Did mention I was planning to use the whiskey/cider-shaken woodchips for smoking fish, but a piece of tasty-looking raw bacon meat came our way instead.
Yesterday's dinner:
Self-smoked bacon with salt, pepper, salsa and cheese + smoked eggs, fresh tomato + rye crackers and/or cornbread. Yum yum yum. And yes, I almost fainted when the salsa came out. But it worked. Wow, it worked.
So to answer a burn.. er.. smoking question from some people from a while ago, yes, we can and do smoke food in the apartment. No, you don't need a huge brick oven, nor a back yard to build it into. You need a set of a pot and a lid, preferrably with a hole for a thermometer in it, half a glass of wood chips, a regular gas stove and an extractor fan over it... Unless you actually prefer to live in a sauna, of course.
Our magic cupboards contain a specifically designed clay smoke pot. The water-soaked woodchips go into the flat bottom half to be covered with aluminium (and NOT aluminum) foil to not have to clean the pot from dripped fat afterwards. Next is a metal grid, food onto that, a bowl-shaped lid on top with the thermometer stuck into its hole.
Coice of woodchips is apparently also important, but to be honest, I don't have enough experience to say anything about this yet. We happen to have 6 different types and uh, I'll learn eventually...
What and approximately how long to smoke:
- fish, duh - 10 min
- raw bacon - 25 min
- half boiled egg - 10 min
- sausages, wieners - 15 min
- cheese - longish I suspect, don't remember
- ...
Cheers,
Hedi
