History and Purpose of Smokehouses
– Traditional smokehouses served as meat smokers and storage facilities for communities.
– Food preservation involved salt curing and extended cold smoking for two weeks or longer.
– Smokehouses were always secured to prevent access by animals and thieves.
– Meat was hung to protect it from vermin.
– Before electricity and freezers, meat was preserved by heavy salting and hanging.
Design and Use of Smokehouses
– Traditional smokehouses are small enclosed outbuildings with a vent, single entrance, and no windows.
– Communal and commercial smokehouses are larger than those for single residences.
– Proper drying of meats is ensured by using slightly warmed, dry air from a slow hardwood fire.
– Smokehouses in the Carolinas and Virginia have closely spaced framing to prevent theft.
– The lower interior walls of smokehouses are characterized by extreme furring caused by salt.
Examples of Smokehouses
– Industrial smokehouse in Poland.
– Smoke house at Boone Hall Plantation.
– Fjordling Smokehouse at Dunstable Farm, Salisbury.
– Smokehouse in North Carolina, Piedmont Region.
– Reconstruction of medieval smokehouse at the fishing village of Walraversijde, ca. 1465.
Related Topics
– Food portal.
– List of smoked foods.
References
– Old Smokehouses. Wedlinydomowe.com. Accessed May 2010.
– Traditionshome (2020-02-06). How to make a Smokehouse – Leaving Oz. Oztripper.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
– Building a Smokehouse. Accessed May 2010.
– Tys D and Pieters M (2009) Understanding a medieval fishing settlement along the southern Northern Sea: Walraversijde, c. 1200–1630 In: Sicking L and Abreu-Ferreira D (Eds.), Beyond the catch: fisheries of the North Atlantic, the North Sea and the Baltic, 900-1850, Brill, pages 91–122. ISBN978-90-04-16973-9.Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokehouse
