Just ran across your site. I enjoy preparing my own meats. I literally grew up in a meat packing plant that served the southern half of Missouri. My family owned it and my dad ran it. The building was old, built before 1900. Refrigeration was supplied by a huge ammonia system, driven by an enormous compressor pump. A lot of stuff was run with steam, there were two huge coal-fired boilers going all the time. Water from an 8" (or so) well drilled slightly over 1000 ft. to a really pure aquifer. My education in smoking meat started there. The smokehouse part was four stories. There were three smokers, each fired on the bottom floor with four foot hickory logs. The first floor was for meats that just had to be cooked, as it was the hottest. Weiners, Franks, Bologna, Salami, etc., were cooked there. The second floor was where hams were smoked and cooked, and the top floor was where the bacon was smoked. Tending the fires was a fine art. They had to be low and smokey, and then at the appropriate time increase the heat. No dials or meters. Just some old men that knew what kind of fire they needed to smoke the hams, then cook them.
I learned a couple of things about smoking meat. The meat will only absorb the smoke (flavor) at lower temperatures. Keep the smoky low temps quite a while. When the meat starts to get hotter, and cooks, it stops absorbing the flavor. Then it's just the smoke on the surface. They always told me when it gets over 120 - 130 degrees it won't smoke any more, but you can lose a lot of juices, so when you are ready to cook it, cook it faster. The smoke is mainly absorbed in the fatty tissue and when the fat starts to melt, you start to lose the flavor. When you are smoking a couple of tons of meat essentially over an open fire, you better know what you are doing!
I learned a couple of things about smoking meat. The meat will only absorb the smoke (flavor) at lower temperatures. Keep the smoky low temps quite a while. When the meat starts to get hotter, and cooks, it stops absorbing the flavor. Then it's just the smoke on the surface. They always told me when it gets over 120 - 130 degrees it won't smoke any more, but you can lose a lot of juices, so when you are ready to cook it, cook it faster. The smoke is mainly absorbed in the fatty tissue and when the fat starts to melt, you start to lose the flavor. When you are smoking a couple of tons of meat essentially over an open fire, you better know what you are doing!
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