Sawdust for smoking: which ones are needed, how to choose and which ones are best to use

The thing is that they are made of wood, so they can not only burn, but also smolder at a temperature of 400–800 degrees .

It is this property that has made them a popular material for smoking many types of products.

In addition, you can make sawdust for smoking with your own hands.

In this article we will cover :

• what is the difference between different types of smoking;
• how smokehouses are designed for different types of smoking;
• how smoked products affect the human body;
• how to choose sawdust for smoking various products;
• smoking recipes for different products.

What are the differences between different types of smoking?

Here we talked about the fact that the difference between different types of smoking lies in the temperature of the smoke .
Cold smoking is carried out at a smoke temperature of up to 30 degrees.

This smoking consists of two simultaneous processes:

• drying (drying) the product by passing smoke;
• filling the product with smoking substances, which give it a pleasant taste and smell.

Cold smoking is used only for ready-to-eat products, and quickly perishable products are pre -soaked in a saline solution and dried .

Hot smoking is carried out at a smoke temperature of up to 80 degrees. Due to the higher temperature, smoking substances quickly penetrate into the product and change it:

• taste;
• color;
• smell.

However, such smoking cannot replace full heat treatment or salting.
Therefore, any meat products, including sausages, are first salted or boiled , then treated with smoke.

Thanks to this, products not only change their taste, but are stored much longer than unprocessed ones.

Rapid smoking is carried out at a smoke temperature above 90 degrees.

During such smoking, two simultaneous processes take place:

• baking,
• smoking,

due to which the product does not require preliminary heat treatment.

Salting of the product is carried out only to improve the taste, if required.

During any type of smoking, the product is filled with substances that not only change its taste, color and smell, but also prevent the growth of bacteria .

It is bacteria that cause food to go to waste. This is a natural mechanism for recycling biomass that no longer contains life.

Each type of smoking takes a certain time.

cold process can last 20–40 days , during which the product is greatly dehydrated, which also reduces bacterial activity. After all, they need high humidity and heat to reproduce and utilize any product.

After cold smoking, products can be
stored in well-ventilated, dry areas for decades .
The only disadvantage of such products is their hardness, so they are sometimes soaked or boiled before use.

Cold smoking is most effective for fatty meat products , because at temperatures above 50 degrees, lard turns into fat and water.

Liquid fat flows down the surface of the product, worsening its appearance, and lard loses its taste.

Hot smoking is ideal for lean meat and any fish . After all, such meat and fish do not have a clearly defined layer of fat that must be preserved.

After hot smoking, the product loses less moisture , and therefore its shelf life is much shorter than after cold smoking.

In a well-ventilated, dry area, such products can be stored for up to one year . Therefore, hot smoking is often used to prepare food for the winter.

Quick smoking is generally not intended for preparing products for long-term storage. Therefore, it is used to prepare the product for immediate use and give it the necessary flavor and aromatic properties.

The most famous quick-smoked product is kebab , which can only be stored in the refrigerator for only 2-3 days.

How smokehouses work

A cold smoking apparatus - a kind of smoke generator - consists of two barrels , one of which is dug into the ground, connected by an underground chimney .

dug into the ground is a firebox in which wood is burned, and standing on the ground is a smokehouse. The firebox is made from a steel barrel, which must be cleaned of paint, otherwise, no matter what you smoke, the product will absorb the taste and smell of burnt paint and will be very unpleasant.

When the wood burns, the lid of the first barrel is closed and the smoke goes through an underground chimney . The cold inner surface of the chimney condenses soot and heavy smoke fractions, that is, it cleans it.

an oak barrel as a smokehouse gives a very good effect - the finished product acquires a barely noticeable pleasant aftertaste.

If there is no oak barrel, then it can be replaced a wooden barrel made from fruit trees. If there is no such barrel, you can use an ordinary steel barrel , cleared of paint.

The hot smoking apparatus consists of two steel barrels stacked on top of each other, connected by a short chimney. A fire is lit in the lower barrel, and when the wood burns up, they are covered with sawdust, and smoking products are hung in the upper barrel.

The device for quick smoking is made in the same way, only instead of installing a chimney,
the adjoining bottoms of both barrels are cut out .
As a result, the products are subjected to both smoke and strong heat treatment.

Hot and quick smoking devices are well suited for working with sawdust.

It is not advisable to use cold smoking devices because it is difficult to monitor how sawdust burns .

If you can check the condition of the sawdust in the firebox of a cold smokehouse every 2-4 hours - this will have to be done for many days - then you can smoke any food in this way.

For more information about the design and use of smokehouses, read the article (smokehouses using waste wood).

