Smoking with turf or ferns?

[wheels]

I'm reconstructing an old recipe that uses a mix of beech, oak lops, and fern or grass turfs for smoking.

It's a local (Leicestershire) recipe so I don't think that the grass turfs are peat.

Anyone got any suggestions? Or, has anyone smoked meat using Hay?

...any ideas will be most appreciated.

Phil

[grisell]

Eel is often (hot-)smoked not with hay, but with straw in Scania, the Southernmost province of Sweden. It's called "Halmad Ål". I haven't made it myself, but I've tasted it, and it's truly a delicacy! The straw gives an extraordinary and particular aroma. I made a google search and came up with these two recipes. Not true recipes, but sufficient info to try it oneself. The below is GoogleTranslated from Swedish. I have only corrected the most obvious errors. I think this method would be worth testing with meat too. Why not pork belly or beef brisket?

1. Skinned fresh eel is baked on damp rye straw. Served with creamed potato. Use green rye straw. You get a special spicy flavor of the eel and the straw absorbs excess oil.

2. A now quite rare cooking method is "strawing" of eel, which is done as the eel, after cleaning, is put on a straw base, and then cooked in the hot oven. The straw provides a very special taste. One can also vary with e.g. juniper, or other wood.


PS Oh, by the way, contrary to the recipes above, the eel should be brined/cured first, but I guess you figured that out.

[wheels]

Thanks Grisell, those sound interesting.

However, sorry, I should have said more: the recipe is specific about smoking the meat for 7 days, so it's obviously cold smoking rather than cooking it. That's normal for a recipe of the period I'm looking at (mid 19th century).

I'd love to know more about the 'eel cookery' even though it's frowned upon at the moment in the UK due to a world wide shortage. Smoke houses are selling Conger as an alternative but it's not even related!

Thanks again though, Grisell.

I feel I should say more:

It's beef that I'm curing and the recipe is for a 30lb piece that is smoked for 7 days. My object is to scale it down and make it safe to modern standards whilst retaining the taste etc.

Scaling the cure and salt is no problem. But, in my experience, scaling spice and herb quantities is more difficult; let alone the smoking!

It could all come down to these 'fern or grass turfs'! I though that ferns could be toxic?

Any further advice will be gratefully received!

Phil

[Jogeephus]

I indirectly smoke with fern on a regular basis since resurrection fern is always present on my pecan. Also keep in mind people smoke with cherry all the time and there is enough cyanide in cherry to kill a cow so I assume all the nasties are changed by the heat. Just something to think about.

[wheels]

Many thanks for that Jogeephus, I'll give it a try.

Phil