Preparation for smoking
For smoking, choose the best tender lard with a thin skin. Cut it into 0,5-1 kg pieces and salt. This can be done both dry and in brine, as you like.
With dry salting, rub the pieces with salt and spices and place in a container. These can be wooden boxes or an enamel pan with a wide bottom. Place in a cool place for a month.
For pickling in brine, place pieces of bacon in three-liter jars. Prepare the brine from the calculation:
– 2,5 liters of water; – 125 g of salt; – 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Boil the solution to dissolve all the salt, let it cool and fill the jars. Close the lids and place in a cool place.
The device of a smokehouse
While the bacon is salting, go to the smokehouse. You can, of course, build a stationary brick or log smokehouse, but it is much easier to make a collapsible one from a metal barrel.
For the device of such a smokehouse you will need: – 1 metal barrel; – several iron sheets; – bricks; – solution; – metal rods; – burlap.
Choose a location on the lot. Dig a hole about 40 cm deep, from it dig a trench 1,5–2 m long. Lay out the hearth and the trench with bricks on the sides (although you can do without this). Place a metal barrel without a bottom on the bricks above the hearth. Cover the chimney (a trench dug from the hearth) with iron sheets. That is, in principle, the whole device of the smokehouse.