What do you think?
Rate this book
Practical Food Smoking: A Comprehensive Guide
The craft of smoking food was once commonly practised in order to preserve food-stuffs and enhance flavour, but the advent of the cold-store, the fridge and chemical food preservatives saw the decline of the practice. However, as consumer demand for wholesome produce increases, the interest in food smoking is becoming greater.
Kate Walker, a professional food smoker has written a practical guide of value to home-smokers and commercial concerns alike which covers every aspect of the art and craft. The book covers the history of smoking, selection of raw materials, brining, the practice of smoking at home and for the business concern, smoke ovens and other equipment, setting up a smoking business, finance, marketing, hygiene and environmental matters, packaging and labelling and do's and dont's.
125 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 1995
About the author
Kate Walker
13 booksThere are several Kate Walker authors in the database.
Romance: Kate^Walker
Children's: Kate^^^ Walker
Romance: Kate^Walker
Children's: Kate^^^ Walker
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 29, 2012
Food smoking has been a typical way of preservation and flavour enhancement since time began, yet it still remains shrouded in mystery and viewed by many to be somehow complex or difficult to do.
Yet with a little bit of application, determination and some equipment you can soon have your own "home smokery" and begin to see for yourself just what a simple difference it can make to both the taste and appearance of food.
The author takes care to give the prospective smoker (a phrase one does not hear nowadays without a perforative tone!) a good grounding in exactly what is involved in food smoking and the history behind the art before starting with possibly the most important thing of all: the raw ingredients. Without those you might just have a "smokey hole".
Here the book tends to assume that you might be looking to also kill your own food and prepare it for eventual smoking, but if the nearest you get to a hunt is looking for a good deal at the supermarket you may need to skip a few pages. It remains important, however, to read about the ideal type of ingredients so that you are able to understand exactly what will work well and what will turn out bad.
After you have your ingredients at hand - however you acquired them - there is still preparation to do through the brining (salting) process and you are given expert guidance on this important stage as, if you don't do it right, you will only end up disappointed later on. Ah, but you might not have any smoking equipment! Fear not, as you are helped look at possible equipment purchases to best determine what you might need. There is a solution for all.
Those thinking of setting up a commercial operation can also benefit from this book as, on the whole, it is just a question of scale. Some separate sections on business-related affairs are included but it is also wise to check your country's own specific requirements prior to making any investment for fairly obvious reasons.
Hurrah… now it is time to smoke and there are COPIOUS hints, tips and advice about smoking techniques and specific methods for a very wide range of ingredients. One thing food smokers also like to do is experiment by changing different fire/smoke sources, spicings and the like. Once you have managed the basics you can either stick to that and have a good consistent product or, of course, maybe try something different for a bit of fun and be possibly surprised with the end results.
Despite the comparative age of this book and some of the information that might be "out of date" or "not applicable" to your locality, the core of this book remains as consistent and relevant today as on the day it was published. Even if you have not considered smoking your own food but enjoy smoked food, this book will still provide a lot of useful background information to help you understand more about the art of food smoking.
It would have been nice to have had some colour illustrations showing the smoking process and, of course, typical end results. A minor niggle but nothing that changes one's opinion of this interesting, knowledgeable and helpful modest tome.
Practical Food Smoking: A Comprehensive Guide, written by Kate Walker and published by Neil Wilson Publishing. ISBN 1-897784-45-7, 128 pages. Typical price: GBP8.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Yet with a little bit of application, determination and some equipment you can soon have your own "home smokery" and begin to see for yourself just what a simple difference it can make to both the taste and appearance of food.
The author takes care to give the prospective smoker (a phrase one does not hear nowadays without a perforative tone!) a good grounding in exactly what is involved in food smoking and the history behind the art before starting with possibly the most important thing of all: the raw ingredients. Without those you might just have a "smokey hole".
Here the book tends to assume that you might be looking to also kill your own food and prepare it for eventual smoking, but if the nearest you get to a hunt is looking for a good deal at the supermarket you may need to skip a few pages. It remains important, however, to read about the ideal type of ingredients so that you are able to understand exactly what will work well and what will turn out bad.
After you have your ingredients at hand - however you acquired them - there is still preparation to do through the brining (salting) process and you are given expert guidance on this important stage as, if you don't do it right, you will only end up disappointed later on. Ah, but you might not have any smoking equipment! Fear not, as you are helped look at possible equipment purchases to best determine what you might need. There is a solution for all.
Those thinking of setting up a commercial operation can also benefit from this book as, on the whole, it is just a question of scale. Some separate sections on business-related affairs are included but it is also wise to check your country's own specific requirements prior to making any investment for fairly obvious reasons.
Hurrah… now it is time to smoke and there are COPIOUS hints, tips and advice about smoking techniques and specific methods for a very wide range of ingredients. One thing food smokers also like to do is experiment by changing different fire/smoke sources, spicings and the like. Once you have managed the basics you can either stick to that and have a good consistent product or, of course, maybe try something different for a bit of fun and be possibly surprised with the end results.
Despite the comparative age of this book and some of the information that might be "out of date" or "not applicable" to your locality, the core of this book remains as consistent and relevant today as on the day it was published. Even if you have not considered smoking your own food but enjoy smoked food, this book will still provide a lot of useful background information to help you understand more about the art of food smoking.
It would have been nice to have had some colour illustrations showing the smoking process and, of course, typical end results. A minor niggle but nothing that changes one's opinion of this interesting, knowledgeable and helpful modest tome.
Practical Food Smoking: A Comprehensive Guide, written by Kate Walker and published by Neil Wilson Publishing. ISBN 1-897784-45-7, 128 pages. Typical price: GBP8.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Displaying 1 of 1 review