Smoking woods in Zambia

[alelover]

I love it. I'll bet that firebox doesn't lose too much heat. That's nicer than some of the BBQs I've seen around NC.

 

[bwinters]

Again, thanks for the comments and kind words.  I would love the guava sauce recipe, so shoot it over when you get a chance.  Round 2 of smoking commenced Saturday, using wood from an orange tree.  It was a lighter smoke, but very nice. 

 

[justpassingthru]

Ya promise to post some pics of Africa?  J/K

Guava BBQ Sauce, It's kind of sweet, but that's what my family likes, they don't do hot at all, black pepper is too hot for them, ...it's good on pork and chicken.

The BBQ sauce is easy, it's the guava paste that takes the time, funny thing, the paste can probably be bought in the States.

Guava BBQ Sauce

1 120z can of Coke

10-12oz of guava paste

1/2 cup of Rum

3 Tbs ketchup

1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1/2 medium onion, diced fine

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (vinegar can replace the Coke if you want it more tangy)

1 lemon, the juice

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, enjoy.

Guava Paste

1 kg guavas, peeled

1 cup water

1/2 cup water

4 cups sugar, approx.

Cut guavas in half and scoop out seeds, soak the seeds in 1 cup of water.

Place the guava flesh in a saucepan with 1/2 cup water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the guavas until they are very soft, take care they do not scorch.

Strain the water from the seeds and add it to the guavas, discard the seeds.

Grind the guavas through a fine disk of a food grinder (you can mash it through a strainer too).

Measure the pulp and add an equal amount of sugar and mix well.

Place mixture in a heavy pot over low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick and a little jelly, when tested on an ice cube, when it's cold can be lifted off in one piece.

Remove from heat and beat with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes, or until the mixture forms a heavy paste.

Have ready a loaf pan lined with wax paper(a brown paper sack or a plastic sack works too), turn the paste into the pan and set aside in a cool place for 24 hours.

To store turn the paste out of the pan and wrap securely. Makes just under a kilo.

There you go, I said it was time consuming, but there is enough guava paste to make about 3 batches of BBQ sauce.

I hope you like it,

Gene

 

[bwinters]

Gene, thanks for the recipe.  I'll give it a run this weekend and let you know how it turns out (along with some pictures of the surrounds). 

Ben

 

[bbqmzungu]

Here's a challenge for someone: I live in Zambia and have just built a smoker.  Being from the U.S., I never paid much attention to tree species or anything of that sort when using smoking woods.  Hickory was my go-to wood for just about everything I smoked.  Zambia, unfortunately, has no Hickory, so far as I can tell.  There is little information about predominant tree species, and those that are listed are not familiar to me. 

So, does anyone have knowledge about smoking woods in sub-Saharan Africa?  It's worth a free meal and lodging at my place, if ever you're tromping through Lusaka, Zambia. 

Howdy,

I moved to Uganda almost 2 years ago and have been working through the same issue.  This place is just fresh out of hickory and mesquite.  Here is what I have found:  Mango works well.  It is not too strong, kinda' like apple.  It is good on chicken, OK for beef, but a bit weak.  Sugar cane doesn't work.  It smells good when they are burning in the fields, but gives meat that "burnt pie filling in the oven" smell.  Any part of the banana is nasty.  It gives a bad smoke.  I'm told that avacado is good, but I haven't tried any yet.  There is also a fabulous smelling wood that is often used for wood cooking fires out in the villages.  It is related to acacia (as is mesquite), but I haven't been able to get my hands on any yet.  When I'm out far enough to be where they use it, nobody speaks enough english for me to talk to them about it and I don't speak enough of the local language to communicate.  Guava is supposed to be good, but again, I can't get my hands on any yet.  I have recently found where I think I can get some avacodo and I also want to try some jackfruit.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you find out.

