Smoked Meat Recipes

The reasons why we started to cure and smoke food in the first place was for preservation and it is only with the advent of firstly canning and latterly refrigeration that smoking of food is now done for flavor.

Dehydration is an important part of the preservation process (it's not as important for barbecue although it is still part of the process) and those very traditional preserved meats such as jerky would have been used to flavor other dishes such as stews.

Nowadays for a meat to be sold as smoked or barbecued the essential part of the process is the drying of the meat and this is measured by weight loss. In fact the legal requirement set out by USDA for anyone wanting to sell as product with the label “BBQ” is that there has been a minimum weight loss of 30%

Part of the smoke drying process is brining or curing and this is also a great way to add more flavor. So when you've got something that's slightly dried and concentrated with flavor, it's the perfect thing to stick in a recipe. Not only that, it's a great way of using up the leftovers too. Take a look at these recipes and you'll see what I mean.

Starting the recipes that use cured and smoked meat as an ingredient. The picture you see to above is of a bean stew that has been flavored with smoked belly pork.

Smoked Duck Breast Salad - perfect with a fruity sauce.

Smoked Chicken Salad Recipe - This has to produce one of the most succulent chicken breasts that I have ever tasted.

Gumbo Smoked Pork Shoulder Recipes - Diced smoked pork together with the traditional Cajun ingredients.

French Cassoulet Recipe - Smoked sausage and smoked belly pork will make this a real treat

German Sauerkraut Recipe - Smoked belly pork again and you can add some wienies too.

Brunswick Stew - A great way to use up all those leftovers.

Page Updated May 2012

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