How much sawdust is used to smoke lard?

How much wood chips you need to smoke lard depends on the type of smokehouse, the products, and the quality of the sawdust.

If you smoke hot smoked lard on sawdust, then 1-2 zhmen will be needed per 1 kg of product. But to maintain the temperature, raw materials must be added to the firebox every half hour. If smoking lasts up to 3 hours, then 3-6 zhmen will be enough for 1 kg of product. And for a quick smoke treatment, 2-4 pumps will be enough.

Sawdust in a hot smoked smokehouse

If you are planning to smoke up to 20 kg of lard in a cold smoked smokehouse, you should stock up on a bucket of sawdust, which will last for 24 hours. Accordingly, for a larger number of products, more chips will be needed.

Important! The color, aroma and taste of the finished delicacy depend on the quality of sawdust or wood chips. Therefore, all raw materials must be the same size. If you do not adhere to this rule, when removing the lid, a fire may break out and the product itself may burn.

What raw materials are suitable for smoking lard:

How smoked products affect the human body

Many have heard about the dangers of smoked products , but this most often applies to products processed using liquid smoke . In addition, smoked products in which technology is violated or prepared from low-quality/expired raw materials are very dangerous. For example, from old meat.

If a product is smoked in compliance with the technology, then in small quantities it is
harmless even for people with liver and gall bladder problems.
At the same time, people with such diseases should not rely heavily on smoked foods, because such food is too heavy for their body.

However, even for them, 1-2 pieces during the holiday will not hurt.

If you used a low-quality product or somehow violated the cooking recipe, then smoked food can pose a serious danger . Indeed, in such products, especially when cold smoked, pathogenic bacteria multiply, which are the cause of most poisonings .

What wood should I use for smoking?

Smoking requires the use of high-quality wood, because any impurities or low quality wood will inevitably spoil the result. You can smoke with alder and rowan, or you can use willow, beech, oak and maple.

These tree species are distinguished by the fact that they have little resin - they do not spoil the meat, but give it an incomparable aroma and taste.

Alder and rowan are best suited for smoking fish and meat. They have bactericidal properties.

Both freshly cut branches and dry ones are suitable for smoking.

Fresh branches smoldering in a smokehouse can impart a tart aroma and a beautiful, juicy color to the fish. Using dry branches for smoking is a guarantee that the finished product will have a light golden color, which will correspond to a delicate taste.

Raw branches must be freed from leaves before being used for smoking. The fact is that when the leaves burn, they form ash, which rises along with the smoke and settles on the product, ruining its appearance. It is best to use not thick, but thin branches of deciduous trees for smoking.

Moreover, the shorter these branches are, the tastier the resulting smoked meat will be.

Sawdust and wood chips can be used, but to ensure they burn slowly, they must be compressed before use.

The wood used for smoking should not be affected by fungus. Or have traces of chemical processing, which includes painting, varnishing, gluing, etching and other similar actions. Indeed, in this case, the combustion products of these not at all food additives will end up on the prepared smoked meat.

During smoking, you can improve the taste of the product by adding some tree branches, which contain a lot of aromatic essential oils. An example of such a tree is the well-known eucalyptus, the aroma of which can even treat a cold. Black currant gives an excellent smell, combined with smoked cape. Raspberries and blackberries can also decorate a smoked product with their aroma. The excellent taste and color of the product is created by the hornbeam branches used during smoking. Smoking lovers select wood for a particular product very carefully.

An important rule here is that sixty percent of the total amount of wood used for smoking is trees with dense wood that do not produce a lot of soot. Those who smoke using alder and rowan do the right thing. Wood chips from all fruit trees that are available are also a good base for smoking.

When starting to smoke, it is very important to remove the bark from any wood that will be used.

Of course, the best smoked meat recipes are a personal achievement for everyone who loves to cook. With experience, you develop your own rules, but they are all based on the golden rule of choosing wood for smoking.

The most common mistakes and their consequences

Here is a table in which we have included the most common mistakes made when smoking and their possible consequences.

What sawdust is best to use for smoking?

Let's look at it in detail: what sawdust is used for smoking and in what situations.
The main rule when choosing sawdust for smoking is that you cannot use material made from coniferous wood.

Such sawdust imparts bitterness , greatly impairing its taste.

universal for smoking:

• oak;
• ash;
• hornbeam;
• and you;
• alders;
• birch;
• acacia

They can be used to smoke any product.

Beech is also good , but it is not used for smoking lard because it gives it an unpleasant taste and smell.

