Smoking food has been part of our culinary culture since Prometheus came hurtling down from Olympus bearing his gift of fire. There is a perfectly good reason for this. Smoke contains chemicals that act as preserving agents. Before the days of mass refrigeration, drying and smoking were critical for human survival, as meat and other foods could be preserved throughout winter. In olden times, many villages would feature a central smoke house for everyone to use.

As chemical preservation became the norm in the 20th century, smoking lost popularity. Thankfully for the food world, smoking has undergone a renaissance in recent years. The resurgence of traditional food manufacturing, a taste for Southern Barbecue, a distaste for unnatural preservatives and a rediscovery of smoking’s many flavoursome possibilities have all spurred on the smoking movement.

I was lucky enough to grow up within striking distance of an extremely good smokehouse (the Weald Smokery in Flimwell, East Sussex). Going there was a special treat for us (it isn’t cheap) and their delightful produce fomented a love for the possibilities of smoking that went far beyond the staples of smoked salmon, kippers and bacon. Smoked duck, chicken, venison, trout, eel and cheese remain family favourites and, to this day, my mother always brings a much-appreciated bounty with her whenever she comes to visit.

*Weald Smokery, Flimwell, East Sussex, United Kingdom.*

We each have our own passions. For me it’s duck and chicken; for my older brother it’s eel. My granny’s kedgeree recipe (using smoked haddock) is embedded in our hearts. Every time I make it, I am transported back to my mother’s kitchen to a time when we were still complete as a family. It would seem odd not to serve it in our decades-old family Portmeirion crockery: a heady, delicious mixture of grief and nostalgia.

“Air” is the theme for this week’s edition, and my barbecue-obsessed partner-in-cooking, Matt, would never have allowed us to do anything other than smoking. We are not in the preservation game but are taking inspiration from the US’s Southern Barbecue technique: cooking low and slow with smoke for flavour.

Applewood smoked chicken with charred lettuce salad, artichokes and smoked garlic mayonnaise dressing

Barbecue prep:

Your first smoking decision is choosing the wood. Each type of wood has a different profile, from pungent and rich (hickory, oak or beech) to fruity, sweet and warming (apple, cherry or pecan) to subtle and light (pear or olive). You’ll need to source chunks for smoking. How many you use is up to you.

We favour a cautious approach as we use smoke to enhance natural flavours; too much and you run the risk of domination. Today we are using two good-sized chunks of Applewood alongside locally-sourced, sustainable briquettes on our Weber Master Touch.

Low-and-slow, indirect cooking is the name of the game here. It is very hard to bring a barbecue back down in temperature so you’ll need to pay attention from the get-go and use the vents to control airflow so that it doesn’t get too hot (more air = faster burning = hotter).

We are aiming for the 110˚C to 125˚C mark. The use of water pans is also important for moisture and temperature control. Once the coals are hot, push them to one side. Place a large tray of water on the other side (under the grill) and then another tray of water on top of the grill directly over the coals.

Barbecue set up for low-and-slow smoking

Preparing the Chicken:

Smoking will not give you crispy skin, but it will render out the fat so that the skin is still delicious, if flavoured properly. I’ve gone a little off-piste here and created something that is semi-rub, semi-marinade and I’ve chosen to use sweeter ingredients to emulate the Southern BBQ style.

In a bowl combine:

• ½ cup of brown sugar

• 2 tsp hot paprika

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• 2 tbl runny honey

• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

• 3 tbl olive oil

Then in a pestle and mortar:

A good handful of fresh herbs (I’m using Thyme, Rosemary and Sage)
2 garlic cloves
A good pinch of sea or rock salt

Give the herbs and garlic a good pounding until you have a paste then scrape into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix well. Rub this mixture all over the chicken, including the cavity (leave any excess inside the cavity) and put the chicken into the fridge to marinate (ideally overnight).

*A good, stone pestle and mortar will last you a life time.*

A side note about thermometers:

If you are into meat cookery, we strongly recommend investing in some good thermometers. We have two types: a Thermapen for immediate readings and a probe which is left in throughout the cooking process. Our probe is a Meater which has an app which calculates both cooking and resting times as well as providing an accurate measure for internal and ambient temperatures.

I’m not going to lie, it has taken me a while to appreciate the Meater. Matt fell head-over-heels for the gadget but I am a traditional cook for whom calculating timings based on weight and heat were second nature to me. However, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and even I have to admit that everything we’ve cooked using the Meater has been perfect. Although getting used to its quirks (the countdown clock has little correlation to physics) was a learning curve to be sure.

Cooking the chicken:

Remove the chicken from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking and insert a temperature probe, if you have one. Once the barbecue is at a stable temperature (110˚C to 125˚C), place the chicken on the grill over the lower water pan. Remove when the internal temperature reaches 70˚C and rest until it reaches 74˚C or 75˚C.

*A proper carving board will allow you to collect the juices. Trust me, you’ll want them.*

For the smoked garlic mayonnaise:

When you put the chicken on the grill, pop a whole head of garlic alongside it and leave for an hour to smoke. Then get out a small blender or a stick blender with a small bowl (you want a tight fit). Measure out 200 ml of olive oil and, in a separate bowl, juice ½ a lemon. Squeeze out the garlic cloves into the blending bowl, add a large free-range egg yolk, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and some salt. Blend until smooth. Turn the blender back on and gradually add the oil, making sure that the mixture is emulsifying and thickening before adding more. Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste at the end. I am using the mayonnaise as a dipping sauce for the artichokes and as a salad dressing, for the dressing I’ll loosen with a little water.

For the artichokes:

Joy of joys! We are blessed to have talented friends. Rachel Rutty of Rutty Sark Gardens is a professional gardener with not one but two allotments to her name. Over the weekend we became very lucky recipients of some beautiful home-grown globe artichokes.

Artichokes are much simpler to prepare than their spiky countenance and fearsome reputations suggest. We are just going to drizzle with olive oil, season and wrap in tin foil. Pop these very special packages onto the coals and cook until soft (30 mins to an hour), then unwrap and finish on the grill. Serve with the mayo.

Grilled lettuce is a thing. Deal with it. I love cooking lettuce in general and was notorious at university for a braised lettuce dish that I couldn’t get enough of!

I am just going to wash a whole little gem lettuce and pop it onto the grill whilst the chicken is resting. Remove when soft-ish (it’ll stay crunchier towards the middle) and slice. Mix with some other leaves (I’m a pea shoot fanatic) and add whatever you like to the salad. Dress with the smoked garlic mayo dressing and serve.

Air and food: How smoking made a comeback