How to smoke lard: how to smoke lard correctly in a smokehouse

Lard is considered a universal product that can be used not only as a snack, but also as a very tasty main dish. It will be tasty in any form, salted, boiled-smoked, fried, but hot-smoked lard is most popular. In order to prepare delicious smoked lard at home, you should follow a specific recipe. Preparation does not take much time and at the same time it is so simple that even a person who has never dealt with smokehouses can handle it without any problems.

Which lard should you choose?

Lard is considered a universal product that can be used not only as a snack, but also as a very tasty main course.
It is best to choose fresh brisket to prepare the delicacy in a smokehouse, because it has small layers of meat, which makes the finished product even tastier. The average thickness of a piece of lard for smoking at home should be approximately 3-4 centimeters. It is worth noting that today there are a huge number of recipes for how to cook lard in a smokehouse, but each of them is based on the choice of really high-quality and fresh raw materials. Otherwise, the finished delicacies may have a completely different taste than they expected before cooking.

It is very important to pay attention to the appearance of the product when purchasing. The lard must be white. If there is even a slight shade of yellow, this indicates that the product is already quite old. The raw material should not have a too strong or pungent odor. The ideal option would be to buy lard that has no odor at all.

Cooking in a cauldron

You can smoke bacon at home. To do this, it is not at all necessary to have expensive kitchen units.

Prepare in advance:

piece of lard – up to 1 kg;
salt, garlic, bay leaf, mustard powder - according to taste preferences.

Cooking principle:

We marinate the lard. To do this, cut the pork into small pieces, put it in a container, sprinkle with salt and chopped garlic. Add broken bay leaves, a small portion of mustard powder, and mix. Pour in water so that it covers the contents of the workware, cover it with a plate of slightly smaller diameter and place pressure on top. Place the container with lard in a cool place for 10 days.
Line the bottom of the cauldron with fruit chips and cover with foil. We install the grate and lay out the pieces of bacon.
Making a seal for the cauldron. To do this, mix flour with water and knead the dough with a consistency similar to thick sour cream. Coat the lid of the cauldron with this mixture.
Place the cauldron on maximum heat for 10 minutes, then reduce the flame and cook for 4 hours. Do not open the lid during cooking.

The marinade for hot smoked lard is prepared from the ratio of products, where 100 g of salt is taken per 1 liter of water, and seasonings are used at the discretion of the cook.

How to properly prepare

After a sufficient quantity of products has been purchased, you can begin further preparation of future smoked products.

The lard is carefully cut into small pieces. The ideal option would be to cut pieces whose size will not exceed 15 centimeters. There is no need to remove the skin. Next, the products are thoroughly washed under cold running water. Future delicacies can be marinated either dry or in a specially prepared marinade.

It is worth noting that if the sticks are less than 2.5 centimeters thick, then they are not suitable for further smoking. You shouldn't throw away such pieces. Of course, you won’t be able to smoke them, but they are perfect for frying or further salting.

Selection and processing

First of all, you need to purchase the highest quality lard.

The piece of this meat product you like should be:

It certainly has an attractive white color, which indicates its freshness.
Without suspicious spots, yellowness and foreign inclusions.
With a pleasant and subtle aroma of fresh lard.
No remaining bristles on the skin.
With enough meat layers.

It is preferable to buy lard from the back and sides, since it is from this part of the pork carcass that it is considered the most tender, has a very thin skin and is perfect for future smoking.

The purchased piece of lard must be washed, trimmed off all excess, dried and cut into pieces acceptable for smoking.

The length of the cut pieces is determined by the size of the utensils used for pre-processing the lard, but their height should not exceed five centimeters. You can also use the folk method of determining their height, that is, cut the pieces “into three fingers.”

After processing, you need to decide on the method of salting it before smoking. Such preparation of lard for smoking is not at all necessary, and before hot smoking lard can simply be immediately rubbed with salt, sprinkled with spices, and then smoked. But such smoked lard will be devoid of many of the aromas that appear after pre-salting.

Salting methods

After the product for smoking has been selected and prepared, it must be properly salted. To do this, you can use both dry salting and pickling. Regardless of the option chosen, the smoked meats will turn out tasty and aromatic.

Dry

The recipe for salting must be selected very carefully, because the taste of the finished product will depend on it. In the case of dry salting of lard, each piece must be rubbed with a special spicy salt mixture.

