From the Cove shop
Home smoking essentials that make the advice easier to put into practice.
Hot and cold smoking times and temperatures for fish, meat and cheese in one chart - with the two food-safety rules that actually matter.
Smoking guide
A simple route through smoke, wood, kit and confidence for home cooks who want flavour without the noise.
Fish Smoking Times & Temperatures Chart is a guide for getting better flavour at home without turning smoking into a mystery.
Good smoking is mostly patience: clean heat, the right wood, and food prepared with care.
Home smoking essentials that make the advice easier to put into practice.
Start with a familiar wood, make one change at a time, and notice how the flavour changes.
Smoking oven, wood chips, simple accessories
Use food-safe smoking wood, follow your equipment instructions, and keep raw and cooked food separate.
Read straight through, or dip into the sections that matter for your next smoking session.
Every smoker eventually keeps a grubby note of times and temperatures taped inside a cupboard door. This page is that note, written down properly - hot smoking and cold smoking, fish first (we are a Cornish shop, after all), with meat, cheese and the food-safety rules that matter.
Times are honest ranges, not gospel: thickness, your smoker and the weather all move them. When it matters, a probe thermometer beats every chart ever written - including this one.
Hot smoking runs around 80-90°C in a stovetop smoking oven or a lidded BBQ with a smoker box. The food cooks as it smokes, so “done” means cooked: fish is ready when it turns opaque and flakes (63°C at the core if you probe it), poultry and sausages want 75°C.
| Food | Typical time | Done when |
| Mackerel fillets | 20-30 min | Opaque and flakes at the thick end; 63°C core |
| Whole mackerel | 35-50 min | Flesh lifts cleanly off the bone; 63°C |
| Salmon fillets | 30-45 min | Opaque outside, just set in the middle; 63°C |
| Whole trout | 45-60 min | Skin peels freely; 63°C |
| Sea bass fillets | 20-30 min | Opaque and flakes; 63°C |
| Prawns (shell on) | 10-15 min | Pink right through and piping hot |
| Chicken thighs | 60-90 min | 75°C core, juices run clear |
| Sausages | 45-75 min | 75°C core |
| Halloumi & veg | 15-25 min | Coloured and heated through |
A stovetop fish smoker is happiest doing what the name says. Chicken and sausages smoke beautifully for flavour, but in a small oven it is good practice to finish them in a conventional oven to core temperature rather than stretch the smoke time.
Cold smoking stays below 30°C - the food never cooks, it just takes on smoke over hours from fine wood dust in a cold smoke generator. The iron rule: fish and meat must be properly cured or salted first. The cure makes it safe; the smoke is only flavour. Cheese, butter and nuts need no cure at all.
| Food | Typical smoke | Before smoking | Afterwards |
| Salmon (cured) | 8-12 hours | Dry cure 24-48 hours | Rest overnight before slicing |
| Bacon (cured belly) | 8-24 hours | Cure 5-7 days | Rest 1-2 days; slice cold |
| Cheddar & hard cheese | 2-4 hours | Nothing - keep it cool | Wrap and rest 1-2 weeks; it mellows |
| Butter | 1-2 hours | Straight from the fridge | Use within the usual dates |
| Garlic & nuts | 2-4 hours | Peel / shell | Jar up once cool |
| Sea salt | 4-8 hours | Spread in a thin layer | Stir hourly for even colour |
Hot smoking: a stovetop smoking oven or BBQ smoker box with fine wood chips. Cold smoking: a ProQ generator with wood dust. Weighing up which path to take? Our hot vs cold smoking kit guide settles it, and best wood chips for smoking matches flavours to foods.
Too much wood or damp chips. A small handful of dry chips gives clean smoke; a smouldering heap gives creosote. Delicate fish shows the difference fastest.
Cold smoking loves winter - low ambient temperatures are exactly what it wants. Hot smoking outdoors takes a little longer in the cold; indoors on the hob nothing changes.
A lidded BBQ can do both - smoker box for hot, ProQ generator for cold. The stovetop oven is hot-only. Everything lives in our food smoking collection.
Home smoking essentials that make the advice easier to put into practice.
