How does smoking "cure" meats?

[KidCharlemagne]

Go ahead make your joke.

What sort of chemical changes does smoking cause in a meat to preserve it?

While we’re at it, why don’t dried foods spoil? For instance the jerky and pemmican that Native American’s ate; even if it’s dried out at first, isn’t there enough moisture in the air to begin the spoiling process?

[kevals]

Ahh, meat, wonderful…

http://www.azstarnet.com/~thead/msfaq.html

…

Pretty simple; Smoke cooking is done at higher temperatures in order to cook the meat. Smoke curing is really just smoking cured meat or sausage. Although smoking meat does provide some preservative effect, it alone is not sufficient to allow long term storage. …“Smoke is a very complex material, with upward of 200 components that include alcohols, acids, phenolic compounds, and various toxic, sometimes carcinogenic substances. The toxic substances inhibit the growth of microbes, and the phenolics retard fat oxidation, and the whole complex imparts the characteristic flavor of burning wood to the meat.”

The site has some more information about other methods and more about meat.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/facts_smoking.htm

This also has some info from the USDA about the safety of smoked meat

the following site tells you about the chemical compounds in wood smoke and what effect they have on teh meat:
http://www.ansci.uiuc.edu/meatscience/Library/smoking.htm

Smoke from wood has more than 300 different compounds which are produced at different stages as the

The rest is too lenghty to post here, check it out…

[kevals]

Ahh, meat, wonderful…

The site has some more information about other methods and more about meat

http://www.azstarnet.com/~thead/msfaq.html

Pretty simple; Smoke cooking is done at higher temperatures in order to cook the meat. Smoke curing is really just smoking cured meat or sausage. Although smoking meat does provide some preservative effect, it alone is not sufficient to allow long term storage. …“Smoke is a very complex material, with upward of 200 components that include alcohols, acids, phenolic compounds, and various toxic, sometimes carcinogenic substances. The toxic substances inhibit the growth of microbes, and the phenolics retard fat oxidation, and the whole complex imparts the characteristic flavor of burning wood to the meat.”

This also has some info from the USDA about the safety of smoked meat

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/facts_smoking.htm
the following site tells you about the chemical compounds in wood smoke and what effect they have on teh meat:
http://www.ansci.uiuc.edu/meatscience/Library/smoking.htm

Smoke from wood has more than 300 different compounds which are produced at different stages as the

The rest is too lenghty to post here, check it out…

[kevals]

sorry, first one got stuck, didn’t think it would go thru

[Smeghead]

As for drying, that works because microbes need water to grow. Remove the water, they can’t grow. Badabing.