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Hark HK0528 Cooking Manual
Also see for HK0521: Owner's manual
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Contents
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34. SMOKING INTRODUCTIONSmoking food is an art form. There is much to learn about the different processes and equipmentavailable today. Cold smoking and hot smoking are two different ways to smoke food and therereally isn’t one singular cooking or smoking device that does both.4.1 Cold SmokingCold smoking takes place at temperatures around 20°C or lower and involves smoking partiallycured foods with very little heat. This is a popular smoking method for foods such as nuts, fish,jerky and foods that are dried or cured prior to smoking. It is important to remember that coldsmoking is not a cooking process and that cold smoked foods are not actually ‘cooked’. Insteadthey are cured and preserved. This can allow foods to be edible for hours, days, weeks or monthsafter smoking. It is always advisable to employ safe food practices when cold smoking and ensurethat you follow recipe instructions very carefully.Your Hark gas smoker is not ideally suited to cold smoking.4.2 Hot SmokingHot smoking involves cooking at low temperatures over long periods of time (anywhere from7-24 hours). Hot smoking takes place when cooking food with temperatures greater than what isconsidered to be normal ambient temperatures.Typically, hot smoking is carried out in temperatures between 70-180˚C. It is important to note thathot smoking alone does not act to preserve food. Anything hot smoked should generally be storedin a refrigerator.Electric and gas smokers tend to burn the source of smoke ie wood chips or pellets, from theoutset. They fill the chamber with high density smoke and heat the food within this smoke-heavycooking chamber. This is what we mean by hot smoking. The process works well and producesmore of a ‘smoked’ taste than a barbequed one. Think smoked chicken vs barbequed chicken,there’s a subtle difference.Your Hark gas smoker is suited to hot smoking.Low and SlowUS style barbequing with meats such as pork shoulder (pulled pork), ribs and brisketsare examples of hot smoking. These classic smoked BBQ meats are generally smoked attemperatures between 110-120˚C and will soften greatly and increase in flavour if you hold them‘at temperature’ for several hours inside the cooking chamber.Temperature control is essential to smoking successfully. Practice keeping your smoker at a stabletemperature in the smoking “zone” for hours at a time. Don’t be tempted to open the smokerdoor, as this lets out heat and air in and may take some 15 minutes or more to regain the originaltemperature.4.3 Smoke Quantity & QualityToo much smoke or the wrong type of smoke will make food bitter. The bitter taste is attributed tocreosote produced from ‘white smoke’, or, from the soot deposited from ‘black smoke’. Good hotsmoking means clean smoke travels over food continuously from the wood chip box and into thecooking chamber, picking up faint smoke on the way. |
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