Home smoking and smoke flavour

Why

Smouldering and burning wood produce aromatic phenols that give smoked flavour and colour, but incomplete combustion also produces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), among them benzo[a]pyrene, which BfR describes as partly genotoxic and carcinogenic; they settle with the smoke on the food, and the longer the exposure, the more build up. Hot smoking at roughly 107–149 °C also cooks the meat, so the same internal temperatures apply as for roasting, whereas cold smoking does not heat meat or fish through and safety rests only on salting, drying and cold; listeria can multiply in cold-smoked fish, and Clostridium botulinum type E in air-free packs, so at home it is done only by a tested method. Glowing charcoal and smouldering wood release carbon monoxide, which is invisible and odourless, and BfR warns that in an enclosed space, including a garage, fatal poisoning can occur even with the windows open. Liquid smoke is purified smoke captured in water; in 2023, however, EFSA found none of the authorised ones safe, most because of genotoxicity, and in 2024 the EU delisted them: they may stay in meat products, fish and cheese until July 2029, elsewhere only until July 2026.

How to do it

• Use the smoker, grill and glowing charcoal only outdoors, away from windows, and never in a flat, garage, cellar or tent; for brief wok smoking, run the extractor at full power and ventilate.
• Use dry, unpainted, chemically untreated wood from broadleaf and fruit trees, such as beech, alder or apple; resinous conifers give sooty, bitter smoke.
• Give the wood enough air so that the smoke is thin and bluish; thick white or black smoke gives a bitter, tarry taste and more harmful substances.
• For hot smoking keep the smoker at roughly 107–149 °C, put the meat in thawed and check its internal temperature with a thermometer (Internal temperature of meat card).
• Smoked paprika or a piece of smoked meat gives a smoky taste; add liquid smoke from old stock or imports only by the drop, as the label says.
• Cold-smoke meat and fish only by a tested method with salting and chilling; keep smoked fish in the fridge and serve it to pregnant women only heated until steaming hot.

If it goes wrong

Bitter, sooty meat from thick smoke cannot be fixed; scrape or cut off the blackened surface, serve it with a sauce, and next time give the fire more air. Finish meat that did not reach a safe internal temperature in the smoker in the oven until it does. Headache, dizziness, nausea or drowsiness near a smoker or grill may mean carbon monoxide poisoning: move to fresh air at once, get others out and call 112 or your local emergency number (155 in Czechia).