On Food and Cooking

enclosure as the wood, and therefore cooks
while it’s smoked. This will give it a more or
less firm, dry texture, depending on the
temperature (usually between 130 and
180ºF/55–80ºC) and time involved, and can
kill microbes throughout the meat, not just on
the surface. (Barbecuing is a form of hot
smoking; see p. 157.) When it is cold-smoked,
the meat is held in an unheated chamber
through which smoke is passed from a
separate firebox. The texture of the meat, and
any microbes within it, are relatively
unaffected. The cold-smoking chamber may
be as low as 32ºF/0ºC but more usually ranges
between 60 and 80ºF/15–25ºC. Smoke vapors
are deposited onto the meat surface as much
as seven times faster in hot smoking;
however, cold-smoked meats tend to
accumulate higher concentrations of the
sweet-spicy phenolic components and so may
have a finer flavor. (They also tend to
accumulate more possible carcinogens.) The