Drying and cold smoking - 3

A small smoking box is easy to make yourself. It can be placed in the house. Smoke comes out a little during the smoking process, much like a barbecue.
We assemble the frame from slats, sheathe it with plywood. The size on the photo is 50 * 50 * 150 cm – it is convenient to cut a sheet of plywood 1.5 * 1.5 m. Smoked products can be placed on 2-3 levels, so a single load can be quite large. We hang the products on hangers or you can install grates. Lattices come in handy in any case – you can not only to smoke meat, but also, for example, to add some drops of cheese. It is also possible to install a grid between food and a smoke generator, spreading aromatic herbs on it – wormwood, thyme, hyssop and others to taste.
A labyrinth-type smoke generator can be bought or made independently, for example from a profile for plasterboard structures. Having bent the labyrinth out of the profile, it is necessary to provide an air flow – we drill holes along the bottom of the structure. It will take some practice to learn how to lay wood chips so that they smolder for a long time. At the bottom of the labyrinth, you need to lay a little charcoal and large chips, then fall asleep with small shavings are not rammed and on top of small and medium-sized chips. Such a “layer cake” will burn for a long time and evenly, without fading and generating smoke evenly. One liter of wood chips can smolder for about six hours.
After the first smoking session, the color and aroma coating can be applied. For example, based on plum or cherry ratafia. For 0.5 l of the base, 3-4 tablespoons of ground paprika, 1-2 tbsp. fenugreek, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 ml each alcohol tincture of bay leaf and star anise. This composition works well with all pork products. Apply with a brush immediately after the first smoking session so that the composition is absorbed and dried until the next. This way not only provides additional flavor, but also contributes to the formation of a beautiful glossy surface.