Tricks for smoking lard

Lard, seasoned with salt, pepper and spices, is loved by a huge number of people. Pork lard has been used since ancient times; it warms you up in the cold and quenches your appetite. The taste of lard depends on the quality of its preparation. No one will forget the taste of spicy salsa prepared using the cold smoking method. Today, some manufacturers even produce lard in chocolate. But nothing can compare with the traditional delicious aroma of a smoked product. Food should bring joy, so it’s worth learning how to smoke lard correctly.

The wisdom of home smoking

There are several ways to prepare lard at home.

Brick smoking. To do this, you need to take boards with bricks, arrange a kind of cabinet, the top of which must be covered with an iron sheet. Such a smokehouse must be connected to the chimney pipe in the attic.
You can use a smokehouse barrel in which a crossbar is placed for hanging lard. The bottom of the barrel is cut out and placed on bricks over the fire. The fireplace is lit using sawdust. The top of the barrel is covered with burlap. You can use two barrels stacked on top of each other.

For hot smoking, it is important to keep the lard in the marinade for 3 days. Who would have thought - the color of the smoke also matters! White smoke is considered the best. Yellow and brown tints indicate that the food is burning.

How to smoke lard at home - methods

Of course, the best option is if you have a special smokehouse at home. You need to put wood material in it, and it’s not firewood at all. Chips, shavings or sawdust are used for smoking. They must be fresh or pre-soaked. Dry material will burn immediately and will not produce smoke.

It is better to smoke on wood chips from deciduous crops (cherries, plums, apple trees). You can add a little birch, but without the bark - it will give the lard a beautiful color. Oak, aspen, oak are also added for color. And for taste they add spicy herbs, grapevine or juniper branches.

If you don’t have a smokehouse, you can smoke lard at home:

In a cauldron on a gas or electric stove. Cover the bottom of the dish with foil, place sawdust on it, and place the lard on a wire rack, which is inserted inside the cauldron. Cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 40 minutes.
In the oven. Also line the baking sheet with foil and lay a layer of sawdust. Place the pan in the oven, heat at 90°C. Place a rack with lard in a preheated oven and smoke for half an hour.

To ensure that the lard gets a crispy crust in the oven, at the end, in 10 minutes, you can slightly increase the degrees.

Features of cold smoking lard

Cold smoking differs from hot smoking in that it takes longer and the temperatures used are lower - about 20 degrees. When smoked, lard is stored for a long time due to good impregnation with smoke and loss of moisture from the product. What can you do to make the lard have a delicate and soft taste that “melts in your mouth”?

At the preparatory stage, you need to salt the lard thoroughly.
At the beginning of the process, the smoke should be weak.
Do not allow high heat, otherwise smoking will turn into a hot method.

Cold smoking

If hot processing can be improvised using various household appliances and home-made structures, then cold smoking can only be achieved in a smokehouse. You cannot smoke lard at home this way. But it is quite possible to assemble a makeshift design that will successfully replace a branded unit.

The peculiarity of this method is that the lard is processed with smoke, the temperature of which is 15-20 degrees. The process takes several days, resulting in a product that is not only tasty, but also perfectly stored. It will easily last 6 months or more.

Pre-prepared pieces need to be hung on hooks so that the liquid drains from them. You can leave them overnight. Then place it in the smokehouse chamber. If she is professional, then there are special places there. But many people simply put a large barrel in their dacha. In this case, you need to lay sawdust below and set it on fire. And at the very top, at a considerable distance, they place a grate and hang the lard on it. To keep the smoke inside longer, cover the top of the barrel with a bag. The process can last several days, so you need to constantly monitor the condition of the products and add wet wood chips. You can share duty with family members so that you don’t have to watch alone all the time.

Simple recipes for smoking lard

Lard can be made incredibly tasty and healthy.

The recipe is as follows. Using a sharp knife, you can scrape the skin a little, then sprinkle it with salt with a generous hand. Then the lard remains in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After this, the product should be washed, tied up and hung in the air. The cold method involves smoking at a temperature of 20 degrees for 12 hours. You should light a fire with fruit trees.
For the second recipe, you should use only fresh lard, not taking into account old or belly fat. First of all, it’s worth salting it well. Salt will collect excess moisture from the product. It is better if it lies in cold salting for 14 days. Then the salt is scraped off, the product is dried with a waffle towel and dried outside for 12 hours - this will remove the remaining moisture. You will have to keep the lard in the smokehouse for 3 days. A brown tint indicates the product is ready.

