Why do we love smoky flavours so much?
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What historical role did smoking play in food preservation?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hei, mä lähden nyt oikeesti. Mä oon lomalla. Pekka on Pekka, eikä mikään pikasso. Kun Pekka maalaa grillikatoksensa, pitää sudin pysyä kädessä maalin seinässä ja naapurin kateellisena. Siksi Pekka luottaa parhaisiin välineisiin ja osaamiseen. Niinpä hän suuntaa K-rautaan, jolloin maalaus onnistuu pinnalla millä hyvänsä. Maaliostoksilla voit voittaa myös 10 tonnia rempparahaa.
K-rauta. Auttaa alkuun ja eteenpäin. Smoke is one of the most complex flavours we know.
There's aroma, there's taste, there's texture. We're feeling all of it at once.
Once the by-product of an ancient preserving technique, today smokiness is everywhere. From the traditional smoked salmon and Lapsang Souchong tea through to smoky pasta sauces, snacks, cocktails and, well, almost anything.
We've done water. We've smoked water. Smoked water? Honestly, it's bonkers.
This is The Food Chain from the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander, and this week we're exploring how smoking food went from a practical necessity to one of the world's most sought-after flavours, beloved by top chefs, global food manufacturers and backyard enthusiasts.
There's a tonne of smoke already over here. As you can see, I'm being smoked myself.
At the Port of Lancaster smokehouse in the north-west of England, owner Michael Price is taking in the morning's delivery.
Holy Scottish salmon.
Look at that massive yellow crate of Scottish salmon.
I think there's half a tonne in each one. How many's come in? Four. So there's two tonnes. And they're all about one point... One kilo to about 1.2, so they're going to start curing those now. They'll be in cure for about four and a half hours to five hours, and they'll go into smoke tonight. They'll be in smoke for about 24 to 32 hours, depending on ambient air temperatures.
Look at the silver skin of the salmon gleaming in the sunshine.
That's why they've got to work fast because they can't be house in the daylight or in the sunshine because of temperatures. We've got to keep the food at a certain temperature. Hence the reason it's all go, go, go at the moment because the van's just got back.
Michael's father started a trout smoking business in his garage 50 years ago. It now employs 40 people, supplying restaurants, markets and online customers with a wide range of products from the dockside premises. Thank you. Ooh, what a gorgeous smoky smell.
It is, exactly. So basically all protein, all whatever we're going to do, whether we're smoking it, curing it, all comes through here. This is where we start, which we call the wet fish end, a relevant of what protein we're curing or smoking. You salt him.
Hello. Oh, gosh. Look at that. It looks like snow has fallen on the salmon, but that's salt.
It is salt, natural Cheshire dry salt. As you saw earlier, the fish coming out of the back of the van, this is going into salt now. Once the boys have finished salting up, they'll record the time. That'll go in for four and a half hours, because they know the size of the weight, so they weigh the fillets off before they cure it, work out the length of time in salt, and that's that.
So that salt preserves the fish?
It does.
But then the smoking...
preserves the fish as well so because we want to have a shelf life greater than 10 days we have to have a certain amount of salt within that product the smoke takes out the moisture out of the protein again both salt and smoke are both preservatives So salt primarily is the key controlling factor. The smoke is flavour and it stops the bacteria growing on the product. No, it's being salted. The bacteria will still grow. So we control it by taking the moisture, i.e. the water, out of protein. And if you can stop the water activity, you'll stop the growth of any bacteria.
The smoke also deposits chemical compounds on the fish that help slow spoilage and prevent fats from going rancid. How and when did we first figure out that smoke helps preserve food? To find out, let's travel 8,000 kilometres away from Michael's Smokehouse to Stockton, California, where Ken Albala is firing up the barrel-shaped metal wood smoker in his backyard.
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