A guide to smoking food
Not the bad kind. My guide to smoking is the good kind, the kind that leaves you feeling like you have had a lovely flavoursome dinner. Not the one that leaves you reeking of nicotine and slowly doing untold damage to yourself.
Smoking food is THE big thing at the moment. Just as pork can now only be pulled, and caramel salted, so many foods must be smoked. Hell Ellie even bought a bone for the dog recently that was “Hickory Smoked”. Like the dog even cared?! Maybe he did, and maybe I smoking food for animals really is the next big thing.
So, smoking food…. It really is game changing. And super simple to do. It used to be that if you wanted to do it at home you had to go on a course and build a smoking box in your garden, but not anymore. Now it is super simple and you can do it in your kitchen..
First of all The Smoking Gun from Sage Appliances.
The very name makes this a must have item! From there the uses for it are endless and we have had so much fun playing with it recently. Really simple to use, you just put the wood chips (there are two different flavours in the box to get you started) in the top of the gun, light them with a match and then watch as the smoke comes out of the end of the nozzle, full of incredible smokey aromas. You place whatever it is you want to smoke inside a plastic bag, or under a bowl with cling film over the top, put the nozzle in the food and then watch as the smoke permeates the food. For a more intense flavour you simply do it for a bit longer.
We have tried nuts, cheese, popcorn, tomatoes juice for bloody Mary’s, fish, all of them have been amazing. At just under £80 this really could change the way you cook. You can really turn your recipes up a notch but adding a smoked flavour to the food during cooking.
Also a great way to make presents for people, a jar of smoked nuts or how about some home smoked salmon to take to a dinner party?
Keep an eye on my Instagram as I use it more and more over the next few weeks!
With the sunshine of course comes more barbecuing, and I don’t know about you but I am bored of the same old sausage and burger so these books landing on my desk were timely indeed!
The recipes in both of them had me salivating. Both came out this month and are available for £16.99 each.
Finally, if you are going to be smoking cheese you need something spectacular to serve your smoked cheese in and whilst rummaging on the Amara website recently I came across this beautiful glass dome with a slate plate. You could even hold the smoking gun up to the hole and smoke through that, and take the smoke filled cloche to the table for dramatic effect! Or having smoked your cheese or ham, put it on the slate for serving with the cloche over it. It was only £50 and I think it looks stunning as a centre piece. Even when we aren’t using it and it sits on a shelf in the kitchen it looks attractive!
Do let me know if you come across any recipes for smoking that you might have stumbled across, or if you have any tips and hints on how to do it!