Smoking Meat

Before the smoke

Smoke gives cured pork its color, aroma, and flavor ¹. Two things come first:

1. Soak or rinse off the surface salt ^{2 1}.
2. Dry until the surface is slightly moist and tacky. Too wet and the meat streaks; too dry and it smokes pale ².

Hang cuts so they don’t touch each other or the walls. Hang hams and shoulders by the shank; skewer bellies at the ends with hardwood or galvanized wire to keep them square ¹.

Wood

Use hardwoods: hickory, oak, maple, ash, apple, or pecan. Hickory is the classic ^{1 2}. In Wisconsin, sugar maple, apple, and cherry are easy to come by.

Never use pine, spruce, cedar, or other softwoods: their resinous smoke is sooty, darkens the meat, and leaves a bitter taste and strong smell ¹. Damp hardwood sawdust on the fire damps the flame and makes more smoke, and “a thin haze of smoke is as effective as a dense cloud” ¹.

Hot smoking a ham

Mississippi State’s schedule takes about 24 hours in three stages ²:

1. Dry: about 125°F, all dampers open, no smoke, until excess moisture is gone.
2. Smoke: about 8 hours at about 135°F, dampers partly closed, smoke on.
3. Heat: dampers closed, smoke continuing, house raised to about 180°F and held until the ham’s center reaches 142°F.

A ham taken off at 142°F still needs cooking at home. Hams sold as “fully cooked” reach at least 148°F inside ². USDA gives similar schedules and says hams should stay in until 152 to 155°F if they’re meant to be fully cooked ¹.

Bacon smokes shorter: Mississippi State says 1 to 4 hours for pickled bacon ². Oregon State smokes bacon at 225 to 250°F to an internal 160°F, which cooks it fully ³.

Cold smoking

Cold smoking keeps the house below 100°F, ideally 70 to 80°F, with enough heat to make smoke but not to cook. It runs 1 to 5 days and can stop and start ². Cold-smoked meat has more salt and less moisture than hot-smoked, and it depends entirely on a full cure, because spoilage bacteria grow fast from 80 to 110°F ². Meat that isn’t fully dry cured and aged must be wrapped and frozen as soon as it’s smoked and cooled ². Late fall and early winter in Wisconsin are cold-smoking weather.

A smokehouse for one hog

USDA’s bulletin describes a temporary smokehouse ¹:

• A barrel with both ends knocked out stands over the upper end of 10 to 12 feet of stovepipe (or a covered trench) that slopes down to a fire pit. The long pipe cools the smoke.
• The meat hangs from broomsticks across the top, under a cleated lid with a 1-inch gap covered by muslin or burlap.
• A sheet of metal over the pit, with earth mounded around it, controls the draft.

An old refrigerator or a small frame shed works the same way, and permanent smokehouses with an outside firebox make temperature control easier ¹. Whatever the build, keep insects and rodents out ¹.

Trichinae

Trichinae (the parasite behind trichinosis) are rare in modern pork, but USDA still treats them as a risk. They’re destroyed by heating the meat throughout to 137°F, or by freezing: -20°F for 6 to 12 days, -10°F for 10 to 20 days, or 5°F for 20 to 30 days ¹. Products that look ready to eat but haven’t been cooked must have been treated one of those ways ¹.

Try it

Build a cold-smoke rig from what’s on hand: a fire pit or small wood stove, 10 feet of stovepipe on a slope, and a barrel or old refrigerator at the top with a dial thermometer through the side. Run it empty with apple or maple sawdust for an afternoon and log the temperature every half hour. When it holds 70 to 80°F with a thin blue haze, smoke the bacon from the curing lesson, then cook it before eating.

What to take from this

Rinse off surface salt and dry cured meat until it’s tacky before it goes in the smoke. Use hardwoods only, never pine, spruce, or cedar. A hot-smoked ham dries at about 125°F, smokes about 8 hours at 135°F, then heats at 180°F until it’s 142°F inside; fully cooked hams reach at least 148°F. Cold smoking stays below 100°F (ideally 70 to 80°F) and depends on a full cure. A barrel on a long stovepipe smokes one hog’s cuts.