Smoking at last!

This week my eco cold smoker 'starter kit' arrived from Amazon. I wasn't sure quite what to expect, how big would it be, how easy would it be to assemble, what would food taste like once I'd subjected it to be smoked and many other thoughts went through my mind.

So today was the day when I was going to start to get some answers. How big - not very, hmm interesting when compared with many 'build your own plans'; how easy to assemble - I did it twice to make sure that I didn't miss something out the first time around!

I set my newly constructed eco smoker in the corner of the wood shed. With food to hand, more on that in a bit, I carefully filled the maze of the smoke generator with whisky oak dust, lit the tea light and waited for it to catch before placing it in the bottom of the smoker.

Food wise I decided to start with some supermarket mature cheddar, a soft cheese that I found in the price reduced bin and some rubbish mass produced 'pork' (really!) sausages. The cheddar went on the bottom shelf as it would come out last, then the sausages on the middle shelf and the soft cheese on the top shelf. I also put in a couple of apples to see what they would taste like. Both cheeses were placed on muslin cloth to allow easy handling and to catch any drips / moisture.

My plan was:-

• Cheddar - at least 8 hours
• Sausages - 3 hour for half of them and 6 hours for the other half
• Soft Cheese - 3 hours
• Apples - 6 hours

The unit worked steadily all day and at roughly allotted times I duly removed particular items, placed them in food containers and put them in the fridge. 

This evening we've tried out the food, asking different people of taste and pass comment

• Sausages - mixed views as in some liked the shorter smoked ones and others the longer ones. All agreed that the sausages themselves were rubbish and that the smoking actually added some flavour.
• Apples - I think that these will be an acquired taste...
• Cheddar - wow! This will not last long, in fact I may have to hide it otherwise it will all be gone very soon.

So beginners luck with some really good equipment. Next time I think that we'll try a variety of cheeses as well as some bacon.

Sloe Gin

"So Richard, what do Sloes look like? Small and blue was the not so helpful response." Hopefully there will be some blackthorn bushes on our walk was a fleeting thought as we set off with the dog to tramp around the fields on the outskirts so Corby Glen. Quite soon we saw a what looked like some Sloes, so taking the approach that this might be the only one in the area we started to pick as much as we could of this particular bush. Once we'd picked as much as we could from this bush we started walking again, well we got five yards before another bush full of fruit, and another bush. You get the idea...

So now we're back home the Sloes will be washed and put in the freezer overnight before being dropped into a bottle along with some cheap gin and sugar. I think we'll go for Tim Haywood's recipe of 500g of Sloes, 300g of sugar and a bottle of gin.

Biltong

It's been a while since my last post. Time has been gobbled up with various family commitments (including watching my daughter run the Great North Run) and attending a course at the School of Artisan Food on Curing and Smoking.

On the course we made Duck Procuitto (still drying), pressed Ox Tongue, Ham Hock Terrine and Biltong. The Biltong was quite easy to prepare, just takes a while to dry... Now our daughter is back at university I've commandeered her bedroom as the drying room as it's probably the coolest in the house.

After 10 days I put the drying Biltong in the oven to finish it off. As we used sirloin steak in nice chunky strips I've (not by my planning!) ended up with some Biltong that is nicely dry on the outside but retains a tad of moisture on the inside otherwise it'd be like chewing the soles of my shoes.

I suppose Biltong is a bit like Marmite, I love it but I've discovered a number of people who don't. Ah well, more for those I've discovered who appreciate it.