In smoking, wood (beech, alder, oak, fruit woods) smoulders with limited air supply instead of burning, and the resulting smoke flows around the food. The smoke contains aromatic and mildly preserving compounds that give the food flavour, a golden-brown colour and – together with prior salting or curing – better shelf life. Three methods are distinguished by temperature: cold smoking (15–25 °C, over hours to days, e.g. smoked salmon, raw ham), warm smoking (25–50 °C) and hot smoking (50–90 °C, which also cooks the food, e.g. trout, mackerel).
The process: the food is first salted or cured in brine or dry, sometimes seasoned, and dried until a slightly tacky surface (pellicle) forms to which the smoke adheres better. Then it goes into the smoker or smoking cabinet, where wood chips or dust glow in a controlled way. In hot smoking a trout is ready in about 1–2 hours; cold-smoked salmon is smoked for several hours to over a day in several passes. The type of wood strongly shapes the aroma – beech is neutral-classic, alder mild, fruit woods fruity, whisky-barrel wood smoky-sweet.
Smoking is for anyone who wants to refine fish, meat or cheese, preserve it or create a smoky aroma – from the hobby griller to the angler to the restaurant. A simple tabletop smoker costs around CHF 40–120 in Switzerland, larger smoking cabinets or smokers CHF 150–800 and more (guide prices, no guarantee). For cold smoke an inexpensive cold-smoke generator from about CHF 20 is often enough.
What to watch for: use only clean, untreated, low-resin wood (no resinous conifer wood, no painted or glued wood). In hot smoking watch the core temperature so that fish, for example, cooks through. Cold-smoked products are not cooked through and need correct curing and refrigeration. Smoke in a well-ventilated place outdoors – the smoke is intense.