ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DEBORAH BYRD KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
SMOKED FOODS HAVE an appeal that bypasses all civilized parts of the brain and speaks to something primal in us.
``It started in the Stone Age or as far back as any of us can remember,'' says chef Patrick Schoolcraft. ``It preserved food and allowed it to last a lot longer. It also enhances the flavor.''
Smoking isn't needed for preservation now, in the age of freezing, canning and vacuum-packing. But none of those modern technologies will ever replace the flavor part of the smoking equation. Schoolcraft has put smoked foods on the menu at his new restaurant, Patrick David's Cafe in Danville, Calif., although they're not as prominent as they were when he was chef at the old Devil Mountain Brewery in Walnut Creek, Calif., where he created a huge smoker that turned out chicken, ribs and sausages.
Patrick David's is a chic, California-cuisine restaurant that looks nothing like the fast-food place that formerly occupied the space. The kitchen is so small there's no room for a full-size smoker, so Schoolcraft has devised another method. All the foods at the restaurant are smoked over sawdust in a covered hotel pan with a grate, right on the restaurant-stove burner.
A truck-size restaurant smoker, a hotel pan on a burner, an old-fashioned ranch smokehouse - one thing they illustrate is the adaptability of this technique. Smoking has two basic but essential requirements: a steady, smoky fire and an enclosed place to put the food so the smoke penetrates. After that, it's a matter of making sure the food gets completely cooked, while the smoke surrounds it sufficiently to penetrate and lend the flavor we crave.
Almost any food can be smoked, Schoolcraft points out. Meat, poultry and fish are just a jumping-off place. Cheese and vegetables are two candidates for smoking that we might not think of at first.
There are two basic categories of smoking: hot and cold.
Hot-smoking cooks food while smoking it; it's sometimes called smoke-cooking. The temperature for hot-smoking usually runs between 150,F and 250,F. Hot-smoking usually is done with meats and poultry.
Cold-smoking is not literally cold, but cold only in relation to hot-smoking and in that the temperature isn't hot enough to cook the food. The temperature for cold-smoking is usually between 90,F and 150,F. (Schoolcraft likes to cold-smoke at an even lower temperature - 85,F - because he believes a higher temperature seals the outside and keeps smoke from penetrating.)
Cold-smoking was the process used for preservation of highly salted foods such as ham, bacon and some types of sausage. In huge country fireplaces or special smokehouses, the cold-smoking process could take days or weeks. Though the food wouldn't cook, it could dry out. Along with the salt and the smoke, this helped retard microbial growth and preserve the food.
For smoking foods at home, it's easiest to use a kettle-type grill or a special water smoker with a pan for the water, a heating element and a door at the bottom to add sawdust or coals. This type of cooking should always be done outdoors with good ventilation, with the smoker out of reach of children and pets and in a place where the wind will not blow smoke into the house.
If you have a commercial grill or smoker, you should consult the owner's manual for specific instructions on how to use it for smoking.
The key to hot or cold smoking is control of the fire temperature and the moisture level in the smoking chips. Since there are so many variables - air temperature and humidity; the kind of fuel used; size and moisture content and the kind and size of chips used - this is something the cook must learn by experience. But some general rules apply.
Here are a few, based on information from a pamphlet developed for an early Harvest Festival by Schoolcraft and Robert Shelton, and from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco:
* For hot-smoking, lay an even fire on the coal rack. (Don't use charcoal-lighting fluid for this; it can adversely affect the food's flavor.) Meanwhile, soak the wood chips of your choice in water. Let the coals burn until they are covered with white ash, then add the soaked wood chips. You can also add fresh herbs and dried spices to the smoker in an even layer on top of the chips.
* The soaked wood should dampen the fire a bit, then the chips should start to smoke. Put the top grill on and add the food. Cover the grill and smoke for the time prescribed by your recipe.
* Keep the chips moistened by adding more soaked chips. You also can add more fresh herbs at this time for a heavier herb flavor. To check doneness, it's best to go by internal temperature because smoked meats end up with a pink tinge which can be alarming when you're smoking poultry. You normally would want no pink showing, because it would mean the bird was undercooked. Use an instant-read meat thermometer, not the kind that cooks with the meat.
* For cold-smoking, the most difficult part is maintaining a lower temperature. It will take experimentation, but experts suggest an 8-to 10-inch base of coals, covering the coals with at least twice their volume in wet chips and fresh herbs. If the grill-top is too hot to touch, the fire is too hot for cold-smoking. Add more wet chips until the fire dies down a bit. (In his range-top smoker, Schoolcraft uses a piece of dry ice placed in the bottom of the pan with the sawdust to keep the temperature down.)
* Schoolcraft believes poultry is one of the best foods for smoke-cooking. He brines the birds for 1 to 11/2 hours before smoking and applies a light layer of salt. For whole birds, the skin and cavity may be rubbed with salt and liquid smoke. Poultry should be smoked for about 30 minutes per pound, turning every half hour and being careful not to let liquefied fat run off into the coals and start the chips on fire.
Recipes for:
BASIC BRINE
SMOKED PORK CHOPS
SMOKED FISH FILLETS
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KRT. Pork chops are merely one of the foods that easilyby CNBlend themselves to smoking. color.