making liquid smoke?

[cppbrian]

I know that 'liquid smoke' is frowned upon here, but i'm wondering if a water pan with no drippings will take on the flavor of the smoke. Can you use it in recipes when firing up the smoker isn't practical, or to use in sauce. I'm thinking maybe use the water pan water to boil potatoes in or as part of a marinade.
Any ideas or comments?

 

[oneshot]

I have "no idea" I've never been able to make "liquid", "smoke"...lmao

 

[mballi3011]

I don't know if that would work there Brian. But go ahed and give it a shot and let us know. Cause thats one of the tings we do here is try some off the wall things here and see what happens. So go for it and get back with us here.

 

[fire it up]

Don't think that would work, the water pan gets too hot and the liquid would evaporate and if you just had a coating of smoke on it I would think it would have a burnt or off flavor to it.
I think when they make liquid smoke the smoke travels up glass tubes and gets cooled so that it condenses and drips down.
You can always toss a few pans of beef and chicken broth into the smoker and use the smoked broth as a base in many dishes, it gives a great smoky addition to anything you use it with.
If you figure out the right way to do it you could even reduce/evaporate your smoky stock and attempt to make a bouillon type of base.

 

[cppbrian]

oneshot, now you got my engineer mind thinking about making some pure liquid form of the airborne particulate matter that makes smoke smoke... if you heated it up the solid particles to a high enough temperature to produce a liquid form they would probably decompose... but i think too much. :-P

I guess I can try it, i will most likely get drippings in the water pan off this next smoke tomorrow, which will be mostly pork fat.. but that would probably taste good absorbed into whatever i'd be marinating or boiling (but would need to be refrigerated till its used)

 

[gravey]

So..it depends on if you want people to say hey..that guy can make liquid smoke, because otherwise it's not worth your time. Alton Brown did a sideshow in his Jerky episode about making liquid smoke. I believe that he used one of those clay firepits..like the one below. He set a bundt pan on top of the chimney and then covered it with a lid; which in turn was then covered with ice. The concept being that the smoke would go up the chimney, through the hole in the bundt pan, hit the cold lid, and condense the water in the smoke. The condensation would then run down off of the bottom of the lid into the bundt pan, thus liquid smoke. Alton Brown himself said that it really wasn't worth the time and effort, but to each his own, I guess!

 

[meateater]

You would need a still to make liquid smoke I'd think. A side note, I've made smoked salt many a time.

 

[oneshot]

OK Brian, now ya got me confused!!!!!

Here's another thought fer ya ta ponder....

Can a jerk make jerky????? lmao

 

[ddave]

Well, here is a link to how it's made.
http://www.colgin.com/public/lsfaq.aspx#howmade

It's way more complex than smoking a pan of water.

Now you're on the right track. If you foil pork butts or briskets with some liquid, you will get quite a bit of smoky flavored juice (Liquid Gold

). What you don't use with the meat can be frozen in an ice cube tray. Save the cubes and pop one in a pot of beans, stew or whatever you may be cooking that you want to add a smoky flavor to.

Dave