Fruit sawdust is well suited for smoking:

• pork;
• beef;
• lamb;
• venison;
• goat meat;
• horse meat;
• hare meat;
• fatty fish.

However, they are not suitable for smoking any poultry , because they give it an unpleasant odor and spoil the taste .

from fruit also used for smoking;

• cheese;
• fruit;
• vegetables

By combining sawdust of one type and leaves of another type, you can create a unique aroma of smoked meats and give them a new taste.

In addition, it is important to select sawdust according to humidity. The optimal humidity is 50% ; if the humidity is lower, the sawdust can flare up strongly, which will disrupt the smoking regime.

If the humidity is higher, the combustion temperature will decrease and the smoke will contain many heavy fractions that worsen the color and taste of the smoked product.

If you don’t know how to choose sawdust for smoking for a particular product, we recommend using sawdust:

• birch,
• alder

These types of sawdust, when smoked, give a universal taste and smell, so you can smoke any food .

In the wood of these species:

• very low resin content,
• high content of various microelements and sugars,

thanks to which any smoked product turns out very pleasant.

Which sawdust should I choose for smoking?

Sawdust for smoking chicken

Each individual type of wood species is suitable for a particular product. As for chicken, it is better to use only alder chips in this case. It must be clean and not contain any admixtures of other wood species. Poultry is smoked for exactly one hour at temperatures up to 150 degrees Celsius. If we are talking about game, then smoking lasts 4 hours at temperatures ranging from 100 to 120 degrees.

Sawdust for smoking meat

For meat, it is recommended to take a mixture of sawdust from tree species such as alder and beech. You can add a small amount of rosemary here. Meat is cooked for 2 hours. Sometimes this range can be reduced to 1 hour. The temperature during smoking can vary from 100 to 115 degrees. With hot smoking, the cooking time reaches 3 hours. Temperature marks for this cooking mode range from 80 to 100 degrees.

Sawdust for smoking lard

Lard involves the use of beech wood chips. Smoking is done cold to minimize fat loss. Smoking should continue every day for a week. Smoke treatment takes place for 3 hours at a temperature of approximately 35 degrees.

Sawdust for smoking fish

The fish turns out tasty and aromatic when a mixture of fruit chips is used for smoking. You can also take chips of oak and alder. Cooking fish at home is usually done hot. Its duration does not exceed 1 hour.

How much fuel will be required?

There is no clear answer to this question.
How much sawdust is needed for smoking depends on the type of smokehouse design and the products that are smoked.

For hot smoking, you need 1-2 grinds of sawdust for every kilogram of product you are going to smoke for an hour.

Moreover, sawdust is added every 30 minutes to constantly maintain the same temperature.

To smoke a product for 3 hours , you will need 3–6 zhmeny per kilogram of weight.

For quick smoking, you can use either a single load of sawdust (then it will take 2–4 zhmeny for each kilogram of product), or you can also load it additionally , then the consumption will be the same as for hot smoking.

For cold smoking, you must proceed from the rule - to process products weighing up to 20 kilograms, you need a bucket of sawdust per day of smoking. Perhaps it will take less, but you need to count on a bucket per day.

To smoke more products, you need to increase the diameter of the barrels , which will also lead to an increase in the amount of sawdust.

Tree species suitable for smoking

The type of wood used for smoking improves not only the taste of the products, but also gives them a special aroma and shade. Also, the storage duration of smoke-treated poultry, fish and meat depends on the type of firewood.

The best wood for smoking is considered to be hardwood. Such firewood is used moderately dry and slightly damp. The first option is used most often. This wood contributes to the formation of a golden crust and gives the products a delicate taste. Slightly damp wood is used when it is necessary to give smoked meats a tart aroma and a bright, rich color.

Experienced smokers prefer to process products on deciduous trees. This wood is considered the best solution for smoking fish and meat.

Most often I use firewood from such trees:

• alder;
• maple;
• oak;
• Rowan;
• aspen.

Rowan is often used for smoking.
Aspen imparts a subtle aroma to fish and meat. The formation of a golden crust can be achieved using beech, but such wood does not affect the taste.

An excellent option for smoking is pear, cherry or plum. Such fruit trees do not emit a minimum amount of resin during heat treatment, and also give the products a special unique taste and aroma. For smoking, not only firewood is used, but also wood chips.

Each individual type of wood is used to prepare a separate category of products.

The quality of food also depends on the type of smoke treatment. For fatty foods, cold smoking is used, and for low-fat foods, hot smoking is used.

Smoked meat recipes

Here are a few recipes to help you create delicious dishes or prepare food for long-term storage.

