Cold Smoking... recollections of earlier times
Date 2007/8/29 7:46:34 | Topic: Catering
| I know... it's still the end of August... Cold Smoking?? What in the blue blazes....
A new internet friend, whom I will introduce a little later... was interested in "cold smoking"... I relayed this to him... His suggestion was I put it up for ya'll to contemplate...
Here it is...
Preservation- I grew up in nothern Wi familiar with the smoked
white fish of which you speak, may I add chubs and suckers to the list. A
salt water brine and smoke will preseve a high spoilage item, read fish
for a couple of weeks if refrigerated.
A story:
When just a lad of 16 I watched, talked, drank beer and generally made a
nuisance of myself at an early spring Indian fishing hole with myself
being the only white kid around for miles. The early run of suckers were
netted, speared or when the beer was flowing, shot. Some were sold, some
were wasted but most were smoked for sale to guys that would come up from
Ohio looking for good smoked fish... LOL doc, but seriously they sold
them to stores, taverns, brokers ( much the same way they sold the wild
rice in the fall, probably the same customers ) traded for more beer and
brought a lot home to family and friends.
Here is how they did it. The salt brine was a heavy salt, I did not ask
how much salt but I tasted it, very, very salty. Mortons pickling salt
boxes were used to start their fires, and I assume those boxes were the
ones they used for the salt.
The fish were gutted and anything bigger than a 6 inch fish was cut to
size, ( I am sure the same size pieces were critical ) The stores would
get the 6 inchers ( they just fit the containers at the butchers ) the
rest would go to whomever.
The fish were added to large wash tubs along with the salt and water. This
went on sometimes for days and the whole process was done right next to
the stream they got the fish out of.
About 24 hours would pass and the fish were taken out and carefully
washed/rinsed in the stream and then put on racks or rocks broken branches
cut for that purpose to dry until the fish had a shiny gloss on the skin.
Now to the smoking part, but remember they religiously did the previous
steps and took no short-cuts. There was a trench about 6 ft. long x about
1 ft. wide and 1 1/2 ft. deep. On one end was a small pit about as big
around as a 55 gal. drum and about 1 ft. lower than the trench to which it
was connected. On the opposite end was an old refrigerator gutted save the
racks. The refer had a hole chiseled out of the very bottom that was just
a bit larger than the width of the trench and a fist sized hole at the
top.
A fire was started in the hole with dry wood, they used what I remember to
be pine, and let it burn to coals adding more wood one time and none the
next, seemed no ryhme or reason, in retrospect I think the amount and
temp. of the coals was what dictated the added wood.
When the time was right they added small limbs off hard wood trees. They
had no needles and since it was early spring I assume it was hardwood.
When the wood started to smoke some guys would lay pine boughs over the
trench so the smoke would travel to the refer on the other end which now
held the dry fish.
The time of the actual smoking seemed to depend on if it was night or day
time. About 1/2 hr. of smoke and 1/2 hr. resting time till the coals
produced no more heat to burn the branches.
They would remove the ash from the pit and trench covering and repeat
until a sample fish would just flake and the bones pull out more or less
in one peice.
The process would start all over again with the same steps repeated.
Back to 2007, that was in 1966 doc and I might have left a few minor
details out, but that is my definition of cold smoking... Salt is
preseving the meat and the chemicals in the smoke helping to delay
spoilage. A one two punch so to speak.
The keeping quality of cold smoked anything I would argue is more
dependent on the holding temp the product is kept at and amount of
moisture left in the product.
I envision you using your brinkman, some metal duct work and an old (no
plastic on the inside) refer or the like to try and replicate the above
outlined Indian method.
I would try that first, and measure the temps at the hot end and in the
box. How far does the smoke travel to cool, to say 180.
I have a customer that does 100,000 lbs. of apple bacon per month and is
ready to order more wood... I'll pick his brain for some temps they use
and why.
The above was minimally edited... to protect the innocent... you understand. 
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