Coldsmoking Digital Cookery School

Back in our cave-dwelling days, food smoking was used to preserve food and then our ancestors discovered just how great it makes food taste. Turan has been a passionate smoker of food for many years, teaches courses all around UK and now crystallises his knowledge in food smoking; a practical guide. Within its covers he explains the basics of cold and hot smoking; delves into the principles of combustion (he's a career fireman in another part of his life so he should know!) and explains brining and dry salt curing. He outlines how to source wood for smoking and provides plans for building a cold smoker and smoke generators. He simplifies and demystifies the process of smoking food to enable you to produce wonderful smoked food in a sustainable, eco-friendly way. Enjoy! If you would like to purchase a signed copy of the book please visit smokedust.co.uk and drop Turan an email with your name or who you would like the book signed to. turan@coldsmoking.co.uk

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...

No matter how many food smoking courses I host I'm always bowled over by the sheer enthusiasm and gusto of all my guests. That's all fantastic however, I can't help being surprised at people's reactions to how little smoke I actually use to smoke food. There's a common misconception that one has to use lots of smoke to impart a smokey flavour to your food when you smoke it. This isn't the case and anyone who's enjoyed the warmth from a smokey bonfire will attest. You can smell the smoke on your clothes long after the fire has gone.  Wood smoke is a very complex and pungent compound of many different chemicals with lots of flavour and aroma compounds mixed in.  Wood is essentially cellulose, Hemi-cellulose and Lignin. Cellulose and hemi-cellulose contain sugar monomers and Lignin is a very complex carbon based chemical compound which accounts for between 30% and 40% of the dry weight of wood. When combusted Lignin produces the main flavour and aroma compou...