The illustration depicts the structure of a home smokery and the steps involved in smoking fish and meat. Overall, this process comprises three main stages: air enters the structure from outside, a fire is lit inside an underground chamber, and the smoke is channelled through a pipe into an overhead box, where the food is smoked.
First, air continuously flows in from outside through an opening beneath a sloped lid into the first underground chamber, before moving into the second chamber where a stack of logs is set alight to produce smoke. The second chamber, like the first, is covered by a lid and positioned below ground level.
At the following stage, the smoke travels through a pipe into a brick-lined chamber before rising into the box situated above ground level. There, fish and meat are hung from a horizontal frame inside the covered box, allowing them to be exposed to the smoke.