Ingredient

Smoking (food preservation)

Also known as: cold smoking, hot smoking, wood smoke

Preservation-and-flavor technique — exposing salt-cured food to wood smoke, which deposits phenolic and aldehyde compounds that inhibit microbial growth, lowers surface water activity, and adds the characteristic smoke flavor. Two principal modes: *cold smoking* (60–85°F, 6–24+ hours, the smoke is the preservation; food doesn't cook — bacon, salmon, cheese) and *hot smoking* (165–250°F, 2–8 hours, food cooks while smoking — ribs, brisket, smoked chicken). The right ingredient as the second step after a salt cure for any meat or fish that wants long-keeping at refrigerator temperatures, or any meal-ready barbecue.

Inputs / outputs

Wood: hardwoods only ([[hickory|hickory]], oak, apple, cherry, pecan, alder); never softwoods (resin)
Cold smoke: 60–85°F (15–30°C), 6–24 hours typical, can extend to days
Hot smoke: 165–250°F (74–120°C), 2–8 hours, internal temperature target depends on meat
Smoke source: smoke generator (hobbyist), pellet smoker, offset smoker, or tube smoker for cold smoke
Output: reduced water activity at surface, antimicrobial deposition, flavor

Solves / unlocks

Long-keeping cured meats (bacon, ham, sausage, jerky)
Long-keeping smoked fish (salmon, trout, mackerel, herring)
Smoked cheese (Gouda, cheddar) — flavor more than preservation
BBQ — slow-cooked meats with smoke flavor
Smoked salt, smoked paprika, smoked tomato — flavor ingredients
Smoked vegetables ([[eggplant|eggplant]], mushroom, beet) for flavor depth

Constraints

Cold-smoke food safety: at 60–85°F you’re in the bacterial-growth zone — the [[salt-cure|salt cure]] must do the antimicrobial work; cold-smoking unsalted food risks botulism and other pathogens.
Hot-smoke internal-temperature targets: poultry 165°F, pork 145°F, ground meats 160°F, fish 145°F.
Creosote build-up from over-smoke — bitter, unhealthy. White/blue smoke = good; black/yellow smoke = clean the system.
Cold smoke needs cool ambient — summer cold-smoking requires a cooled smokehouse or off-season scheduling.
Equipment regulations vary; commercial smoke production has additional FDA/USDA rules.

Source

Charcuterie (Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn) — definitive English-language reference
The Smoked Foods Cookbook (Lonnie Gandara)

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

Practical

parallels

Dehydrator both reduce water activity; dehydration is moisture-only, smoke adds antimicrobial chemistry
Salt as a load-bearing technology of civilization salt-cure first, smoke second — salt does the antimicrobial work, smoke does the flavor

contains

Preservation toolkit method / wood-smoke preservation, cold and hot

combines

Recipe: a year of eating from one growing season the method for cured meat, fish, cheese, salt, paprika

combines with

Salt cure salt-cure first, smoke second — the canonical cured-and-smoked meat/fish sequence (bacon, salmon, ham)

5 inbound links · 3 outbound