One of the school children chose smoked chicken for their birthday lunch so here we go – an introduction to hot smoking chicken. Of course being a Montessori school they had to do it for themselves starting with collecting the firewood and preparing the chicken!

Preparing the chicken

And with much inspiration from Mr Lamb and his River Cottage Handbook No 13 Curing & Smoking….

Lighting the smoker

After the cure was washed off

Into the tumble drier  smoking chamber!

Puffing away

Et voila! Poulet fume!

Here is a pilot version from the weekend:

Smoked chicken breast

My small sample with Swedish potatoes and paprika from Nyamaropa

Pre-boiled in vinegar water then deep fried!

Our first try at good crisps

They just didn’t last very long

3 left

Being an engineer there weren’t so many measurements except TEMPERATURE!

Kitchen Thermometer

Each was half Huletts soft brown sugar (i.e. the cheap stuff that is everywhere here) and half runny brown honey, splash of water and a bit of yellow baking margarine.

From the left 120°, 140°, 150°

From the left 120° (soft ball), 140°, 150° (hard crack + more flavour!)

120° (soft ball close to toffee in the mouth),

120° (soft ball – close to toffee in the mouth),

140° and 150° (hard crack – underneath)

Here’s one I made earlier! The goats milk cherry fudge.

The complete line up with soft ball, hard crack, cherry fudge and butterscotch on right

Sunset following a day of unusual October downpours:

Just go outside after the rain

Mufenje at sunset

Night all!

This is so simple – courtesy of some Scottish inspiration during our visit in the holidays and some reading of the River Cottage Handbook No. 13 Curing and Smoking by Steven Lamb. And yes a Parma is on the way – if we can wait!

The first cut

The first three slices

In the pan

Streaky

Streaky in the pan