BBQ Mzungu

 

[Bearcarver]

Howdy,

I moved to Uganda almost 2 years ago and have been working through the same issue.  This place is just fresh out of hickory and mesquite.  Here is what I have found:  Mango works well.  It is not too strong, kinda' like apple.  It is good on chicken, OK for beef, but a bit weak.  Sugar cane doesn't work.  It smells good when they are burning in the fields, but gives meat that "burnt pie filling in the oven" smell.  Any part of the banana is nasty.  It gives a bad smoke.  I'm told that avacado is good, but I haven't tried any yet.  There is also a fabulous smelling wood that is often used for wood cooking fires out in the villages.  It is related to acacia (as is mesquite), but I haven't been able to get my hands on any yet.  When I'm out far enough to be where they use it, nobody speaks enough english for me to talk to them about it and I don't speak enough of the local language to communicate.  Guava is supposed to be good, but again, I can't get my hands on any yet.  I have recently found where I think I can get some avacodo and I also want to try some jackfruit.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you find out.

BBQ Mzungu

That's another thing I like about this forum.

There aren't many corners of the world where we don't have at least one spy keeping us all informed! 

Thanks,

Bear

 

[murdilu9]

Hey - just a thought, but you can smoke with "woody herbs" which you can probably grow with abundance where you are. Thyme, Rosemary stalks should do nicely and they will impart some of their flavor to your products, which could be nice. I have also used nut shells from Hickory trees before with good results - there are probably some nut trees nearby contributing enough rubble to get you going. I will be in TZ soon, May 2011, so I may just take you up on your offer and drop in! LOL!

 

[bbqmzungu]

UPDATE:  Jackfruit is nasty for smoking.  Makes a smoke that smells like a grass fire.  Avocado is fabulous.  I have been using it almost exclusively lately (partly because we moved to a house with an avocado tree that needed some pruning).  It makes a good strong smoke that isn't bitter.  I'd say a bit milder than hickory, but good for the same things.

BBQMzungu

 

[Bearcarver]

UPDATE:  Jackfruit is nasty for smoking.  Makes a smoke that smells like a grass fire.  Avocado is fabulous.  I have been using it almost exclusively lately (partly because we moved to a house with an avocado tree that needed some pruning).  It makes a good strong smoke that isn't bitter.  I'd say a bit milder than hickory, but good for the same things.

BBQMzungu

Have to try it on a $125 Turkey!

Just kidding.  

Bear

 

[atcnick]

Go to bbqinstitute.com and email the owner, Konrad Haskins. He's originally from south Africa and may be able to help you.


-Nick via Tapatalk

 

[dylanchivers]

looks good to me

 

[mwanzasmoker]

I live in between Zambia and Uganda in Mwanza, TZ on the the southern shore of Lake Victoria.

I know its crazy, but I think Mango is related to poison ivy, so use it only with sure knowledge of who you're serving the meat to (and their tolerance of contact with poison ivy).  I've had people react to the tables I have made out of mango-wood.  Especially since it is the oil in the wood itself that carries the irritant, burning it just causes it to spread even more (as the oil turns to smoke).  Beyond the guava (which is good) and the avacado (which friends here have also said is good), which have already been suggested, I would add coconut husks and hulls as well as fig trees.  Coconut hulls and husks are fairly straightforward, but fig trees....  You have, most likely, fig trees all over the place, as they are native to east/central/southern africa.  Most likely they are wild fig or even sycamore fig (mkuyu in TZ).  I can't at this very moment tell you whether or not fig is great, but give me a month and I'll tell you.  And yes, I do know that sycamore trees in the States are NOT suitable for smoking, but the American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) is not the same tree or even related to the Sycamore fig (ficus sycomorus).  Please correct me if that's wrong.  The only problem with the sycamore fig is that it doesn't seem to be a hardwood (which, yes, is an issue).

I would imagine that what you're calling mukwa and what I call muninga would be quite good.  Got that spicy aroma even when not being burned.  Keep us updated on your progress there.

Also, on the idea that people don't smoke-cure meat here...ahem, not quite accurate.  People around Lake Victoria, at least, have smoked fish and beef and wild game meats for as long as anyone alive can remember.  There's words for it in both Swahili (-banika na moshi) and Sukuma (-komeela).  As far as difficulty finding what people use for wood(s), I imagine its like many other things here (and elsewhere): you use what you were taught to use by who taught you to do it.  So, if your teacher used avacado, then when you get ready to smoke you use avacado, and you don't use anything else.  So knowledge is specialized and not general.  Of course, I'm talking of rural areas, not cities.

