Smoking of meat

Smoking of meat (meat smoking) is treating meat with smoke from slowly smouldering wood. According to the FAO meat-processing manual, burning breaks down lignin and cellulose and releases more than 1000 compounds, some wanted and some not. Smoke preserves a little through aldehydes, phenols and acids, slows rancidity, and adds aroma, colour and a firmer casing.

Cold and hot smoking are almost two different crafts. Cold smoking runs at 15–18 °C, 26 °C at most: sawdust smoulders slowly, the smoke is light and the meat hangs well away from the fire. It lasts several days, not continuously but a few hours a day. It is used for raw fermented sausages and raw hams; on long-ripened hams, cold smoke keeps mould from growing.

Hot smoking means 60–80 °C and extra heat in the chamber. Thin frankfurters need about 10 minutes; thick sausages, Bacon and cooked ham up to an hour. Polish Kabanosy get about 150 minutes and are then baked to 70 °C. Krakowska sucha is smoked over alder, beech or fruit wood, and smoke flavourings are banned. Smoke only passes through a permeable casing, natural, cellulose or collagen. Liquid smoke is applied by dipping, showering or spraying, and in Spain such products must say «sabor ahumado».

What does the law say about safety? EU Regulation 2023/915 caps benzo(a)pyrene in smoked meat at 2.0 µg/kg and the sum of four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at 12.0 µg/kg. FAO says that with normal eating habits, moderately smoked food is not usually linked to cancer risk. At the same time, IARC classes processed meat, smoked included, as Group 1: 50 g a day raises colorectal cancer risk by 18 %.

If you smoke at home, USDA FSIS advises thawing the meat completely first, since in the smoker it would sit too long in the danger zone of 40–140 °F (4–60 °C). Low-temperature home smoking is a way of cooking, not of curing.

Why this matters to you: smoke adds flavour but does not keep a sausage on its own. Salt, drying and heat do that; see Curing of meat and Long-keeping smoked sausages.