" smoke powder "

[cal1956]

on a previous thread i asked if anyone had used " liquid smoke " and someone mentioned something called " smoke powder" and i decided to try that instead of " liquid smoke "the following is what i did :
i ground 16 lbs of Boston Butts and weighed out 1 lb, and seasoned it like i normally do , then i added 1/8 teaspoon of smoke powder , mixed it well and made and cooked a small patty , when i tasted it the smoke flavor WAS present BUT it was on the light side, so i added another 1/8 teaspoon giving me 1/4 teaspoon per pound of sausage , made another patty and tried again, this time the smoke flavor was right where it should be .....good smoke flavor and it DID NOT taste fake !!
not wanting to trust my own taste buds, i made the rest of the 1 lb mix that i had stuffed it in hog casings just like i always do when i " smoke sausage " but instead of smoking it i simply fried it and took the cooked sausage to where 3 friends work that have been eating my smoked sausage for years and asked them to try it , only telling them that i had made a "slight" change to my recipe .
the 1st words out of the mouth of one of them was "GREAT SMOKE FLAVOR " all of them agreed that this sausage was as good as any they had ever eaten and all wanted to know what was different about it as it tasted as good or better than what i had been making ,
only then did i tell them that this sausage had NOT been smoked at all !!! and told them what i had used.....to sum it all up , the "powdered smoke " surprised me to say the least !!!!
for the remaining 15 lbs of ground meat i added 3 1/2 teaspoons of the powdered smoke and stuffed as usual ( came out tasting great !!)

 

[SmokinEdge]

on a previous thread i asked if anyone had used " liquid smoke " and someone mentioned something called " smoke powder" and i decided to try that instead of " liquid smoke "the following is what i did :
i ground 16 lbs of Boston Butts and weighed out 1 lb, and seasoned it like i normally do , then i added 1/8 teaspoon of smoke powder , mixed it well and made and cooked a small patty , when i tasted it the smoke flavor WAS present BUT it was on the light side, so i added another 1/8 teaspoon giving me 1/4 teaspoon per pound of sausage , made another patty and tried again, this time the smoke flavor was right where it should be .....good smoke flavor and it DID NOT taste fake !!
not wanting to trust my own taste buds, i made the rest of the 1 lb mix that i had stuffed it in hog casings just like i always do when i " smoke sausage " but instead of smoking it i simply fried it and took the cooked sausage to where 3 friends work that have been eating my smoked sausage for years and asked them to try it , only telling them that i had made a "slight" change to my recipe .
the 1st words out of the mouth of one of them was "GREAT SMOKE FLAVOR " all of them agreed that this sausage was as good as any they had ever eaten and all wanted to know what was different about it as it tasted as good or better than what i had been making ,
only then did i tell them that this sausage had NOT been smoked at all !!! and told them what i had used.....to sum it all up , the "powdered smoke " surprised me to say the least !!!!
for the remaining 15 lbs of ground meat i added 3 1/2 teaspoons of the powdered smoke and stuffed as usual ( came out tasting great !!)

No offense, but this kinda reminds me of the intense chip flavor craze. The thought starts out to use enough to get your attention but ends with the idea that “ if a little does a little good, then a lot will do a lot of good. Flavor enhancers never end it seems.

I promise you, sausages smoke correctly can never be imitated, but you could create your own smoke profile and be great with that, but it will never be a smoked sausage.
Again I don’t mean to be negative, I just don’t believe in short cuts. These thoughts are mine, and mine alone.

 

[cal1956]

thats what I used to think !!!! lol trust me when i say no one was more surprised than me ! as i have learned , "powdered smoke " IS real smoke , just concentrated and distilled into a powder , one could argue that its even a better and more efficient way to marry smoke to meat ...even the best smoker can only smoke the meat so deep , but using a real powdered smoke concentrate you can get REAL smoke all the way through the sausage
i don't use a bunch of buzz words like " smoke profile" or "flavor profile " i only go by "what works and what tastes good "

 

[bigal162]

What brand of powdered smoke did you use?

 

[cal1956]

the name of it is "spice lab " bought it on Amazon,
the people that i tried it on have been eating my smoked sausage for many years . they know smoked sausage when they taste it and if they couldn't tell it didn't come out of my smoker .....no one can !!

 

[cal1956]

i understand folks questioning this ( i did ) but i can tell you this :
i have been smoking meats for 40 years and have probably smoked more meat than at least 90% of the folks on here
i know how to smoke meat and what it tastes like.
i started this quest because i WAS looking for a short cut for a special rather large project and wanted a way to reduce the processing time, at 1st i asked about the liquid smoke but i wasn't sure that was what i was looking for so i saw this and tried it , all i can tell you is that it works , i think by over using it you would get bad results . and with that said , i now KNOW that if used properly you can get some amazing results

 

[chef jimmyj]

I came across Smoke Powder about 10 years ago from a Spice vendor I was buying from. Like any Spice or Additive, Powdered Buttermilk for Tang rather than adding a Culture and Fermenting, Smoke Powder does a Job. Will it fool KCBS Judges? Probably not but Bottom Line, if YOU and your's are happy with the flavor? Use It! I can tell you from experience, Smoke Powder beats the Hell out of feeding wood to an Offset, to make Christmas Kielbasa, in 0°F Winds!...JJ