1. Pork.
2. Salo.
3. Chicken
4. Smoked sausage.
5. Cooked smoked sausage.
6. Mackerel.
7. Prunes.

Pork

Take a fresh piece of pork and cut it into pieces the size of two palms and 2-4 centimeters thick. Rinse the meat and marinate in a brine solution (1 cup of salt per 4 liters of water). To prepare the brine, boil water and pour salt into it, then add:

• a pinch of black pepper;
• a pinch of dry garlic (you can crush 3-5 large cloves);
• 4–6 bay leaves.

Cool the brine, put the meat in it (the brine should completely cover the meat) and refrigerate for 2 days . Then remove from the refrigerator and hang the meat so that the brine drains and stops dripping.

Prepare your smoker for hot smoking and sawdust. The average consumption of sawdust is 4 handfuls per 3–4 kilograms of meat .

Hang the meat under the smoker lid so that the pieces are not touching each other, then light the fire. As soon as the kindling (chips and thin pieces of wood) flares up, cover the fire with half of the sawdust so that it does not go out.

Then slightly reduce the air supply so that the sawdust does not flare up too much.

Small, rare flames on the surface of the sawdust are acceptable, but the bulk should smolder.

Every 5-10 minutes check how the sawdust is burning.

When the pile of sawdust in the firebox is reduced by half , add a second portion of sawdust there.

Smoking time - 50–60 minutes .

If there is not enough sawdust, it means you pulled too hard or dried it out, so you will have to add 2 more handfuls of fuel.

The following types of sawdust are good for smoking pork.

1. Oak sawdust, giving a somewhat pungent odor and tart taste.
2. Birch, alder or maple sawdust will give the meat a barely noticeable sweetish taste.
3. Blackthorn and dogwood will add a subtle tart tint.

When smoking, you can combine tart and sweet types of wood, and also add something of your own.

Salo

Select a fresh, tender piece of lard with streaks of meat. Lightly press the knife onto the skin several times. If the knife sinks into it, then the lard is suitable for smoking.

Cut the lard into pieces 2–3 centimeters . After this, marinate.

The marinade (brine) recipe can be the same as described above or any other, the main condition is that for 1 kilogram of lard you need 150–200 grams of salt and 3 liters of water.

Add pepper, garlic and other spices to taste if you like them.

The lard must be kept in a saline solution for 3 days , then hung in a cool, ventilated and dry place to dry for a day.

Then the lard is either put on stainless steel hooks or tied with twine and hung in a smokehouse.

If you cold smoke lard, it will take 3–5 days .

With the hot method, about 50–70 minutes .

To properly smoke lard using a hot method, place a small container of water , this will make the lard softer and tastier.

The optimal choice of sawdust for smoking lard depends on the desired result. After all, the original color of lard is white, so it is very important to choose a breed that will change its color to the desired one.

1. Alder, birch and beech will give a rich dark yellow hue and a barely noticeable sweetish taste.
2. Fruit trees will give a slight yellowish tint.
3. If you want to get golden lard, then you need red wood.

All that remains is to decide on your color wishes.

Chicken

For smoking, it is better to use young chickens and roosters of broiler breeds. The bird must be gutted and cooked until tender in salted broth. You can add various seasonings such as:

• onion,
• garlic,
• wild garlic.

At the same time, it is important not to overcook the meat, so periodically stick a fork or knife into it to its full depth. As soon as ichor or blood stops coming out of the injection sites, wait another 5 minutes and remove the pan from the stove. The chicken needs to be hung to allow the broth to drain. If you want dried chicken to be tougher, then instead of boiling it, marinate it in the same way as lard, then dry it, but the hot smoking time will double. You can also simply coat the carcass with salt and spices and smoke it in the same way as a marinated one.

Wrap the carcass with twine and hang it by it, because the meat will soften during processing and may tear. Chicken can be smoked either cold or hot. The smoking time depends on the weight - for a boiled carcass weighing a kilogram, 30–40 minutes of hot smoking or three days of cold smoking is enough.

For a boiled carcass weighing 2 kg, the time for both cold and hot smoking should be increased by 1.3–1.5 times, and for particularly large carcasses weighing 3 kg or more, the time should be increased by 2–3 times.

What kind of sawdust is best for smoking chicken?

best for smoking chickens :

• alder,
• birch

The chicken is fully cooked when the meat easily separates from the bones and the skin is golden to brown, depending on the type of wood.

Smoked sausage

To prepare sausage you will need any meat , you can even poultry.

Cut the meat into pieces measuring 5x5x5 centimeters and marinate in saline solution, the proportions are the same as in the previous section.

