Smoking is a type of heat treatment of meat, which is used to preserve meat with substances contained in smoking preparations or smoke. Smoking gives meat its characteristic smoked aroma and flavor and increases its shelf life.
Cold and hot smoking
Smoking is divided into cold and hotsmoking depending on the temperature of processing.
Cold smoking – smoking meat at temperatures between 16-18ᵒC, and should not exceed 22ᵒC. Cold smoking is most often used to treat fatty foods.
Hot smoking – smoking of meat and meat products at a temperature of 60-80ᵒC. Hot smoking is most often used for cooked sausages and semi-smoked sausages.
As a result of smoking, meat products acquire an intense red-brown color, a pleasant specific aroma and taste, and their surface becomes shiny and dry.
In order for the smoked product to get a beautiful color, it is necessary to monitor the air humidity level during smoking. If the air humidity is too high, sausages and sausages will not acquire the characteristic color of the smoked product. Today, many butchers, producers of meat products, for smoking meat products use modern thermal chambers. With the help of such thermochambers it is possible to regulate both temperature and air humidity, air and smoke circulation, and smoke density, regardless of environmental conditions. In order to obtain a beautiful smoked color of meat products, it is recommended to separate the reddening and hot smoking phases.
Modern, electronically controlled thermal chambers allow you to set almost ideal smoking conditions. This maximizes the quality of the finished products and minimizes the number of defective products.
Smoke (smoke) and smokeless smoking
Depending on the processing method, a distinction is made between smoke (conventional) smoking and smokeless smoking.
In smoke smoking, the surface of the product is treated with the smoke components of the smoke. Smoke smoking is characterized by prolonged heat treatment, as a result of which the products acquire intense coloring, pleasant smoke smell and taste.
Smokeless smoking is the smoking of products with smoking preparations (extracts of wood products). Smokeless smoking is achieved either by treatment with smoking preparations similar to smoke smoking or by immersing the product in a solution of smoking liquid with further heat treatment.
There are several smokeless smoking techniques depending on the type of smoke preparation chosen, depending on the type of product and depending on the way the smoke preparation interacts with the product being smoked:
- adding a smoking agent to the product.
- dipping and soaking the meat product in the smoking solution.
- Injection of smoking preparations into the product (together with salting brine).
- treatment of the surface of meat products with smoking substances.
- treatment in the smoking chamber with finely dispersed smoking preparations.
- processing in a smoking chamber in vapors of smoking agent.
Adding a smoking agent to a sausage product
This method is used in the production of cooked sausage, sausages, sardines and various canned meats.
The method of adding the smoking agent directly to the product is very simple and does not require special devices and smoking equipment. This method is very cost-effective and economical compared to other smokeless smoking methods. When using this method in the production of smoked meat products, it also ensures maximum compliance with sanitary and hygienic indicators, and provides optimal working conditions.
The only disadvantage of this method is the limitation of its application (only for the production of cooked sausages, sausages, sardines and canned meat). In the production of smoked meat products, where it is important only to color the surface of the product in a characteristic brown color, this method can not be used.
Dipping and soaking the meat product in the smoking solution
Curing meat products in smoking liquid is one of the most popular methods of smokeless smoking.
This method has become popular because it is quite simple and can be applied to all meat products. As a result of keeping the meat product in the smoking liquid, the product acquires a smoked taste, aroma and color.
In this method, the prepared salted meat or meat product is strung on rods and immersed in the smoking solution for a few seconds. Depending on the type and size of the meat product, after immersing it in the solution, it is kept for some time and then subjected to heat treatment: baking, wilting, boiling or wood smoke treatment. In the latter case, it will be mixed smoking with the use of both smokeless and wood smoke.
Despite all the advantages, this method has its significant disadvantages:
- the color of smoked meat products is paler than that of products produced with smoke smoking.
- When stored, the color loses its saturation and becomes even paler.
- the surface of the product is moistened, resulting in poorer storage of the product.
- sometimes the odor of the original smoking agent is overpronounced.
Injection of smoking preparations into the product (together with salting brine)
This method is mainly used in the production of hams and pasteurized ham in cans (canned meat).
In this case, the smoking agent is injected into the meat product together with the salting brine. The requirements for smoking agents when injected into the product are similar to those for other preparations injected directly into the meat product.
Surface treatment of meat products with smoking agents
In this method of processing, the surface of the meat product is irrigated with a solution of smoking agent.
Despite the apparent simplicity of this method, this technique has several disadvantages:
- special equipment is required to irrigate the surface;
- large quantities of smoking preparations are consumed;
- rectification and disposal after use of the smoking liquid is necessary.
Treatment in the smoking chamber with finely dispersed smoking preparations
In this case, the solution of the smoking preparation is finely dispersed (ground) to small particles of 10-40 microns and the smoking products are treated with these particles.
The disadvantages of this method are:
- the need for specialized equipment;
- to ensure that all products are of uniformly good quality, they must be placed freely enough in the smoking chamber;
- at maximum smoking chamber utilization, the quality of the finished meat products decreases and therefore the productivity of the smoking chambers decreases.
Processing in a smoking chamber in vapors of smoking agent
Since smoking agents are composed primarily of volatile compounds, the smoking agent can be easily converted into a vapor or aerosolized smoking medium that resembles smoke as much as possible.
This method is very promising because:
- the aerosolized environment of the smoking preparation is similar to the smoke intended for hot smoking;
- constant vapor recirculation reduces consumption and waste of the smoking agent;
- This method uses simple smoking chambers where the smoking medium can be recirculated.
The only limitation or disadvantage of this method is that the smoking agents used must contain a small amount of solids, and their level of corrosive effect to metals must be minimal.
SUMMARY
Smokeless smoking compared to traditional smoke methods of smoking products has a number of advantages and is promising.
As a result of the use of smokeless smoking in the production of smoked products, it is possible to:
- increase the productivity of smokehouses;
- improve sanitary and hygienic working conditions of employees;
- to increase the profitability of the smokehouse;
- expand the range of products, since all types of meat products can be processed using this method;
- to produce products that are as similar in taste and color characteristics as possible to those produced by traditional smoke smoking.
