Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Spread your jerky meat on a dehydrator rack, oven rack, or solar oven to be dehydrated.
(Photo courtesy of Andrea Nguyen, Vietworldkitchen.com)
Smoking Meat in Home Smokers
Smoking is another low-heat method of preparing meat but instead of drying the meat, as with
dehydration, or cooking the meat directly, as with traditional cooking methods, smoking heats
the air and cooks the meat indirectly. This method takes much longer to cook the meat. But the
meat is enhanced with a smoky flavor during the cooking process, and usually becomes very tender
because it cooks at lower temperatures.
One of my favorite childhood topics,
Little House on the Prairie,
had a chapter about a homemade
smoker Pa made out of a hollowed log. The meat was hung from nails at the top of the hollow tree,
and the fire kept burning and smoking at the bottom of the hollow tree. Thankfully, now we have
extremely affordable home smokers that don't require you to hollow out a standing tree trunk.
The most typical home smoker is a water smoker that has a place for the heat source, racks to place
the meat on, and a water pan to create steam and keep the meat moist. You want a smoker with
a little door to allow you to add more fuel (charcoal or wood chips usually) without opening the
entire lid. Incidentally, this is why trying to smoke meat in a regular grill doesn't tend to work as
well—too much heat escapes each time you open the lid and the cooking temperature doesn't have
a chance to stay consistent.
