Learn a new skill in a day – our Smoking Course is the perfect opportunity to discover how to hot and cold smoke food without the need for any professional equipment.
The Wild Boar Head Chef Miroslav Likus
Partnering with Jo and Georgina from Smoky Jo’s – supplier of smoked goods to Prince Charles! – our one day course will inform, delight and entertain. At the end of the day celebrate with a huge banquet prepared by Chef using the foods smoked by you and fellow participants. Invite your partner, friends and family members to the meal for added kudos!
Enjoy a banquet with family and friends
Denise tells us about her experience on a previous smoking course …
I was lucky enough to be invited to The Wild Boar to experience the Smoking Course which they run periodically. I’m quite a foodie, so this was ‘right up my street’.
Smoking experts, Georgina Perkins and Jo Hampson from Smoky Jo’s, met our group at reception and briefed us on what the course entailed. We learned the difference between hot smoking, cold smoking and how to smoke food safely without burning the house down!
Denise opens The Wild Boar’s smoker with the rest of the smoking course group
Jo told us we were going to prepare certain foods, smoke them and taste them throughout the day. We looked at different types of smokers that any amateur smoker could purchase or adapt, like the infamous filing cabinet. These range from a few pounds to a few hundred pounds. Everyone was really impressed by the cardboard box smoker called the Eco Smoker. It’s ingenious. Such a simple idea that anyone with an interest in smoking food can use. I think I have someone’s Christmas present earmarked.
Jo with the cardboard Eco Smoker
The outside area where the Smokehouse is situated is a lovely area in the grounds of The Wild Boar Lake District Hotel next to the vegetable plot. Jo showed us which apparatus we were going to smoke our food on throughout the day. We went back and forth between the Smoke House and the restaurant where we prepared the food.
We were given a piece of chicken to prepare for smoking and the choice of every type of herb and spice to use to flavour our dish. I chose Chinese five spice, ginger and garlic. Outside again and the chicken fillets were put into the large oil drum smoker to cold smoke throughout the afternoon. Other vegetables, mushrooms and peppers were also put into the smoker.
Next, a piece of Salmon to prepare for our lunch. To flavour my fish I chose dill, honey and white wine. After sufficient time for the flavours to penetrate the salmon, they were placed into a stove top smoker by the Head Chef at The Wild Boar and hot smoked.
Chef smoking salmon on the hob
We all settled down in the restaurant for lunch. Bread, dipping oils and food which had been smoked earlier outside were already on the table for us to enjoy.
Our salmon was served as our main course. Jo has a unique way of marking and remembering which piece of food belonged to who by snipping different shapes from the fin and tail of the salmon. We also got to sample some cheeses which had been left overnight in the smoke house. Brie, usually my least favourite cheese but after sampling smoked brie, it is now a new favourite!
After lunch we went back to Chef’s table in the restaurant for our final product awaiting flavour. A whole trout – with eyes!! This was a challenge. Without catching its gaze, I flavoured mine with white wine and garlic. Back outside we went to see how our produce was getting on in the cold smoker. Lifting the lid up from the smoker caused great big puffs of smoke to bellow out.
The trout was experimented with. Some were put into the oil drum smoker and some put into a table top smoker to see how different flavours were achieved by the different smokers. By this time it was late afternoon and all of our food was left in the capable hand of Georgina where they would continue to smoke and then be cooked and served up for our evening banquet.
We returned to The Wild Boar in the evening with partners and family. I took my son who is a chef. The kitchen served up everything we had smoked along with other regular smoked delights produced by the Inn.
We had a tapas style starter followed by a fish course of scallops in a creamy sauce. The main course was also served tapas style, a mixture of smoked steaks fillet, sirloin and wild boar chop were placed on our table along with side orders of chips and onion rings. If anyone had space they could choose a dessert from the menu. What a fantastic evening!
Only a few hours earlier we had been a bunch of strangers but here we were reminiscing about a fun day and enjoying the fruits of our labour.
For more information and to book telephone: 015394 45225
