The Smokehouse is a food preservation building, taking the Meat and Fish produced by the Hunter Cabin, Fishing Shack and Barn and converting them into their smoked equivalents.
This conversion is a significant extension to the life of the foodstuff, taking meat and fish from a base lifespan of 3 and 2 months respectively to a full 24 months for each in their smoked form. This radical extension in food lifespan serves the Settlement well regardless of size and tier, and will remain a fixture even into late-game.
Basic Strategy
As negative-Desirability buildings, Smokehouses should be placed near meat and fish-producing buildings and away from residential areas to limit travel time and Desirability impacts, though the relatively small radius of effect makes this an easy task to accomplish.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Smokehouse workers by default will try to produce fish and meat in equal measure, and will try to strictly adhere to this 1:1 ratio unless altered.
As a result of their adherence, the smokehouse worker will complete a batch of meat, then scour the map and wait as long as necessary for sufficient fish to complete a batch of fish before returning to meat.
This waiting behavior can be a source of great inefficiency for smokehouses, so it is recommended to dedicate a smokehouse (using the sliders in the building UI) to either fish or meat, but not both.