Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design

Preface: This review is for the Kindle version. I also own the non-digital version as well and I prefer it. If you have to choose get the non-digital. I use the Kindle version because I travel a lot and don't want to haul a bunch of books around. However when I am home and looking through smoke-house designs I look at the physical version. This is THE definitive work on smoke and smoke-house design. The authors (a father and his two sons) put in a truck-load of information. If you are serious about smoking you definitely need to have this in your library. Pros: photos and diagrams are relatively easy to understand. Great historical approach. Smoke-theory and even some liquid (air is treated as a liquid) dynamics. Smoke-theory applied to a number of meat-types. Avian, Fish, and of course land-dwellers. Cons: Hardback not available. More color diagrams. More blue-prints. Additional comments (because we all have them). I would LOVE to see this split into two books, where the first book is all smokeing theory and the second book a book of blue-print and design.

I started reading this book knowing nothing about smoking, salting or curing meat. I only knew that I like smoked foods, and that I would like to try my hand at the art. Well, first of all, this book is by no means a list of recipes, but rather an introduction into the science of the art. While this may seem boring, I now realize how important these details are. Also, knowing the basic stuff, it will be easier to experiment and make your own recipes. Second, the author has been accused of being a proponent of curing with nitrates, and this is obviously the correct judgment. However, in my humble opinion, it should rather be an appraisal than an accuse. The reason is simply this: I would rather have these nitrates in my system than botulism. If you for some reason disagree, its as easy as leaving out the nitrates from the formula. Third, the author has been accused of not including enough plans for how to build an adequate smoker. Again, he explains all the essential and non-essential parts of a smoker, along with descriptions of a few quite simple implementations. If you understand what you read you will end up having much more freedom in your design than if you had to follow step-by-step instructions. Now, if those are all you need, don't buy a book. Just go and search instructables for smoker.

I have been looking for a good, comprehensive book on DIY smokehouse design. So far, this is the best one I've found. Most other books give you one or two basic smokehouse designs, but no information on how to make the smokehouse work. This book actually spends most (about 2/3) of its time on how to prepare meat for smoking and how to set up the smoker for success. It even goes so far as to cover combustion theory. And, it discusses more than 20 different smokehouse designs. The only real negative about this book is that it lacked detailed plans or parts lists for the plans it included. (What is included is some basic sketches of smokehouse set ups.) So, while it does provide a lot of ideas for how to set up a DIY smoker/ smokehouse, it's really up to the reader to do the actual design and figure out how many and what types of parts are needed for any of the ideas the book covers. Even so, it's still better than any other book I've been able to find on the subject.

written by a family who used this information to survive post WWII eastern europe. Instead of telling you to use use salt or potasium they explain why it is required for different applications. They explain the difference between Cold Smoking, Hot smoking and in between and what is good and bad for each . Very well written in plain language that is easy to understand. It explains how some smoke treatment is a preservative and other smoke treatment is a flavoring agent. Most importantly is explains the difference, explains the advantages and limitations and lists how to achieve either condition. It also knocks down the pie in the sky assumption that all smoke is created equal :) Cool smoke is required for long term preservation. But cool smoke is not able to be produced if the outside air temperature is already hotter than your target smoke temperature. You either have to wait until wintertime or work during night time hours if you arent ready to spend the thousands of dollars for smoke heat regulators that is.

I love this book. I got it as a suggestion while I was looking at designs for a smoke house. It truly explains what you need to know for whatever style of smoking you wish to do. A wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves smoking!!

This is the best meat smoking book I've read period. You won't find a recipe in here or how to cut up a beef but when it comes to how a smokehouse works and why this has it all. This book covers different designs of smokers along with different techniques. I have been using my homemade digitally controlled ugly drum smoker for years. It is hard to beat when it comes to slow cooking a brisket or even a turkey but, I have never been able to lay a heavy smoke and cool temps required to smoke bacon or fish. This book has all the information I needed to modify my smoker to lay down that heavy smoke and also the woods I should be looking for to do it.

This is a great compendium of information for good old meat smoking and preservation as well as equipment design to go with it. Much of this information has crossed my horizons in the past but this is a very good reference to use when needed. I would reccomend it to the seasoned as well as new fans.

A wonderfully written tutorial on the art of smoking meats and sausages. I have been smoking meats for many years, and wish this book had been published earlier. All the details are presented in a clear yet comprehensive manner. A truly enlightening experience for the reader covering all aspects of curing and cooking meats. The second part of the book covers many types of smokers that can be economically built at home. The numerous drawings, coupled with detailed instructions make this task embarrassingly simple. A must read for anyone interested in smoking.