Smoking Food

For me, smoked food has always been a favourite. I'll happily pay a little extra for smoked duck breast, chicken, cheese and fish. Maybe its memories of campfires whilst in scouts as a teenager, but I jut can't get enough of that lovely earthy flavour. For Christmas, I bought my husband a day smoking course at Smoky Jo's in Shap (www.smokyjos.co.uk) , and managed to buy a place for myself and muscle in on his present. On saturday we visited Smoky Jo's not quite sure what we would learn, but certainly eager to pick up useful hints and tips. We'd tried smoking fish in a wok over tea but almost blinded ourselves, we own a smoker but our first attempt ended in a fire...so as you can see, we needed as much help as possible.

Visit Smoky Jo's and you'll be given a warm and hospitable welcome by Jo and Georgie who run courses in their beautiful home, complete with accommodation. Former owners of a local smokehouse in the area there isn't anything these two don't know.

Our day started with simple brining of chicken, designed to keep in moisture and ensure you have a succulent end result. After brining the chicken we flavoured some trout and salmon. The course allows ou to really let your imagination go wild, and experiment with flavours. The surprising element is that some flavours which may be pungent, barely come through once smoked, and some other subtle flavours are very evident in the end result.

After a few flavour attempts, we were introduced to the smokers...I say introduced as they have names, and each have their own character in the way they smoke, flavour and cook the food. Jo and Georgie obviously have some professional smokers (looking like large bbqs some with a separate hot box for cold smoking) but best of all is Freddy the filing cabinet - absolutely ingenious (check it out on their website), who can produce hot and cold smoked goods in each of his 4 drawers.

So what did we sample on the day? Well for me the absolute stars were the smoked sausages - important to use a sausage with a high meat content, but these were sublime. My husband liked smoked mushrooms, and is currently thinking of using portobello mushrooms and creating a smoked mushroom pate. We also enjoyed smoked trout, hot and cold smoked salmon, peppers, aubergines, nuts, scallops, prawns and mussels and cheese.

I'd recommend this course to anybody interested in finding out about food smoking, not only is the scenery breathtaking, the owners delightful and the food excellent but its a fabulous way to spend a day.

To Jo and Georgie, thanks for a great day

Cath