Smoked lard is a real delicacy. The main thing is to choose correctly.

How should you choose lard for smoking?

Pieces measuring 35 cm in thickness are suitable for smoking. The “flaps” should be cut into 7cm pieces. The bacon must be washed before cooking.

Apple tree chips are ideal for making aromatic smoked bacon. When salting, you can add bay leaf, garlic and spices. How is the product useful? Nutritionists recommend consuming smoked lard if you want to fill the body with nutrients and vitamins A, E, D. These vitamins are involved in the structure of the body’s cell membranes. The product is especially beneficial for the liver: phospholipids found in smoked lard help restore the functions of the organ. Salo is useful for the normal functioning of blood vessels. This product has been proven to have a beneficial effect on skin condition.

Liquid smoke treatment

You can smoke lard at home quickly and very simply. Of course, such processing is not smoking, but it allows you to obtain an aroma identical to the natural one. If you really want lard with smoke, then you won’t find a better option. The rich color is obtained through the use of onion peels. So, both in appearance and in smell, the product will be like from a smokehouse.

Alternative to home smoking

The cold smoking method at home is the most labor-intensive. But today it is possible to smoke lard faster and easier. This is done using “Royal Smoke” rapid smoking installations. Equipment of this type is designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The devices are also suitable for private homes. The units look neat, in the form of cabinets, and stand firmly on legs. The metal body makes them fireproof. Purchasing such a unit will significantly save time and will more than justify the money invested. You can even start a business from scratch using such installations.

In them, the cooking process is reduced to a couple of hours, so you don’t have to wait several days for a tasty and aromatic dish. Smoking cabinets are devices operating from a standard electrical network. The installations are easy to care for and maintain. This is an excellent investment for entrepreneurs with a restaurant business. With smoked products they will be able to attract more visitors. In addition, cooked dishes are stored for a long time.

Lard smoking methods

The most important thing when smoking is the temperature and time required to cook the product. Smoked meats are often excluded from the diet due to their high fat content and harmful effects on the liver, but if the product is consumed in small quantities, it helps strengthen the immune system. Boiled smoked lard will be useful for problems with the bronchi and cardiovascular system, as well as for colds.

Lard protects the stomach from the influence of alcoholic drinks, so it is often served on the holiday table. The smoked product should not be overused, as it contains a lot of cholesterol, and the calorie content is 775 kcal per 100 g of product. But if you eat up to 100 g of such food, then the harm from it will be minimal.

Hot way

For hot smoking, as well as for cold smoking, you will need:

Lard - about 2 kg;
100 g spices;
Pepper and salt to your own taste.

Another important element for hot smoking is wood chips - crushed wood particles. Thanks to small wood particles, smoked lard in a hot smoked smokehouse will have an excellent taste and pleasant aroma. The most suitable option would be apricot and cherry wood chips, but alder wood will also work. It is better not to use walnut wood, as smoked meat may have a strong iodine smell.

During the smoking process the following actions are carried out:

Soak the wood chips and light the fire.
Cut the piece into cubes.
Mix salt and pepper and grate the prepared product.
Cover the fire with bricks to retain heat.
Prepare a metal frying pan for lard.
Drain the liquid from the wood chips and place the wood in a roasting pan (a layer of about 2 cm).
Place a grill over the wood chips and spread out the product to be smoked. Lay out loosely.
Place the roasting pan over the coals and cover with a lid. For convenience, you can use a couple of bricks as a stand.
After half an hour, using gloves, open the lid of the fryer and leave it open for up to 2-3 minutes.
Close the lid and keep the roasting pan over the heat for about 5 minutes.

The product must acquire a bronze tint, after which it is considered ready. Now the main thing is not to give in to temptation and not to overeat.

Cold smoked lard

To obtain cold smoked lard at home, in addition to the ingredients used in the process, you will need about 5 liters of water. The process itself is not much more complicated, but it will take more time.

Actions for cold smoking:

Salt fresh or frozen food.
Keep in pickling for up to 3 weeks.
After 2-3 weeks, remove the salt from the surface and wipe the pieces with a dry cloth.
To remove excess moisture and dry the lard, it must be hung in a draft for about 12 hours.
Set the smokehouse temperature regulator to 30 degrees and leave it to cook for 72 hours.

As a result, the lard should turn brown. Cold smoking is considered more useful, since the whole process occurs naturally. But, of course, if you don’t have time to wait and want to quickly taste the deliciousness, then you can choose the first smoking option.