Smoke House-Sauer Beckmann Farm

The smokehouse also serves as dry storage.

NPS Photo / Jack Burton

Quick Facts

MANAGED BY:

Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site

Built by the Sauers sometime before 1900, this limestone smokehouse served the farm well. While today it does double duty as a smokehouse and a cool place to store vegetables, the Sauers and the Beckmanns used the downstairs for smoking meat and the upstairs for storage.

To smoke meats like sausage, hams, and bacon, a small bucket is filled with bark and wood chips and placed on the floor. A small fire is set in the bucket, and a lid (one with holes in it) is placed on the bucket. The fire is left to smolder. The meat is typically smoked overnight. Then the meat is left to hang for several weeks as it is cured by the salt mixed with it and the dryness of the smokehouse. Once it is fully cured, the meat is taken and stored in lard or preserved through the canning process.