If you don’t like salty foods, then marinate the meat with vinegar, onions and spices, but in this case it can only be smoked hot .

When smoking is finished, dry the meat and turn it into minced meat.

Buy washed pork or beef intestines at the market, stuff them with minced meat and make sausage rings, then send them to the smokehouse.

Cold smoking time is
7–10 days .
Hot smoking will take no more than 50–70 minutes .

After removing the finished sausage from the smokehouse, ventilate it well and place it in the refrigerator.

If you want to store sausage in the cellar , then you need to smoke it cold for 30–40 days , and hot for 3–5 hours .

For smoking, use fruit wood, it will give the most pleasant color and smell.

If it is not there, you can use :

• alder;
• birch;
• beech;
• maple.

If these species are not available, then sawdust from any deciduous wood will do.

Cooked smoked sausage

This sausage can also be made from any fresh meat, including any poultry.

The meat is cut into small pieces and minced into minced meat. If you like ham, then some of the meat should be chopped into small pieces and mixed with minced meat .

Then various spices are added to the minced meat. The finished minced meat is placed in washed pork or beef intestines and the sausages are made into rings. After this, the finished sausages are boiled in brine, where there are 50–100 grams of salt per 1 liter of water.

If the sausages will be cold smoked, then
the amount of salt should be doubled .
Cooking time: 1 hour for hot smoking and 2 hours for cold smoking.

After finishing cooking, the sausages are cooled and dried for 3–5 hours, then placed in a smokehouse.

In a hot smokehouse it will be ready in 1–2 hours , in a cold smokehouse in 3–4 days .

For this operation it is better to use:

• oak,
• hornbeam,
• acacia

They will add a slightly tart smell and make the sausage more tasty.

Mackerel

For smoking you will need fresh or frozen mackerel . Fresh fish needs to be frozen a little, and frozen fish needs to be partially thawed, then you can cut it without damaging the fillet.

The head, gills and intestines are removed from the fish, then washed and allowed to drain well. After this, the fish is thoroughly rubbed with salt at the rate of 1 tablespoon per 1 kilogram of fish.

If desired, sprinkle it with lemon juice or sprinkle with various seasonings, as you like.

Then the fish is hidden
in the refrigerator for 10 hours and, after shaking off excess salt and spices, is hung in the smokehouse.
Some people do not remove the salt and spices; in this case, during smoking, the salt is absorbed into the fish, making it saltier, and the seasonings stuck to the fish give it a slightly more pronounced flavor .

With cold smoking, the fish will be ready in 2–4 days , and with hot smoking in 30–60 minutes , depending on the size.

The larger the fish, the longer it needs to be cooked.

For mackerel, it is better to use wood that gives a yellowish or golden color to the finished product.

yellowish :

• beech,
• alder,
• birch,
• maple.

Any red wood will give a golden

Prunes

To smoke prunes, use a “hot” smoker, but instead of meat hooks, install a grate with cells smaller than the size of the fruit . Rinse the prunes and cut each plum in half to remove the pits. Make sure there are no worms in them.

Rinse again and place on a wire rack to dry. After 2-3 hours, insert the grate into the smokehouse and light the fire, then proceed as in the previous recipe.

Ready prunes are not suitable for long-term storage , but they have a pleasant taste and will decorate any table.

Fruit wood is best suited for smoking this product .

What not to use

If you want to get a tasty and aromatic product, then you should abandon softwood raw materials. There is a lot of resin in such sawdust. It contaminates products and gives them an unpleasant, specific taste. In addition, when such raw materials smolder, a layer of soot forms on the walls of the smokehouse.

As for the finished dish, it will be very bitter. Often these products cause a sore throat. It is for this reason that it is not recommended to use such firewood.

Where to get or how to make sawdust with your own hands

The easiest way is to buy sawdust at the nearest sawmill or woodworking plant. If there is no wood of the required species, you can look at advertisements on poles or visit bulletin boards on the Internet:

1. Avito.
2. Flagma.
3. Yandex Market.
4. Regmarkets.
5. Price pulse.
6. Yula.

In addition, you can make sawdust for smoking yourself.

To do this you can:

• saw,
• plan,
• grind

wood of the corresponding species.

You can collect dried branches in the forest or garden, but you should not use live wood , because its humidity is much higher than necessary, so the smoke will be less hot and more intense. This will lead to the appearance of more pronounced taste and smell, as well as to worse heat treatment of the product.

You can cut wood either with a hand saw (but it takes a very long time) or with an electric circular saw. However, shredding is more effective using the devices that we discussed in the article Equipment for processing wood waste.