Smoke houses are one of those curious family traditions. Either you grew up with one or you did not. We lived way out in the country, and my father was a farmer and a hunter, so it goes without saying that I grew up with a smokehouse right behind their house. If you've never known what it is like to have smoke house prepared meat fresh from the hunt, you have really missed out.

Having grown up with a smoke house, it seems impossible to prepare meat without one. I see products like smokehouse barbecue sauce and liquid smoke and just laugh. People always buy this prepackaged junk that is supposed to emulate the smoke house flavor, without even being aware of what they are missing out on. Most people don't even realize what smoke house meat tastes like. The taste really defies explanation.

You know that taste you get when you cook meat over the fire? I'm not talking about a normal barbecue pit, but an honest to god campfire where you burn logs in a big pile. That is just a taste of the full smoke house experience. Even most smoke house barbecue joints don't do it quite right. The only people who really know how to do it are those who do it at home. And there are fewer and fewer people like that.

Fortunately, it is pretty easy to build a smoke house. You can get smoke house plans almost anywhere, and the materials are pretty simple. Of course, there are a lot of people who opt for ready made aluminum smoke houses, but I recommend against this. The taste will just not be the same. A smoke house has to be built out of bricks, or else it won't trap the heat properly. Anyone who has grown up with one knows that.

I actually had the chance to build a smokehouse with my son recently. It was one of the best smokehouses I've ever seen. It was built in the traditional style too – a real brick smoker! Of course, I had to take him hunting soon after. He's just a young boy, but he took to hunting like a duck to water. Soon, we had all of the meat we could want to smoke. We invited the whole family over, and had moose for everyone. Let me tell you, it was quite a feast, and everyone had a blast.

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Filed under: Homes