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INTRODUCTION
Congratulations! Thanks to the purchase of your HotmixPRO Smoke you may get inside the wonderful world of food
smoking.
Smoking ingredients is a technique as old as the human being.
In the old ages, it was primarily a conservation technique while today, with the introduction of the
refrigeration techniques, the conservation function has become obsolete, but despite this the demand of
smoking devices has never decreased.
The smoked food can be really delicious or truly disgusting, and some of the hints that you will find in this
manual will help you to avoid some mistakes that may occur while smoking meat and fish.
The vapors that come out of the burning wood contain a heterogeneous mix of aromas that form the flavors
the most typical when smoking. It is sufficient to lower the wood’s combustion temperature and some of the
flavors will be lost, while some less desirable ones will come out.
Both temperature and humidity of the smoke are very important, as the hot smoke delivers flavors
that are proportionally different compared to the cold smoke. To this purpose, the same ingredient has a
different flavor when smoked at hot or at cold. It is necessary to understand how to create a quality smoke,
and if the smoke basic chemistry is understood, its effect over flavor and shape of the smoked food will be
increased.
As it is well known, the smoke comes from the wood, that contains big quantities of lignin, this component
including most of the aromatic compounds generating the smoke flavor.
At temperatures over 300°C (570F,) the lignin molecules decompose and create a wide range of volatile
chemical products, named phenols. Furthermore, many of these phenols are very powerful antioxidants that
prevent the rancidity of foods, which is one of the reasons why smoke helps to preservation. Science has
discovered that the smoke produced from hardwoods at temperatures of 400 ° C (750F) enhances the smoky
taste of food.
This is the ideal temperature that enable the phenols and other aromatic compounds to enter the smoke
and the reason why the vaporized acids - which have an unpleasant taste - are unable to do it.
To check if the wood is burning at the correct temperature, you must adjust the airflow of the smoker: with
a lower passage of oxygen into the burning wood, the vapors will not burn, although they are close to the
deflagration level, but if the oxygen is scarce the desirable aromatic compounds will be missed, and it will be
conversely rich of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (suspected carcinogens).
On the other hand the excess of oxygen produces unwanted flames. You will then need to have a minimum
of experience to master a fire without flames, which produces a fragrant and healthy smoke.
Smoking is much more than a simple gas; it is in fact a combination of three states of matter: a mixture of
solid particles, small liquid drops suspended in the air and vaporized chemical products. Only two of these
three phases are visible. A high concentration of black carbon generates a dense black smoke, while the
smoke components that are encountered in the vapor state cannot be seen. The invisible gases in the smoke
contain almost all the compounds that color, preserve and give flavor to smoked foods and, although they
are only 10% of the amount of smoking, these gases carry almost 90% of the work. The reason why these
gases are so important is that the more aromatic compounds are organic chemicals, that do not dissolve in
the water. The ingredients contain a large amount of water to which the liquid drops of the smoke will
convert into droplets on the surface. The conveying flavors do not penetrate in the food, but also contribute
to the texture and flavor of the superficial part. Conversely, the vaporized organic chemicals move in the
form of individual molecules, and when they land on foods that can absorb them, they adhere to themselves
and carry the flavors to the inside. If the food is too dry outside, the smoked flavor does not enter too much
into the food, as it can’t penetrate. On the other hand, if the foods are very wet, the components that come
