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...

I specialise in creating smoked Salmon and smoked Cheese in my own smoke houses. I've been doing this for years and really enjoy passing this wonderful skill onto people who share my interest in food. I regularly host food smoking courses and currently have my summer dates up on the website. In addition to my own courses I also host food smoking courses for other high end cookery schools around the country. Why not join me on one of my summer dates. My courses start at 10am and run through to 4pm. There's lots of tasting and discussion on the different foods one can smoke and we spend a little time sampling various smoke aromas. We include lunch which is usually homemade soup in winter spring and autumn and salads throughout the summer. Delegates on the course can take photos and notes and go away with a 27 page guide on smoking food at home.  It's interesting to see people's surprise when they find out just how little smoke you need to influence the flavour of th...

If you like this post please visit Facebook and like our page - Thanks. It’s true that the simplest things in life are sometimes the best, and Oak smoked air dried Duck breasts are no exception. I had the pleasure of preparing 4 of these wonderful duck breasts recently with the aim of bathing these little darlings in some lovely, traditional 0ak cold smoke. Well, what can I say! 18 hours in a salt/herb cure and after what seemed an infinite wait air drying in muslin, I finally had the pleasure of opening one of the treasures after drying it for 10 days. The suspense was killing me. Opening the package was just like birthdays and Christmas all rolled into one. A gastronomic delight to fill the senses! I have to say I was surprised at what I found. I was not disappointed! The Duck breasts had firmed up really well and had darkened considerably. The fat had also lost a lot of moisture and had yellowed on the surface. It even smelled of charcuterie which was reassuring to say t...