(Also posted on Reddit at r/smoking)
I love the flavour of Sichuan smoked sausage, and smoked belly. I am not in China. I have made some, using a modified version of what they seem to do.
Here is a reference Youtube video showing a traditional process (which is also quite meditative if you like that kind of thing!).
Smoking starts around 3:30.
They smoke the meats in the open air in winter, over a smoky fire of green cypress boughs (most likely Cupressus funebris — Chinese weeping cypress). Dense, white smoke.
When I did it, the smokiness had a quite nice bit of a piney tang to it, but not that turpentine-petrol effect that you would expect from a resinous wood.
Now, cypress woods are on most lists of "don't smoke with this”, and I don't know of any other smoking process that uses green branches, or dense white smoke.
So, why do it? How does it work? Is there something magical about this particular cypress?
My best guess is that it evolved as a way of treating meat to keep pests off while it dries (insects? bears?). And then people came to like the flavour, or just put up with it.
I would greatly appreciate any comments from people with actual knowledge about this or similar processes; and substitutes. Informed guesses also welcome!
I love the flavour of Sichuan smoked sausage, and smoked belly. I am not in China. I have made some, using a modified version of what they seem to do.
Here is a reference Youtube video showing a traditional process (which is also quite meditative if you like that kind of thing!).
Smoking starts around 3:30.
They smoke the meats in the open air in winter, over a smoky fire of green cypress boughs (most likely Cupressus funebris — Chinese weeping cypress). Dense, white smoke.
When I did it, the smokiness had a quite nice bit of a piney tang to it, but not that turpentine-petrol effect that you would expect from a resinous wood.
Now, cypress woods are on most lists of "don't smoke with this”, and I don't know of any other smoking process that uses green branches, or dense white smoke.
So, why do it? How does it work? Is there something magical about this particular cypress?
My best guess is that it evolved as a way of treating meat to keep pests off while it dries (insects? bears?). And then people came to like the flavour, or just put up with it.
I would greatly appreciate any comments from people with actual knowledge about this or similar processes; and substitutes. Informed guesses also welcome!
