Another great question – I can see a trend forming…
When I say smoked food, many of you will think brisket.
You’re not wrong, but that’s hot smoking. Sussex Smokehouse cold smokes products. It’s completely different. Both involve smoke, yes. Both make food taste good, yes. But cold smoking and hot smoking are fundamentally different processes that achieve completely different results.
Both take time and patience but there’s a fundamental difference as to the product your retrieve when its done.
Cold smoking is traditionally a preservation technique, prolonging the lifespan of food items and keeping them safe to eat for longer than a chilled, fresh product would last without spoiling. Hot smoking, well that’s…
Hot Smoking: basically Cooking with Smoke
Hot smoking is what most people think of when they hear “smoked food.” Brisket, ribs, pulled pork – these are all hot smoked.
The process:
- Temperature: 100-150°C (sometimes higher)
- Duration: Hours to days, depending on the product
- What happens: The food cooks while absorbing smoke
Hot smoking is essentially slow cooking in a smoke-filled environment. The heat cooks the food, breaking down proteins and fats, rendering connective tissue, and creating that tender, fall-apart texture you get with good barbecue.
The smoke penetrates the surface and flavors the meat as it cooks. You end up with food that’s cooked, smoky, and ready to eat straight from the smoker.
What it’s good for:
- Slow-cook cuts of meat (like brisket, pork shoulder and ribs)
- Fish after curing (like mackerel, sardines, sprats and salmon)
- Poultry and fowl (chicken wings, duck breast, turkey)
Cold Smoking: Flavour Without Heat
Cold smoking is a different beast entirely.
The process:
- Temperature: Under 30°C (ideally 20-25°C)
- Duration: Hours to days, depending on the product
- What happens: The food absorbs smoke flavor without cooking
Cold smoking adds smoke flavour while preserving the raw texture of the food. The temperature stays low enough that proteins don’t denature, fats don’t render, and the structure remains unchanged. Items are often cured in a salt and sugar mixture to draw out water and make it easier for smoke to adhere to the product.
This is why smoked salmon is silky, translucent, and soft – it’s been cured and smoked, but not cooked. Hot-smoked salmon, by contrast, is opaque, flaky, and fully cooked.
What it’s good for:
- Meats after curing (like salami, prosciutto and bacon)
- Fish after curing (like smoked salmon and kippers)
- Cheese (like cheddar, feta, brie and halloumi)
- Butter, oils, salt, and other fats
- Nuts, seeds, and spices (our specialty)
- Anything where you want smoke flavour but need to preserve the original texture
Cold smoking requires patience and control. You’re managing airflow, smoke density, and temperature for extended periods without the luxury of heat doing the heavy lifting.
So why not hot smoke the nuts?
If we hot smoked our nuts, we’d end up with a completely different product. And not in a good way. Basically, not everything is suited for being cooked for half a day.
If we hot smoked them first (at 100-150°C for several hours), then roasted them again, we’d overcook them. They’d be dry, bitter, and possibly burnt. The texture would be wrong – too hard, too dark, unpleasant.
And when would we introduce the chicken fat?? Nope, it just wouldn’t work.
Cold smoking keeps the temperature low enough that the fat (if we added it before smoking, which we don’t) would stay solid. But since we smoke first and add fat later, we get the best of both worlds: maximum smoke penetration, then perfect fat coating during the roast.
The same goes for our seasonings and oil. Everything benefits from cold smoking specifically because we don’t want to cook it during the smoking process. We want flavour, not transformation.
To sum up
Cold smoking and hot smoking are different processes for different purposes.
Hot smoking cooks and smokes simultaneously. It’s perfect for brisket, ribs and anything that benefits from slow heat and smoke.
Cold smoking adds flavor without cooking. It’s perfect for nuts, seasonings, oils, cured meats, and anything where you want smoke without transformation.
We cold smoke our nuts because we’re going to roast them later. Hot smoking would overcook them, mess with the fat, and give us less control over the final product.
It’s not about tradition or authenticity. It’s about using the right method for the job.
And for nuts roasted in chicken fat? Cold smoking for 12 hours is the only way that makes sense. To me, anyway
You should try some. You can buy them here.
What we are watching: War Machine (2026). Reacher fights an alien robot
What we are listening to: 90s Hip Hop classics – think Shook Ones pt 2, NY State of Mind, Still etc
