Smoking (cooking)

The smoking ( in Austria and Bavaria also Selchen ) is a method of preserving and flavoring of foods, primarily of fish and meat.

The above salted or pickled foods are exposed to the smoke for a long period of wood fires. By the associated drying the water content is reduced by about 10 to 40 percent. Besides increasing the durability the smoking has to interfere with the purpose, characteristics such as the color, the smell and the taste and the texture on aroma formation positively by hardening the surface of the Räucherguts.

A special form is smoking with temperature for cooking food in a barbecue smoker (see also Barbecue ).

History

The chimney was only in the 10th - 11th Developed century, before there was only single-room (from which developed among other plank houses). The smoke drifted from the heat through the house and escaped through openings in the roof. This meant that the whole house was heated, but also that the soot in the kitchen area ( " smoke kitchen " ) and throughout the house (including clothing, lungs and skin of the inhabitants ) and reflected the increased risk of fire. Foods were hung secured near the hotplate or in the attic rodent or domestic animals, where they were automatically dried and smoked. The durability of such conserved goods and the cost of managing slaughter or to haul large amounts of meat or fish led to the smoking run separately ( by the chimney ended up in the attic or there to a " smoke chamber " extended ).

General

For smoking, the smoking material ( Smok from English- smoke ' smoke ') is poured into the provided charging the smokehouse. It found almost exclusively hard woods, especially beech in the form of sawdust or chips use. Through the smoldering of Smok the smoking process is initiated. Smoked fish and meat are in addition also some cheese, vegetables, eggs, fruit or tea and tofu. There are also whiskey and beer from smoked malt.

Chemistry of smoking

The pyrolysis of the wood results in the decomposition of polymeric substances such as cellulose to 310 ° C to 260 ° C, hemicellulose and lignin to about 500 ° C. The pyrolysis is carried out in smoke generators, they may also be initiated by superheated to 350 ° C steam. The smoke is next gaseous substances from non -volatile particulate matter such as ash, soot, tar and resins that give the food products to be treated, the characteristic taste. The rest of the pyrolysis remains as charcoal, which in turn maintains by combustion with oxygen to further pyrolysis. Among other things, produced during the incomplete combustion, the smoldering in the heat, the following substances:

Aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons as well as aliphatic and aromatic alcohols and ketones.

Phenols, such as guaiacol and catechol, which show antimicrobial activity.

Carbonyls such as formaldehyde. Formaldehyde acts microbicidal against yeasts and molds. Formaldehyde reacts with the epsilon- amino group of lysine. In a next step, a condensation reaction with the functional group of glutamine and the asparagine occurs. It comes to the cross-linking of proteins, resulting in a leathery skin of the flesh results.

Carboxylic acids (eg formic acid, acetic acid and carboxylic acid esters) contribute to the flavor.

A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzo (a) pyrene, however, is a known carcinogen. Therefore, it is now filtered out of the smoke. For this, the smoking has to be generic outside the production area. For the content of benzo ( a) pyrene in smoked exist limits. At the German Cancer Research Center, it is assumed that the registered decrease in gastric cancers on the mass distribution of fridges, and a year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables and an associated decline in preservation is due by salting and smoking.

Hot and warm smoke

If raw fish or raw meat cooked over a few hours of time at a temperature of 50 to 85 ° C and preserved, it is called hot smoking. Food treated in this way are only a few days durable and designed for early consumption. When the temperature is not hot smoking by the burning of Smok ( smoking material ), but achieved by an additional heat source in the smokehouse. This must be present regardless of the smoking process. When meat, meat sausages and cooked cured this form of smoking and preservation is applied.

Intense dry hot smoking at temperatures of 80 ° C is called a roast. It leads to a high water loss and stronger taste education. Fried products with the label have at least 0.5 % less water - protein ratio than non fried products. In modern Smokers of the cooking is done by gas fire and no longer directly over a wood fire. The smoke is blown then dosed in such a stove. Previously, the specially developed Altona oven was used in some areas for smoking fish, but which is as good as no longer in use today.

Products that are smoked hot, are mainly cooked ham, smoked sausage, eel, mackerel, sprats, halibut.

In addition, there is a slightly milder version, the so-called warm smoke, in which the temperatures in a frame of 25-50 ° C to move. A typical product that is smoked warm, the frankfurters.

Cold smoking

The cold smoking occurs at 15-25 ° C with special woods ( primarily hardwoods ). For Black Forest ham about pine shavings are used. Be cold smoked foods which are to be preserved longer, such as sausage, ham, bacon or smoked salmon. The cold smoking is an hourly or daily long process, doing the smoking process is divided into several phases: Räucherphasen and fresh air phases. Depending on the meat, ham, or sausage as done three to five Räucherphasen. Is smoked in a smokehouse, is led into the smoke of a special stove or the chimney of the house. In many older farmhouses, a smokehouse located in the attic. This form of incense is used in dry-cured ham and raw sausage. Name prefixes such as " land " or " farmers " are the Food Code used in Austria for products that have been cold smoked.

Typical products that are cold smoked, are fermented sausage, smoked ham, saveloy sausage.

Dielenräuchern

The Dielenräuchern is an original form of incense. Here is often mentioned in a large room, in Austria and Bavaria Selche generated down to earth from an open hearth fire or a smoldering sawdust as in the hall of smoke. The room temperature in the hall is not determined by technical operations, but by air connections to the outside world and thus also on the seasonal weather patterns. The smoking process can take four to five months to complete and prepare another over years to mature.

Others

A generated by the friction smoke smoke method is due to the temperature of max. 350 ° C free of tar and benzo ( a) pyrenrückständen. A Friction plant operates almost emission-free. In recent times, the traditional smoking process, however, being replaced by the industrial application of standard liquid smoke flavors. See: liquid smoke.