of meat smoking? Have you had any memorable experiences when smoking meat? Share your meat smoking experiences, ideas and thoughts here.

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