Behind the old Smith farmhouse on 78 Milltown Road in East Brunswick is one of the few old smokehouses that are still standing in New Jersey.
George Smith built the smokehouse around 1879 to cure and preserve his meats. The smokehouse is made of brick, and has a gabled roof covered with cedar shingles. There are no windows, and the door is constructed of wood planks.
Inside the smokehouse, large slabs of meat once hung from hooks attached to the smoke-blackened ceiling, and shelves used for storage lined the walls. Fish may also have been smoked.
The wood used for fueling the fire that produced the smoke for the smokehouse came from Smith’s apple trees; apple wood was the wood of choice in smokehouses because it imparted a sweet flavor to cured meats.
The Smith farmhouse is quite spacious. There are three good-sized rooms for displays and lectures, a kitchen for refreshments, and several smaller rooms upstairs for storage and records.
- This information was provided by Ann Alvarez of the East Brunswick Historical Society.
