A history of food smoking
Throughout history and across the world, people from all cultures have used smoke to flavour and preserve a wide range of perishable foods, though meat and fish are the most common. For centuries it was, along with salting, an essential way of maintaining subsistence over late winter and into spring. It also allowed for fish to be consumed inland, as they could not be transported any distance from the port of landing unless they were preserved. Traditionally for sale only in home markets, the use of smoking for preservation allowed fish to be widely exported to the West Indies in the infamous Triangle Trade between Britain, it’s northern colonies and the West Indian plantations.
The rapid growth of logistical infrastructure, begining in the 1840s, enabled the transportation of perishables including large quantities of fresh fish over even longer distances. Heavily smoked and salted products began to dwindle as a result of the improvements to transport infrastructure, as more food could be delivered without the need for such preservation. Smoked fish and meat soon became traditional products, rather than necessary ones. Where smoking was once necessary to preserve food, it is now used more often to simply provide a pleasant mild smoky flavour.
Nowadays, smoking for preservation is common in less developed countries where transportation is limited and climate extremes impact upon food life cycles. In more developed countries where transportation and methods of preservation are increasingly efficient, smoking remains popular for texture and flavour. Smoking of fish especially has remained very popular. Smoked salmon, for example, is considered something of a delicacy in many parts of the world due to it’s delicate taste and moderately high price. Smoked mackerel and smoked haddock have also remained particularly popular. Fish can be cold smoked, to be cooked at a later date, or hot smoked, providing a stronger flavour and cooking the fish as it smokes.