I would be careful of other nut hulls, etc., as the main nut grown in TZ is of course cashews...the hull of which is deadly poisonous and used to make insecticides and bug killer sprays (Raid, Doom, etc.).  I don't know what you got in Zambia.

Cheers

 

[reefinmate]

Hi Bwinters. I am in Kasane, Botswana. Busy building a smoker and was wondering if you had much success with the Kiaat? Rose wood should be good, I used to work a lot with it and always had tons of off cuts that I would use for barbecuing and the smell of the burning wood was lovely so I reckon it should be good for smoking.

 

[heinburgh]

Hello folks, another Zambian here. Just finished my first self made cold smoker (old propane cylinder with small smoke generator off to the side.)

We farm with sheep and recently started marketing our own cuts, which left me with a ton of unwanted ribs. So this morning I popped in our first lamb bacon.

Not having access to hickory or oak or such, I walked around the farm looking for something I can use to smoke - picked up an old mukwa plank, cut off some chips and ran it through my grinding mill twice to make a rough saw dust. Its running now, hope to sample the first lambacon later today. As you approach the smoker the smell of the mukwa is very pleasant, sweet and spicy. I'll post here after tasting.

Bearcarver, are you still around?

 

[heinburgh]

Results are in: the smoke flavour is superb after being cold smoked for 2 1/2 hrs on mukwa saw dust. Bacon came out a bit salty, I'm guessing I should reduce the curing time with salt/sugar mix to 2 days instead of 3? But very nice flavour apart from salt content.

 

[Bearcarver]

Hello folks, another Zambian here. Just finished my first self made cold smoker (old propane cylinder with small smoke generator off to the side.)

We farm with sheep and recently started marketing our own cuts, which left me with a ton of unwanted ribs. So this morning I popped in our first lamb bacon.

Not having access to hickory or oak or such, I walked around the farm looking for something I can use to smoke - picked up an old mukwa plank, cut off some chips and ran it through my grinding mill twice to make a rough saw dust. Its running now, hope to sample the first lambacon later today. As you approach the smoker the smell of the mukwa is very pleasant, sweet and spicy. I'll post here after tasting.

Bearcarver, are you still around?

Yes, I'm still around---What can I do for you?

BTW: You did use a cure on that Bacon, right? Your Bacon Pics look like you did.

Bear

 

[heinburgh]

Sorry Bearcarver - I just realised you're not the one living in Zambia, but b-winters. B-winters are you still in Zambia?

Yes I cured the flaps with a mix of salt, brown sugar, cracked black pepper and a pinch of pink salt. I had it in the fridge curing for three days. Like I said earlier, the bacon came out on the salty side. To keep this from happening to my next batch, would it be best to cure it for a shorter time or reduce the amount of salt in the mix? I made sure to rinse the curing mix and resulting brine off pretty good before I left them to dry in the fridge overnight.

 

[Bearcarver]

Sorry Bearcarver - I just realised you're not the one living in Zambia, but b-winters. B-winters are you still in Zambia?

Yes I cured the flaps with a mix of salt, brown sugar, cracked black pepper and a pinch of pink salt. I had it in the fridge curing for three days. Like I said earlier, the bacon came out on the salty side. To keep this from happening to my next batch, would it be best to cure it for a shorter time or reduce the amount of salt in the mix? I made sure to rinse the curing mix and resulting brine off pretty good before I left them to dry in the fridge overnight.

Since you only cured it for 3 days, I would definitely not shorten that cure time.
I don't know how thick your Bacon slab was, but my minimum time for curing a relatively thin slab would be 7 days.

I also don't know how much Salt & Sugar you used, but I would personally not use more than one tsp of Salt & one tsp of sugar per pound, when using Pink Salt.

Bear

 

[Nyambe]

Hello eveyone, Nyambe from Zambia here. I use Mukwa, Avocado and Mango.