To prepare such a mixture per kilogram of lard, you will need the following ingredients:

6 tablespoons salt;
Five medium sized bay leaves;
Large head of garlic;
A bag of ground black pepper;
Other spices, spices or herbs to taste.

When all the ingredients are ready, you can start preparing the curing mixture. To do this, chop the garlic and mix thoroughly with spices and salt. The whole bay leaf is added to the mixture. Rub the resulting mixture into pieces of salt and leave to salt in a special container for a week in a cool place. From time to time, future smoked meats must be turned over. After the product is completely salted, excess salt and spices are removed from each piece. Then the lard is thoroughly washed and slightly dried. Only after this can you begin the smoking process.

In the marinade

A variety of marinades can be used to prepare delicious smoked lard at home.
Thanks to the use of marinade, future delicacies will be able to be evenly soaked not only in salt, but also in a variety of spices. A prerequisite is that the marinade must completely cover the pieces of lard. On average, products are marinated for 5-7 days. It is best to marinate food in the refrigerator. Today there are a huge number of marinades. A few of the most popular options can be found below. After the lard is completely marinated, the pieces are thoroughly cleaned of excess salt and washed. Then they are dried for a while to remove excess moisture. Then you can begin the smoke treatment process.

Quick salting

In cases where delicacies need to be prepared as quickly as possible, this pickling option will be the best solution. To do this, you need to prepare a special brine. You need to use enough salt so that a chicken egg floats in the brine. Additionally, favorite spices, herbs and a small amount of garlic are added.

Pieces of lard are placed in a pan and filled with prepared brine.

The pan is placed on the fire and brought to a boil. The lard must be cooked for two hours. If the pieces are large enough, the cooking time increases. When the lard has boiled sufficiently, it must be removed and left to cool at room temperature. After this, the products are placed in a smokehouse and processed using smoke to obtain an incredible taste and pleasant aroma.

Which marinade to choose?

The salt solution used to prepare lard is called brine. It is always prepared approximately the same way. You need to take 100 grams of salt per liter of water. You should not make the raw material too salty, as this may cause the layers of meat to be too tough. In addition, do not forget that the aroma of seasonings permeates lard less well if it is very salty. It is worth noting that you can add a variety of spices or herbs that you like best to the brine.

Today there are many brine recipes. As an example, we will give the three most popular options that are most often used. Recipes are designed for a liter of brine.

Large bay leaf and a teaspoon of pepper mixture.
A few pieces of allspice, a couple of bay leaves, a few dried cloves and garlic to taste.
A small amount of allspice and black peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon to taste.

If the lard should not be too smoked, then in this case the raw materials can be boiled first and a special marinade can be used for this, which will contain a variety of spices. Ready-made smoked meats have a very original and rich taste that everyone will surely like. To prepare the marinade you should use the following ingredients.

A kilogram of lard;
Special seasoning for lard in the amount of one sachet;
4 teaspoons salt;
A teaspoon of sugar;
Large head of chopped garlic;
Add a small amount of ground black pepper to taste.

All components are thoroughly mixed together.
The resulting mixture must be grated with lard cut into portions. Then the raw materials are placed in a plastic bag along with chopped garlic. To prevent water from getting inside the bag during cooking, it is placed inside several more bags. Then the bag is very carefully tied so that there is no air left inside. After the water in the pan boils, the lard is boiled, placed in boiling water and cooked for at least an hour and a half. The finished raw material must cool completely and only after that it is laid out in a pre-prepared smokehouse.

If you wish, you can experiment a little with spices or add your favorite spices and herbs. This will allow you to get smoked meats with a very interesting taste, which will become a real decoration for any table.

You can also use another simple recipe that involves adding soy sauce to the marinade. Due to this, the taste of the finished smoked meats will be quite original and interesting. He will not leave a single person indifferent. To prepare marinade per kilogram of lard, you should prepare the following components in advance.

100 soy sauce;
Large head of garlic;
100 grams of salt;
Spices and seasonings to taste.

Salt must be mixed with seasonings, spices and chopped garlic. The resulting mixture is poured with soy sauce. All pieces of lard are carefully spread with this marinade. In order for the salting of the surface to be of high quality, the marinade must be applied evenly to the products. The prepared future smoked meats are placed in a container and left to infuse in the refrigerator for three days. After this, the raw material is dried and you can then begin to smoke it.

