Smoked meat….*dribble* does it get any better? Actually lets not even stop there, there’s smoked fish, cheese, salt, paprika, tea and bacon! When it comes to enhancing the taste of food, smoking is a superb way to do it. It’s a taste you just can’t replicate in any other way. While smoking was traditionally a means of preserving food, the invention of the fridge means we can worry a little less about using smoking to preserve our scran and use it solely for enjoyment.

I have dreams of 1 day owning a house with a big garden which shall contain a fire pit, a coal BBQ, an outdoor pizza oven and a home-made hot smoker. There is something to be said about living in a city centre flat for 11 years to make you crave outdoor cooking. However this doesn’t mean to say that smoking is an option which unavailable me. Home-smokers are becomingly increasingly more in demand as consumers, like myself, crave a little DIY and experimentation with their food.

So when Steven from Kitchen Gadget Wars offered to write a guest post on smoking meat from a gadget perspective, naturally I welcomed him with open arms.

Over to Steven…

Why Smoking Meat Is An Excellent Way of Enhancing Meat Taste

There are a lot of different ways that you can cook a piece of meat. You could pan fry it, bake it, boil it  or grill it. All of these options will affect the flavour and structure of the meat in different ways. Some can dry meat out and others may not allow it to cooking properly.

If we compare this to smoking however, we can create a divine blend of flavours and still retain a tender juicy cut of meat. It truly is one of the best things we can do with a choice cut of meat. No matter what you make for dinner, smoking will going to change your line up week after week.

The Starting Line

With smoking you can infuse meat with flavour with relative ease. You are allowing the air and smoke to infuse allowing you to taste the elements of the meat more so than with any other form of cooking. If we compare smoked food to boiled food for example, there is simply no comparison because boiling doesn’t create a sustainable platform for true flavour.

The Slow Process (and a little science…)

Regardless of the flavour, waiting 8 hours for dinner isn’t ideal however with electric home smokers, smoked foods become a realistic and faster option. These Electric smokers tenderize portions of meat which would otherwise be too tough to manage and allow you to infuse the meat with a range of flavours alongside your seasonings, giving you an all round smoother taste.

Whether you concentrate on the science or on the taste, slow-cooking and smoke infusion provide an all round better flavour to food than pan-searing or baking ever can. So next time you are investing in a new kitchen gadget, consider the food smoker and test it out yourself.