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About the Cold Smoking Wood Dust Variety Pack

Cold smoking needs fine wood dust rather than chips. This pack gives you four woods to start with: apple, a sweet fruit wood; oak and maple, two classic all-rounders; and hickory, a bold, smoky hardwood.

Each bag holds enough dust for one level fill of a standard ProQ cold smoking maze, so loading up is simple. The same dust also works in hot smoking ovens.

Wood dust is much finer than wood chips, and that's what makes it work in a maze. It smoulders slowly along the channels rather than burning quickly, giving a thin stream of cool smoke for several hours. ProQ rates a fill at up to 10 hours with its own dust; ours varies with the wood, how level it is and how dry it is. Retailers of ProQ mazes often find oak and maple among the easiest dusts to keep lit. If apple or hickory goes out, dry it, press it down lightly, or lay it over a thin base of oak.

The four woods cover a good range, from mild fruit woods to hickory and oak smoking dust for a stronger result. Apple and maple are milder and sweet, and they're a good place to start with cheese. Oak is a dependable all-rounder that goes well with oily fish such as salmon and mackerel (freeze wild fish like mackerel before cold smoking it: Food Standards Scotland's rule for businesses is -20°C for 24 hours, colder than most home freezers are set). Hickory is the strongest, with a bacon-like character, so it's better saved for meat once you know how much smoke you like.

Food-safety note: cold smoking adds flavour, but it doesn't cook food. Cheese, butter, nuts and salt need no curing. Salmon and pork must be cured before smoking, using a tested recipe, and bacon and sausages must be cooked afterwards. Freeze wild fish first to kill parasites, keep food chilled and don't smoke above 32°C, as ProQ's manual advises. The Food Standards Agency advises pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems to avoid ready-to-eat cold-smoked fish, and older people to be aware of the risks.

If the dust has picked up damp and won't stay lit, dry it first, as ProQ suggests: 30 seconds in the microwave, or about 30 minutes on a tray in a low oven. Store the bags somewhere dry between smokes.