A smokehouse is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

History

Traditional smokehouses served both as meat smokers and to store the meats, often for groups and communities of people. Food preservation

Food preservation

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or slow down spoilage and thus allow for longer storage....

 occurred by salt curing and extended cold smoking for two weeks or longer. Smokehouses were often secured to prevent animals and thieves from accessing the food.

Design and use

Traditionally, a smokehouse is a small enclosed outbuilding often with a vent, a single entrance, no windows, and frequently has a gabled or pyramid style roof. Communal and commercial

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

 smokehouses are larger than those that served a single residence or estate

Estate (house)

An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...

. The use of slightly warmed, dry air from a very slow hardwood fire will ensure the proper drying of meats.