Fort Yargo's Smokehouse

Before refrigeration, smokehouses preserved meat or fish with smoke and salt so food would last through winter. In early winter, farmers butchered animals, and in the South excess meat was usually smoked or salted rather than frozen. Meat was cured in two steps: fresh cuts such as hams, shoulders, and roasts were packed in coarse salt for about six weeks to draw out water, then hung while a smoldering fire of freshly cut wood, especially hickory and oak, burned for one to two weeks, producing dried, smoke-flavored meat that could remain edible for about two years. Early settled areas often had log or stone smokehouses because sawmills and brick kilns were absent; later, brick smokehouses were preferred for durability, though plank structures remained cheaper. Winter food also came heavily from hunting, since few families could slaughter enough livestock to feed themselves all year, and settlers and frontiersmen, including some children as young as six or seven, learned to use rifles and muskets to bring in turkeys, small game, and deer. Fort Yargo's smokehouse is a reconstruction built by the men of the Living History Society, who used eighteenth century tools when possible, with a grindstone helping keep tools sharp and a blacksmith making its hooks.

Winder, Georgia · United States