Smoking methods

Lard can be prepared using a smoker either cold or hot.
Regardless of the method chosen, the finished smoked meats turn out very tasty and aromatic. If you smoke products using cold smoke, the process will take approximately 5 days, depending on the size of the lard pieces. If we talk about hot smoked lard prepared at home, then it will take much less time, but its shelf life is also several times shorter. The shelf life can only be increased by freezing the delicacy. If you don’t want to waste time preparing a dish in a smokehouse, you can make an imitation of smoked meats. To do this, lard is boiled or baked in the oven with the addition of a special substance called “Liquid Smoke”. The finished product, of course, is not as healthy, but it has an excellent taste and aroma, like real smoked meats.

In the oven

The peculiarity of this recipe is that before cooking, the lard must be boiled for some time so that it becomes more tender and soft. Smoking will take several times less time, because the semi-finished product is already placed in the oven. For this method of preparation, you should first prepare the following components.

300 grams of salt per one and a half kilograms of lard;
Large onion;
Large head of garlic;
Two liters of water.

The water is brought to a boil. Portioned pieces of lard are immersed in it for a maximum of three minutes and boiled. After the raw material has completely cooled, it is mixed with chopped onions and garlic, poured with the previously obtained broth and sent to marinate in the refrigerator for at least four days. After the future smoked meats are completely marinated, it is necessary to dry the products a little to remove unnecessary moisture. Next, future delicacies are sprinkled with a small amount of liquid smoke, wrapped in foil and sent to the oven. The resulting dish can hardly be distinguished from that prepared using a smokehouse at home.

In a slow cooker

If you use liquid smoke, you can cook delicious smoked meats in a slow cooker.
To do this, you must first prepare a pickling mixture, which consists of 10 ml of liquid smoke, salt, pepper and other favorite spices or spices. Each piece is thoroughly rubbed with the resulting mixture. The products are left to marinate in the refrigerator for an hour. After this, the lard is cut into small pieces that will be convenient to smoke in a slow cooker. They should first be wrapped in foil and then placed in the bowl of the device. Delicacies will be prepared using the “Baking” mode for an hour.

You can also use a multicooker that has a smoking function. In this case, a small amount of chips from fruit trees or alder is poured onto the bottom, and a tray is installed to collect fat. Pre-prepared lard is placed on the grate and the “Smoking” mode is activated.

In a hot smoked smokehouse

Hot smoked lard turns out to be very tasty.
First, the raw materials are marinated or salted, cut into portions and then you can proceed directly to the smoking process. To do this, chips from alder or fruit trees are placed at the very bottom of the smokehouse. The ideal option would be apple or pear wood chips. To make the finished product more aromatic, you can add a small amount of juniper sprigs. You should not use sawdust from coniferous trees, which contain a lot of resin. In this case, the smoked meats will be very bitter and have an unpleasant odor.

Next, a tray is installed to collect fat. If it is not installed, the grease will drip onto the wood chips. Accordingly, the smoke will be too bitter, which will negatively affect the taste of the finished product. Pieces of lard are laid out on the grill so that there is a small distance between them. Otherwise, the delicacy will be smoked unevenly. After this, the smokehouse is closed with a lid. If there is no lid, you can use a piece of slightly damp burlap.

The smokehouse is set on fire. Literally after 15 minutes smoke will begin to emit.

Lard must be smoked at a temperature of at least 80 degrees. But the temperature should not be higher than 90 degrees. The ideal option would be to maintain the temperature above 100 degrees for the first 15 minutes. Then it drops to 80 degrees. The duration of smoking is approximately 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces of raw material.

When the smoked meats are ready, they need to be wrapped in a fairly thin material and left for a while so that the too strong smell disappears. Hot smoked lard can be stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of three days. To increase shelf life, products can be frozen.

Using a smoke generator

Cold smoked lard turns out much tastier and not so fatty.
It has a rich aroma and incredibly delicate taste. Many people prefer to cook lard using cold smoke, although the preparation takes several days. To prepare a cold smoked delicacy at home, you must first boil the lard a little. Due to this, the finished product will be more tender, and the taste will become even richer. If you want smoked meats to be sufficiently elastic, then you should not cook the raw materials. Pre-portioned pieces of lard are salted. This process takes two to three weeks. The products are thoroughly rubbed with a mixture of salt and favorite spices, and a small amount of garlic is added. It is necessary to marinate in the refrigerator. After the raw material has been sufficiently marinated, you need to remove excess salt from the lard using a knife. Further, future smoked products must be ventilated in the fresh air for several hours. During this time, excess moisture will be released and the lard will be ready for smoking with cold smoke.

