I am no expert by any means and my smoke properties chemistry knowledge is limited to very basic but I have been "trailing" my grandpas old school smoking technique since my childhod and continued to learn through my adulthood... In short, this is what I learned about smoke duration and smoke density...
After initial meat curing, meat surface becomes porous becouse salt is more concentrated on surface and creates air pockets. .. it's like a web of microscopic air pockets created by salt osmosis... In the begining, this air web are more dense close to surface and less dense in a meat interior due to time needed for salt to penetrate, withdraw water and create air pockets... as time goes by, meat is drying, shrinks, meat becomes more dense and microscopic air pockets slowly disappear....
Now back to smoke time and smoke density...
At the beginning of meat smoking, meat surface air pockets are filled with smoke, smoke is loaded with chemicals compounds which starts to deposit inside microscopic air pockets... once these air pockets are filled with after burn chemical compounds further smoking is waste of time becouse chemical compounds, deposited inside air pockets, will close meat surface...
"smoky flavour inside air pockets need time to penetrate and populate next layer of meat air pockets. . it's like time delay chain reaction... that's why smoking on/off time is very important...Off smoke time is important to allow time delay chain reaction to happen....
once smoking is done and over the period of drying time, chemical compounds will work its way deeper and populate rest of the interior air pocket made by salt reverse osmosis and drying process...
White, thick dense smoke means uncompleted burn and it is loaded with carbon, carbon deposits itself in air pockets and over period of time work its way deeper resulting in harsh, bitter meat taste...
The best (cleanest) smoke is see trough bluish smoke.... you should be able to see clearly surface of meat trough smoke...
To avoid confusion, I am talking about smoking at very low temperatures in DIY situation.... Cold smoking is done at temp between 10 to 16 deg. C ( 50-60F)
Again, I am no expert by any means, just sharing my limited knowledge....
I hope all this make sense written in my limited english as a second language..
.
After initial meat curing, meat surface becomes porous becouse salt is more concentrated on surface and creates air pockets. .. it's like a web of microscopic air pockets created by salt osmosis... In the begining, this air web are more dense close to surface and less dense in a meat interior due to time needed for salt to penetrate, withdraw water and create air pockets... as time goes by, meat is drying, shrinks, meat becomes more dense and microscopic air pockets slowly disappear....
Now back to smoke time and smoke density...
At the beginning of meat smoking, meat surface air pockets are filled with smoke, smoke is loaded with chemicals compounds which starts to deposit inside microscopic air pockets... once these air pockets are filled with after burn chemical compounds further smoking is waste of time becouse chemical compounds, deposited inside air pockets, will close meat surface...
"smoky flavour inside air pockets need time to penetrate and populate next layer of meat air pockets. . it's like time delay chain reaction... that's why smoking on/off time is very important...Off smoke time is important to allow time delay chain reaction to happen....
once smoking is done and over the period of drying time, chemical compounds will work its way deeper and populate rest of the interior air pocket made by salt reverse osmosis and drying process...
White, thick dense smoke means uncompleted burn and it is loaded with carbon, carbon deposits itself in air pockets and over period of time work its way deeper resulting in harsh, bitter meat taste...
The best (cleanest) smoke is see trough bluish smoke.... you should be able to see clearly surface of meat trough smoke...
To avoid confusion, I am talking about smoking at very low temperatures in DIY situation.... Cold smoking is done at temp between 10 to 16 deg. C ( 50-60F)
Again, I am no expert by any means, just sharing my limited knowledge....
I hope all this make sense written in my limited english as a second language..
.
