Where does smoking come from?
Cold smoking is an ancient and fascinating process that is said to date back as far as 90,000 years ago, in fact cavemen already involuntarily smoked the hunted hanging in their caves heated by fire.
But an effective and documented proof of this technique we have about 4000 years ago.
The ancient Egyptians had already developed a process for preserving meat and fish by smoking foods with wood and charcoal.
Subsequently, the populations of Asia, Europe and Latin America developed smoking techniques which then influenced those used today.
Ancient smoking techniques consisted of using an enclosed space, such as a hut or stone oven, where wood and charcoal were used to produce thick smoke.
The foods were placed directly above the heat source, and the smoking process was controlled with the use of special holes to vent and obtain the right amount of smoke.
This process has been used for many centuries, and is still used today in many places such as Scotland, Japan, France and the United States.
Evolution of smoking
Cold smoking has seen a rapid evolution over time.
At first, the fumai was a simple hut or oven used to control the amount of smoke, but over time this technique has been increasingly perfected.
Today, more complex flues are used to ensure a constant temperature, cleaner burn and more uniform flavour.
In addition, many smokers use the latest technology, such as temperature probes, to ensure perfect cooking.
Since the 1990s, the cold smoking technique has become increasingly popular thanks to the diffusion of new tools and technologies, such as vaporizers or electric smokers.
Smoking today
Today, many professional and avid chefs use these technologies to create delicious smoked recipes.
Furthermore, cold smoking is also conquering the world of gourmet gastronomy, with new and popular smoked dishes.
This was also possible thanks to the invention of the cold smoker.
Especially for catering, it allows us to smoke in a few minutes, without the need for bulky objects or long and tedious processes.
Obviously ancient smoking was a conservation technique.
Today, for obvious reasons, we no longer need to resort to cold or hot smoking to make foods last longer.
For this reason it has increasingly become a technique for flavoring food.