spanish chorizo - what choice of wood for cold smoke

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wkw
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spanish chorizo - what choice of wood for cold smoke

Post by wkw » Fri Feb 20, 2015 19:19

Hello everyone,
I am currently fermenting a batch of spanish chorizo that I will dry cure. I wish to cold smoke them when the ferment is complete and am looking for direction on what choice of wood I should use for the smoke.

On hand the choices I have are; hickory, alder, apple, cherry, maple and oak. If I should be using somthing else please make suggestions and I will try to source it.

Thanks
Ken
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redzed
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Post by redzed » Fri Feb 20, 2015 21:41

Hey there Ken! Welcome to the forum! (And I love everything about Alberta, especially the cheaper wine prices, but don't like the Stampeders! :grin:) Pull up a chair and have a look at hundreds of informative and entertaining posts as well as the member recipe index and the collection of some of the best and reliable recipes on the internet here:
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes

To answer your question, according to Jeffrey Weiss, the author of Charcuteria: The Soul of Spain, the wood that is almost always used in Spain for smoking is oak, but he also found people using laurel wood in Galicia. If you decide to use oak, be careful not to overdo it. From my experience it gives a nice colour and flavour but seems to overtake everything else if you smoke too long.

What kind of Spanish chorizo are you making and what recipe are you using? Right now I am in the process of making two dry cured Spanish chorizos, Asturiano and Pamploma, so maybe we can compare notes.
wkw
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Post by wkw » Fri Feb 20, 2015 21:59

Thanks for the response. I see that you live on the Island. I keep a boat in Alberni for my fishing adventures. I spend a lot of time mid-Island.

I am following the recipe in "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages". I did modify it in that a went with 2/3 sweet Hungarian paprika and 1/3 hot spanish pimenton.
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Post by redzed » Fri Feb 20, 2015 22:09

So you drive not to far from my place on your way to PA from the Nanaimo ferry. I do a lot of mushrooming around Alberni in the fall and buy my backfat for salami from Hertel"s meats.

When you get a chance maybe you can share some of your recipes and methods in smoking salmon. :grin:
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Post by wkw » Fri Feb 20, 2015 22:17

I've purchased a few jowls form Hertels for curing. I would love to share my smoked fish recipes. Thawing out some rainbow trout for supper tonight.

Maybe we can trade your cured sausage/meat recipes for salmon smoking techniques.

I will follow your input and cold smoke with the oak. You are lucky with all the alder and maple out your way!
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Post by BriCan » Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:37

redzed wrote: If you decide to use oak, be careful not to overdo it. From my experience it gives a nice colour and flavour but seems to overtake everything else if you smoke too long.
Just curious on the last part ..... "but seems to overtake everything else if you smoke too long"

In what way do you mean this ... at present I am using a hardwood mixture/blend of Maple, Birch and Beach .... as of yet (fingers crossed) I have had no issues on prolonged cold smokes of up to and just over sixty hours

Thanks
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Post by Shuswap » Sat Feb 21, 2015 15:14

I`m looking into using oak for smoking. I'm making a set of white oak dining chairs and am collecting all the sawdust from the machine operations. However, I've been wondering about how the high tannin content of the oak might affect the flavor. It enhances the flavor of my red wine :razz: Most of what I read says that oak is slightly lighter than hickory and can be used on any beef or pork product.
Phil
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Post by BriCan » Sat Feb 21, 2015 19:27

My background is out of the North West of England where I did most of my training , that being said; the most common wood to be used is oak for cold smoking which is/was the only type of smoking done there

Smoking times could and are up to and over a month, hence my enquiry of redzed's statement -- the only thing that comes to mind having slept on this is maybe the difference in "oak" -- the oak back there is the Quercus Robur ... English oak
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Post by redzed » Sun Feb 22, 2015 00:22

BriCan wrote:
redzed wrote: If you decide to use oak, be careful not to overdo it. From my experience it gives a nice colour and flavour but seems to overtake everything else if you smoke too long.
Just curious on the last part ..... "but seems to overtake everything else if you smoke too long"

In what way do you mean this ... at present I am using a hardwood mixture/blend of Maple, Birch and Beach .... as of yet (fingers crossed) I have had no issues on prolonged cold smokes of up to and just over sixty hours

Thanks
Brican, if you read carefully, I wrote "from my experience" and was not claiming it to be the absolute truth. I like using oak on whole muscle meats such as hams, but usually don't smoke these for more than four hours. A couple of times when hot smoking sausage for around five hours I thought that it had too much smoke flavour, which I don't get with hickory, alder or cherry. And I was referring to hot smoking, which penetrates the meat more than cold smoking. Furthermore, since I smoke with a smoke generator (Smokai brand) I use pellets and not actual pieces of wood. All the pellets say is "oak", so I don't know whether it's red or white oak. And the European oak is a white oak but with obvious differences since I know as winemaker that French oak barrels give off more tannin than do American white oak barrels. So there might be a difference in the smoke, but we would probably need scientific testing and empirical data.

Shushwap, if you are using white oak lumber milled commercially, I would be careful. Often ammonia and other chemicals are used in the milling process. Some time ago I made a cylindrical cover to to press sauerkraut out of brand new "unfinished" oak flooring boards. Had to throw out 50lbs of shredded cabbage. :sad:
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Post by Shuswap » Sun Feb 22, 2015 01:46

redzed wrote:Shushwap, if you are using white oak lumber milled commercially, I would be careful. Often ammonia and other chemicals are used in the milling process. Some time ago I made a cylindrical cover to to press sauerkraut out of brand new "unfinished" oak flooring boards. Had to throw out 50lbs of shredded cabbage.
Red I do all the millwork starting from rough cut timber.
Phil
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