Photo: bgautrea / Flickr

Smoke roasting doesn’t require any fancy equipment at all. In fact, you’ll probably find most of what you need in your kitchen ‑ as a cast iron pot or a heavy-based saucepan is all you need to cook with. Your pot or pan must have a tight-fitting lid so as to ensure that the smoke doesn’t escape. Here is a brief overview of what you’ll need, including a metal container, a pot stand and wood shavings.

Pan and tight-fitting lid

Smoke roasting is different to traditional and commercial smoking methods as the meat isn’t cured in brine before it is smoked. As mentioned, a saucepan or a cast iron pot will work well for smoke roasting, but then so will a pressure cooker. If you don’t have a proper lid, you can place aluminium foil over the pot and jam the lid into the foil to secure it.

Metal container

A metal container is required to smoke roast your food and if you don’t have one, try using a cake tin or an aluminium foil container instead. This should be able to fit into the pan, allowing enough space for sufficient air circulation.

Pot stand

You will also need a metal pot stand to position the bottom of the food container away from the shavings. This will allow for a good circulation of smoke. If you don’t have a metal stand, improvise by using a metal ring from a preserve jar.

Wood shavings

Wood shavings are essential to smoke roasting food. You can buy wood shavings at hardware stores but be sure to use no more than two tablespoons of wood shavings per smoke roasting. Sprinkle the shavings over the base of the saucepan and throw away the black ash at the end of the smoking.

How to smoke roast food

Put your prepared food into the container on the post stand in the saucepan with the shavings. Place the pot on the largest stove plate and turn the plate up to the highest setting for 10-15 minutes. Then turn the plate to the lowest setting and cook according to your recipe’s specified time.

Tags: cooking