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Nitrites and Starter cultures and their effects on curing meat (in simple terms)

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Nitrites Nitrites in the form of either Sodium Nitrite or Potassium Nitrite are a types of salt that are commonly used in meat processing to cure meats such as ham, bacon, and sausages. These curing agents come in many different forms but one popular curing salt is Prague Powder. If you want to know more about these cures and their application there is a blog covering that subject here .   The curing process involves adding nitrites to the meat, which helps preserve it by inhibiting the growth of bacteria that can cause spoilage and food poisoning. Nitrites also give cured meats their characteristic pink colour and distinct flavour. When nitrites are added to meat, they react with certain proteins in the meat to form nitric oxide. This process is known as reducing. Nitric oxide then reacts with myoglobin, a protein in meat that gives it its red colour, to form nitrosomyoglobin. This compound is what gives cured meats their pink colour. In addition to adding colour and flavour to
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Butterflied & Smoked Lamb on the BBQ

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 Butterflied and smoked lamb This is such a flavoursome piece of cooking and so easy to recreate for yourself at home. All you need is an half leg of lamb, some wild garlic, rosemary, salt pepper and a little oil and you’r almost there.  If you can’t get hold of any wild garlic, you can of course use a clove of shop bought instead but as I’m doing this for easter I thought it would be nice to forage some wild garlic leaves for this one. Remember if you are going to use wild garlic, just take what you need, only take leaves or a few flowers and never dig up the bulbs. Always check that you are actually picking wild garlic and not Lilly of the valley which is poisonous They both look similar to each other but wild garlic does have that unmistakable aroma of garlic.  Take the bone out of the lamb using a small sharp paring knife initially making a cut along the length of the bone and working around with the knife until the bone is released. Lay the meat flat on a board and divide in two.
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How To Smoke Your Nuts - One of the Simplest, Satisfying and Tasty Video...

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A delicious treat for friends and family to enjoy. Hurry though, they don't last too long!! Here's a link to the video https://youtu.be/70LdPqeDvjo This has to be one of the tastiest, simplest and pleasing smoking projects out there. Hot Smoked Nuts. I'm using an inexpensive brand of mixed nuts from the supermarket (Lidl) costing 78 pence for 200g here but the results are anything but inexpensive.      The taste from the blend of natural Oak smoke, sweetness from the honey and salt, coupled with the complexity of roasted nuts will blow your socks off (if you're wearing socks that is).    Here i', using a stovetop smoker from Camerons. these are really useful pieces of kit and are suitable for electric, gas and induction stoves. Disheasher safe and altogether a great piece of kit to have in the kitchen cupboard I'm using a fine oak chip here but you can of course use any variety of hard or fruit wood if you have it to hand. We do sell this wood on our website
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Location: Milton Keynes, UK
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Sausage making step by step

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A step by step guide to making your own sausages at home.  https://youtu.be/pcngHLsm644 The video looks at all aspects of the sausage making process from grinding the meat to linking the sausages and everything in between.  We're very lucky to have an online shop where we sell a small range of sausage casings, seasonings and other food smoking, curing & drying equipment.  You can find this here. https://www.coldsmoking.co.uk/collections  https://youtu.be/pcngHLsm644  
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Low and slow cooking

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Low and slow is one of those cooking methods that is employed to make meat tender and fall apart delicious. Low as in low temperature and slow as in slow cooking. Cooking temperatures are typically low and lasts for many hours. I sometimes wonder why it's not called long and low but hey ho! low and slow it is. Low and slow cooking is particularly suited to cuts of meat that are tough or have lots of connective tissue like pork ribs and beef brisket. The long cooking time slowly breaks down these connective tissues making the meat tender and easy to eat. Tough meat usually has lots of collegen and sinew which is affected in a good way by heat. When collegen is heated for extended periods above 75C it will break down into gelatine which has a much softer making the meat tender and fall off the bone. A brisket flat cured and smoked to make pastrami One of the main fears people associate with low and slow cooking is the food drying out and becoming unpalatable. Especially true for r
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Wood Dust and Chips - What are the basic differences?

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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
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Location: Milton Keynes, UK
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Pig in a Day - The whole Hog one day pig butchery workshop at Coldsmoking HQ

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Coldsmoking Cookery School in Milton Keynes  Are offering a whole day immersive porky experience with Ben Aveling from Radmore farm and Turan from Coldsmoking cookery school.  We start the day by getting to grips with the carcass where we will demonstrate how to divide it into the primary cuts.  We will show you the basic tools for this process and you’ll learn some interesting recipes that can be made from some of the offal. Next you’ll learn how to cut delicious pork chops and make and tie mouth watering pork roasting joints. After that we will turn our attention to curing your own bacon and pancetta using belly and loin.  We’ll break for lunch where you can enjoy some delicious locally reared pulled pork in a brioche bun served with a selection of coleslaw, apple and locally made BBQ sauce together with a selection of pork charcuterie. After lunch we will focus on sausages and Chorizo finishing the day off by looking at some of the larger pieces
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