Smoking hot takes
If it’s a distinctive and delicious taste of Christmas you’re lacking, a smokehouse could be the cure
There are some delicacies that we come to associate with the festive season that really should be appreciated all year round. While mince pies would doubtless become tiresome trotted out 365 days a year, smoked meats offer such variety that they don’t really deserve to be reserved for the winter.
In fairness, it’s easy to see how they’ve become inextricably linked with shorter, darker days. Smoking dates back to the Palaeolithic era, when our ancestors would hang food up out of the way of pests in their smoky, unventilated dwellings.
While the smoking meant the meat lasted longer – modern smoked meats are also cured to extend their shelf life – the process also added flavour due to a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction.
Named after the French chemist
Louis Camille Maillard, who in 1912 described the chemical reaction of amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food – everything from a seared Wagyu steak to a simple wellfired loaf of bread – its distinctive and delicious taste.
While smoking is a universal process, it does have strong links with Scotland. The Torry Kiln was invented at Aberdeen’s Torry Research Station in 1939, and it is considered the prototype for all large-scale commercial smokers. The Torry Kiln was designed to better preserve fish, and while we may well associate the process with salmon – particularly at this time of year – smoked meats and cheeses of all manner are particularly welcome at this time of year (not least because they go so well with a dram of whisky).
The Ardshealach Smokehouse in the village of Glenuig in Moidart, Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands specialises in “the traditional Scottish smoking method”. They only use salmon from local small sustainable farms, and only add sea salt, a pinch of sugar and whisky barrel oak chips for the smoking process which is done in a traditional kiln.
Ardshealach also specialises in smoked meats, such as venison, chicken, Gressingham duck breast and even haggis. As such, their delivery service makes for a solid gift idea – smoked meats lose nothing of their flavour in transit.
If it’s a more Continental flavour you crave, then Edinburgh’s East Coast Cured offers top quality small-batch production from their shop in Leith. Based on the Italian tradition of using the whole pig, East Coast offer salamis, chorizo and pancetta plus a selection of other cured cuts.