Next you should perform the following steps.

Chips from fruit trees or beech are poured into the smoke generator. As a last resort, you can use alder sawdust.
Lard is placed on the grates in the smoking cabinet. It can also be hung using special hooks.
The wood chips are set on fire and the smoking cabinet is tightly closed. It takes at least 2-3 days to prepare cold smoked lard. It is important that the wood chips burn constantly. Otherwise, the delicacy may be smoked unevenly.
Fully cooked smoked meats should have a rich brown tint.

After cooking, it is worth keeping the products in the fresh air for several hours so that the pungent smell disappears. Then the lard is cut into small pieces and served.

The final, cold smoking takes several times longer, but the result will please every gourmet. If you add a small amount of onion peel to the wood chips during cooking, the lard will have a very original and at the same time rich aroma.

Hot smoked lard without a smokehouse

For this recipe, the product does not need to be smoked. It is simply boiled with onion skins. The taste and shade are very similar to smoked. For greater color payoff, it is better to use an old onion. You need a larger saucepan so that you don’t have to periodically turn the pieces. It only takes 3 hours to prepare. The dish is perfect even for a holiday. The ingredients needed here are:

garlic – 4 cloves;
lard – 0.7 kg;
salt – 50 g;
water – 1 l;
allspice – 4 peas;
onion – 4 pcs.;
pepper.

Instructions on how to smoke lard according to this recipe include the following steps:

Separate the peel from the onion and wash it thoroughly.
Take a pan, add water and salt. Next, place the husk there and cook for 10 minutes.
After this time, place the whole piece of brisket into the pan and cook for another 3 quarters of an hour.
Turn off the gas and leave the dish to stand for 10 minutes without removing the lid.
Combine all the spices, cut the garlic cloves in half.
Take the prepared salsa onto a plate, sprinkle it with spices, and spread the garlic evenly over it.
Place the lard in the freezer for 2 hours, wrapping it in foil first.

Nutritional value of the product

Smoked lard is a very high-calorie product. 100 grams of finished products contain an average of 700 kilocalories. Therefore, the product should not be used by people who have problems with excess weight. If there are no contraindications, you can eat no more than 30 grams of the delicacy per day.

It is forbidden to consume products of this type for those people who have problems with the digestive tract, liver and gall bladder. People with poor metabolism should not get carried away with smoked meats. During pregnancy and breastfeeding, you can eat the delicacy only after consulting a specialist.

If we talk about beneficial properties, it is worth noting that lard contains a lot of vitamins and microelements, as well as fatty acids that are beneficial for the human body. All this has a very good effect on health, if you do not abuse the products. Lard contains a large amount of steoric, oleic, and linoleic acids, which make blood vessels stronger. A huge advantage is that these acids can strengthen and make cell membranes more resilient.

To get the maximum amount of benefit from the product, you should not overuse it. Otherwise, the harm can be quite large and at the same time you will also gain several extra pounds, which will be quite difficult to get rid of.

Where and how to store lard

In order to preserve the taste characteristics of smoked lard longer, it can be frozen.
In this case, the products can be stored in a usable condition for 2-6 months. If you have prepared a few delicacies, you can leave them in the refrigerator, after wrapping them in cling film or placing them in a special container. In this case, the products will remain usable for a maximum of three weeks, depending on the preparation method. Smoked lard, prepared at home, turns out very tasty and aromatic. The main thing is to strictly follow the chosen recipe and choose the most suitable processing option. It is better to give preference to the natural method of smoking rather than using liquid smoke. If everything is done correctly, you will be able to get a tasty, aromatic and at the same time quite healthy product. You should not abuse such products so as not to harm the body and get only benefits from the delicacy.

Rules for storing the finished product

Since it is impossible to eat all the smoked lard at one time, except on holidays or with the help of guests, it must be stored correctly, especially since you cannot eat a lot of smoked meats. Basic storage rules:

If the piece is large and needs to be stored for a long time, then it must be well salted before smoking.
A small piece can be stored in the refrigerator.
Store in a well-ventilated, dark place in a suspended state. It’s better to wrap it in paper, so it won’t gather dust.

If the product is wrapped in paper and sprinkled with sawdust, it will be stored in the box for a very long time. Under no circumstances should lard be stored in a damp place, as it can quickly become moldy. You also need to be aware of pests such as small rodents or flies.