Cured Meat Podcast: Smokehouse Structure

edwards virginia smokehouse presents the cured meat podcast today's question is does the structure of a smokehouse matter when smoking meat yes um what what we like in a smokehouse especially for sausage and bacon and some of our quick cure products is a pit type smokehouse where while we're smoking the meat at the temperatures that are are warm enough to let the meat render a little bit so that grease drips down on the heat source which is a stainless steel heat extension unit underneath a grate in this pit that as that grease hits the um the heat source it permeates that that's an additional smoke besides the hickory you're getting that grilling effect uh which in my opinion gives us a really unique flavor profile because we're still using that style smokehouse we use and have used more modern smoked houses like an alcar or well the name escapes me is with other brands but um koch um they get the job done as far as color and dryness you know what you're trying to do and get the temperature up and they're probably more consistent the air-conditioned smoke houses are definitely more consistent and temperature ranges from front to back but because we don't hot smoke that stuff much stuff it doesn't really affect our temperature ranges are one to two degrees from front to back side to side whereas those air conditioned smoke houses whatever the temperature is in the front could be the same in the back they're constantly swirling that temp the air around which in turn gets the color on the meat faster but the in my opinion the way we're doing it the smoke it takes longer but the smoke permeates the meat deeper and you get that grilling effect at the same time so yes it does now if you go into the wooden style old style smokehouses people used to you know was critical the most important thing was your smokehouse was airtight well not airtight but insect tight so or rodent protected so they made structures that were very typically very sturdy and made it even had like brick coming up maybe two or three feet from the ground so animals couldn't get in as easy and the studs were closer together so that the the wood siding that they put on it was nice and tight and sturdy and it kept the insects out and also people used to kind of bad people used to break into smokehouses and if you put the studs too close together they might be able to reach in but they can't get the ham out because the studs are too close they would put the bellies up high because clearly you could sneak a belly through the smokehouse but they put the bellies up high so you couldn't reach them it was up in the apex of the smokehouse keep the hams down low so if somebody reached in to grab a ham they couldn't get it out uh and having it that airtight and i say airtight insect proof at the you know in the modern era once and then it screens up in the eaves they would put put the screen in the eaves to keep the insects out but it still allowed a draft from the bottom so where they put that brick foundation in they had holes in the side so it would draw that smoke where the fire was and again it was a cool smoke not a lot of heat green hickory logs or green hardwood some people started using sawdust to help it dampen it down even some to keep the the flames low but a lot of smoke and would only smoke during the day to keep keep to be able to tend that let it die out at night and then that smoke would go up and through the out of the ease if they did it right so yeah it does make a difference and if you didn't build one right sure enough you could then time you do all this curing and and and hanging it and aging it if you didn't have it insect proof you were going to be disappointed when they're ready to consume i got nothing other than add on that i think that covers for you know it really i mean it's it's you got to look at the shape of the room you got to look at air flow you got to look at temperature you got to look at humidity and all of that is worked into the design you know uh probably not in the old days it wasn't that quite scientific but certainly moving in and perfecting the craft yeah it absolutely makes a difference all the way around got a cured meat question let us know in the comments below thanks for watching

Channel: Edwards Virginia Smokehouse

Views: 1,602

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Id: D7bqTqD4Cg4

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020