Smoked food is as delicious as the art of preparing it is ancient. Might you be tempted to give it a try, or are you already a committed home smoker?

Although it's as old as fire, smoking food seems to be experiencing a resurgence at the moment. Southern-style barbecue is the latest big thing in street food, with food van-turned-restaurant Pitt Cue Co named as one of TimeOut's best tips for 2012, everyone who was anyone exchanging gifts of smoky bacon jam for Christmas, and a host of artisan producers smoking everything from cod's roe to cheddar.
The contestants on MasterChef Australia seem to fire up their woks and get smoking at every opportunity – more familiar dishes like smoked duck breast and smoked trout salad appear alongside recipes for smoked yoghurt and chocolate.

It can't have been long after our ancestors started using fire that they discovered the transformative effects of heat and smoke on meat: flavouring, tenderising and preserving it. Tony Solomon of Anna Mae's, the mobile street food van that created a buzz when it first popped up last summer, acknowledges that there's something primeval about our attraction to barbecued food. "The process is elemental – it's just meat and smoke, but it creates something amazing. And smoking food is addictive, like looking into a fire."

The Southern tradition of barbecue has far-reaching roots, Tony explains. There are African-American rubs, German smoking techniques, and of course the Texan passion for large amounts of good meat. The cuts generally used for hot smoking aren't expensive, though – pork shoulder and brisket come into their own when cooked low and slow, so the barbecue trend is a recession-friendly one.

Tony's advice to would-be home smokers is pragmatic. "Learn to enjoy failure," he says. "The first few times we did it, we had meat that ended up completely overcooked, or stayed cold and raw. It's not like putting something in the oven – it's a mixture of nature and nurture, and takes a long time to perfect."

Undaunted, I decided to start off small, with the technique described by the ever-adventurous cooks at Serious Eats. The process is surprisingly simple – all you need is a wok, a rack on which to support the food (I used a pizza screen), and a plentiful supply of heavy aluminium foil. Line the wok with two large pieces of foil and place the smoking medium in its base. Heat until it begins to smoulder, place the food on the rack, cover with another piece of foil, closing the edges tightly so the smoke doesn't escape, and leave on the heat until the food is cooked.

For my first attempt, I smoked haddock fillets over equal parts of tea, rice and brown sugar, with a few pieces of star anise and mustard seeds for extra flavour. The haddock took about half an hour to cook over a gentle heat, and I was delighted with the result – the fish was moist, with a pronounced smoky flavour. Flushed with success, I attempted a 1kg piece of brisket with a spice rub, also smoked in the wok, this time with pecan chips. The meat took about five hours' gentle cooking to reach an internal temperature of 80C, and the result was mildly smoky, juicy and tender. The process produces far less actual smoke than you would expect – although you do need a well ventilated kitchen, my super-sensitive smoke alarm, which has to be decommissioned every time I cook a steak, wasn't activated.

Cold-smoking is a rather more complex process, and requires more specialised equipment, and although enterprising smokers have set up in their back gardens using paraphernalia ranging from disused filing cabinets to compost bins, it's worth investing in proper kit if the bug bites, not least for health concerns (more of which later).

One of the country's most innovative producers of cold-smoked food is Tim Matthews, who started The Artisan Smokehouse in 2010. His smoked fillet of beef won triple gold at the Great Taste Awards, he sells smoked rapeseed and olive oils, smoked chilli, paprika, cinnamon and garlic, and a range of smoked mushrooms he's particularly excited about: "The taste is mushroom cubed – it's a whole third dimension of umami, and fantastic in pasta dishes and risotto."

Tim believes that smoked spices are set to grow in popularity, offering a way of infusing food with flavour without actually smoking it or resorting to liquid smoke, a seasoning produced by passing smoke through water. Although it's believed by some to be a safer alternative to smoking the food itself, not least because it doesn't create a fire hazard in your kitchen, liquid smoke has attracted some bad press and has been the subject of an investigation by the European Food Safety Agency.

Smoke, whether condensed into liquid or applied directly to food, contains chemicals called polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which can be carcinogenic. However, the amount of PAHs produced during the smoking process depends upon factors such as the temperature at which the wood is burned. Commercial smokers are fairly efficient at controlling the amount of PAHs in the smoke, so when using those, the risk is considered minimal.

There's no doubt that smoking is here to stay – it's even found its way into the country's booze cupboards. Hereford-based distiller Chase recently offered a smoked version of its English vodka; the Meantime brewery in Greenwich produces a smoked beer; and you can, if you dare, try your hand at making your own smoked bacon bourbon.

What weird and wonderful – or just plain weird – smoked food and drink have you spotted? And are you tempted to convert your wok to a smokery for a few hours, or take up smoking in your back garden, over and above the occasional sneaky fag?

{loadposition user38} source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/jan/30/rise-of-smoking-food

source: http://www.europerank.com/lifestyle/lifestyle/59362-the-rise-and-rise-of-smoking-food