ABSTRACT
Smoking to impart flavour is an ancient gustatory practice – from Roman townspeople’s smoking of sausages over hay or woodchip to medieval Europe’s use of smoking to impart much-needed flavour in the absence of condiments as well as effecting preservation. Traditionally, food can either be cold-smoked or hot-smoked. Salmon is the most popular example of a cold-smoked product and retains its raw translucent deep pink colour, whereas hot-smoked salmon takes on a pale pink opaque appearance. During hot-smoking, the food is both cooked and smoked at the same time, and the food acquires flavour from the smoking process, from the glycation reaction, from lipid degradation and from the interactions between these processes. Smoking also produces changes in texture. During the curing step of smoked fish production, dry salt is layered over the surface of the fillets and dissolves into the flesh, drawing moisture out.
