A typical oven-cooking schedule for smoked meat products is a six-step process. The basic purpose of each step must be understood when developing or modifying a cooking schedule.
When the dry- and wet-bulb set points are established for any step in a cooking schedule, the strong effect of the wet-bulb temperature on the product surface conditions and heating rates must be considered.
Here are the six steps in a cooking process:
-- Conditioning: The objective is to create uniform surface conditions for the entire product load before it is cooked and smoked.
In its most basic form, a conditioning step may simply be showering the load before cooking.
Another effective conditioning method is to run the first step of a process as a warm, high relative humidity step, which will create a thin layer of condensate on the cool product surfaces.
This will result in uniform surface conditions for the entire load. An example of a conditioning step would be a 15-minute step with a 110 degrees F dry-bulb and a 100 degrees F wet-bulb.
-- Drying: The objective is to uniformly dry the product surface to a desired moisture level so that when smoke is applied, it will uniformly be absorbed, developing a smoke color.
Since more smoke will be absorbed into a moist product surface, the drying step should be shortened if a darker surface color is desired.
If a lighter surface color is desired, the drying step should be lengthened. Longer drying steps will minimize two-tone color formation on products cooked horizontally in an oven.
The temperature set points for drying will vary depending on product-type. Typical set points for drying are 120 degrees F to 160 degrees F dry-bulb temperature and 0 degrees F to 120 degrees F wet-bulb temperature.
-- Smoking: Either wood smoke or liquid smoke can be applied.
Wood smoking will enhance color reaction between the carbonyls in the smoke and the amines in the meat. This promotes the development of the desired smoked surface appearance.
The typical set points during a wood-smoke application are 120 degrees F to 165 degrees F dry-bulb temperature and 0 degrees F to 130 degrees F wet-bulb temperature.
Liquid smoke includes an atomized smoke application period followed by a short dwell time, after which the oven is restarted and the process continued. Regardless of the application time for liquid smoke, the dwell time should be no longer than 10 minutes.
Atomized liquid smoke is sometimes applied in two steps instead of one, with a 15- to 30-minute drying process separating the two application steps. If so, the wet-bulb temperature for the drying step is 0 degrees F to create dry conditions that enhance smoked color development.
-- Color set: This sets the smoked surface color before high-humidity cooking and the finishing step. Processors should maintain hot and dry conditions in the oven to promote the development and stabilization of the desired smoke color.
The typical set points during color set are 140 degrees F to 180 degrees F dry-bulb temperature and 0 degrees F to 120 degrees F wet-bulb temperature.
-- Cooking: This is the transition between the low-humidity color set step and the high-humidity finishing step. The typical set points during cooking are 160 degrees F dry-bulb temperature and 130 degrees F to 150 degrees F wet-bulb temperature.
-- Finishing: The product is cooked to its target core temperature.
The wet-bulb set point should be set at, or slightly higher than, the target core temperature. For example, if the target core temperature is 160 degrees F, then the wet-bulb set point should be at, or above, 160 degrees F. This reduces cooking time, and improves product temperature uniformity and shrink uniformity.
If the color has been properly developed and stabilized properly in the previous steps, no adverse effects on the product surface color should be caused by the high wet-bulb temperature.
The typical set points during the finishing application are 170 degrees F to 200 degrees F dry-bulb temperature and 155 degrees F to 165 degrees F wet-bulb temperature.
Hundreds of different smoked products are produced using several variations of a cooking schedule. If different cooking and smoking processes were not used, it would be difficult to develop and market products with unique identifies.
This report is part of a smokehouse operations presentation given by Bob Hanson, manager of technical development for Lodi, Wis.-based Alkar.