Coldsmoking Digital Cookery School

Wood is wood isnt it??  well, in a way yes, but the way wood behaves when it burns largely depends on the size of the pieces. There are a few other factors which influence the way the wood behaves when it's burning like the moisture content and the species of wood. I'll cover these other factors in another blog post. Wood burns when it is heated beyond a point known as the fire point which is normally around 300 celcius. However this can change depending on the size of the pieces and moisture content. When wood is in a fine dust form it can be explosive and there are examples of wood mills exploding due to the dust being ignited by a spark resulting in a dust explosion . Now, were not looking to put our smoked food into orbit but it's nice to know that we are dealing with something that has a lot of stored energy which we can employed to flavour and enhance our food. The only time we really need to take account of the form the wood takes is when we want it t...

Calm down dear, it’s only a raw piece of Salmon that’s been cured and smoked with some old piece of wood from I don’t know where… And so about now you run a mile.   Home smoked Salmon is a wonderful thing tasting like nothing you’d ever buy from the shops, but before embarking on making your own home smoking quest it’s worth knowing the basic principles of storage, handling, curing and smoking and you’ll live to enjoy your smoked food for another day.    When buying fresh Salmon make sure it is fresh and that it has been kept refrigerated. It should have fresh smell about it somewhat counter intuitively not a strong fishy smell. Now, get it home quickly or keep it refrigerated on the way home with some frozen peas. Ideally one should aim to get fresh salmon in your fridge within 15 minutes.  Handling the fish is important too. Don’t over handle or bend the Salmon as this will separate and pull apart the flakes of flesh allowing in bacteria and too much salt...