These different types of smokers and smokehouses are a tool for long term meat preservation that during the process imparts layers of flavors. One of things about living on a homestead that is appealing to many people is that it often forces you to do things that you ordinarily would not think of doing. This includes food preparation, with the limited resources like stable sources of power for cooking and long term preservation of meats, it is necessary to use alternatives. One of the most common ways is smoking and this can be used on most types of freshly slaughtered livestock.