Something disturbing in my grocery store....

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nickbailey

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Apr 29, 2006
91
10
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
...I was walking down the condiments isle of my local grocery store, only to come across something fairly shocking.

Liquid Hickory Smoke....You marinade/rub it on any desired meat and you instantly have smokey hickory flavouring on your meat....I find this actually, alittle sad.

Sorry I do not have a photo, if I get around to it i'll take a picture of it in the store.
 
I admit I use this. When I cook burgers in the house (skillet) I use a little liquid smoke so it taste okay to me. I tried a little in a doctored BBQ sauce on ribs or somethng, and every persone who tasted it, told me there was too much smoke on the meat. now, I just use it in the house, when i either can not get out to cook, or don't want to go out to cook.
 
I use it strictly for stuff like sauces, chili, stews, redbeans...stuff like that.
I would never try to replace real smoke flavor in meat with the stuff, but if I'm cooking something up on the stove, I won't hesitate.

I saw an episode of Good Eats where he made some homemade liquid smoke..not tough to do, but a bottle only runs a buck or two.

-Rock-
 
I've been using this product for years, whever the sink gets stopped up.

man_bottles.jpg
 
To be honest, when starting on the ECB, I used to add this to the water I soaked my hickory chunks in.

I stopped soaking the chunks ages ago.

I know alot of folks who use it to make BBQ sauce, and I actually like one made in Columbia MO called "Show Me" sauce. If you ever purloin a bottle, be sure to try the meat loaf recipe on the bottle. Guy only makes small batches to control the quality. He's 80 something, and refuses to sell the recipe and go big time.
 
I've used it as part of a jerky marinade. This was before learning about doing it in a smoker, but back when I just dried it on the fan.
 
I've used Wright's liquid smoke for years, 'cause Mom always had a bottle in the kitchen.

Wright's at least is made from real wood smoke so I don't see it as "cheating or artificial" as long as it's used as an ingredient to further flavor something, not as an excuse to call something BBQ'd.

I use a tsp or two in an 8oz spray bottle of cider vinegar to wet down meats before applying rub. Mom used to prep briskets this way for cooking inside or on the grill. The smell of it mixed with vinegar brings back fond memories of my Mom' cooking so I use it nearly every cook. Not enough you'd ever taste it, in the finished product, just enough to smell good to me during the prep.

I always use a bit in my beans and it's a specified ingredient in my recipe for bbq meatballs.

For a little smoke flavor in inside cooked foods I more often use hickory salt from Watkins, mostly due to convience.
 
I've used a little liquid smoke with canned salmon and cream cheese to make a quick smoked salmon dip. It's not bad in smoked jalapenos.
Googling liquid smoke recipes will give you an idea of what a lot of others are doing with it.

Is anyone using smoked pepper or any of the smoked sea salts in their barbecuing?
 
I've never used it in my smoking, but indoor cooking I do use it. Baked beans especially. I think all they do is smoke hickory wood and liquid condeses and they capture that and put it bottles. Try a drop or two in deviled eggs...
 
I use a little bit of liquid smoke ..I just put a little dab behind each ear before I go shopping for the BBQ .. it drives the female fire fighters wild! :)

aardvarknav, I use smoked peppers in my Q. I haven't smoked sea salt or Kosha salt yet but it's on my list.

Joe
 
JoeD617, The smoked pepper is just coarsly ground black pepper that has been smoked. It was written up fairly well in an LA Times food article. The only place I've found that sells it is Chefscatalog.com. It's not bad, but its easy to overuse it. They also had a smoked salt that I ordered. It was more like smoked kosher salt. I have'nt been as impressed with that. However, my son-in-law had a small jar of smoked sea salt that was outstanding. Its almost good enough to eat by iteslf. There are several sources for different smoked sea salt, but they are expensive in the range of $15 for 3 or 4 ounces. I put both the smoked pepper and smoked salt in the same category as the liquid smoke. I wouldn't use them consistently, but there are occasional uses where they come in handy. I haven't used the smoked pepper in a brine yet, but might try it on something I might grill rather than smoke.
 
aardvarknav, We use sea salt regularly here and like it much better we use a salt grinder at the dinner table. If I were to smoke salt I would do the sea salt <when I smoke the bacon this weekend I'll try smoking the sea salt and let you know how it turns out> I never thought of smoking cracked pepper. I'm thinking my arm would get tired using the pepper mill to get enough pepper so I may try that also and use my coffee grinder. I have however smoked habinero's and jalepino's and finished drying them in the oven, We use a motar to grind those peppers up and we add those to our sauces a little of the habinero goes a long way. Thanks for the web site also, I'll have to check it out, I may have seen smoked sea salt at Whole Foods but everything there is expensive so we usually just buy our meats and veggies there.

Again, Thanks for the info,


Joe

PS: There was a show on FoodTV about differnt salts and how they were used on differnt foods to enhance the flavor. It was an interesting show.
 
I saw the TV show. The major cooking magazines have had articles on sea/smoked salts also. I guess its politically correct to get the expensive sea salts, but the cost outweighs the benefits as far as I'm concerned. The one smoked spice we haven't talked about yet in this thread is smoked paprika. I used that much more consistently. The smoke flavor is more subtle, but I used it in a variety of recipes. For BBQ, I use it in rubs and sauces.
 
I have to ask, Do you smoke you own paprika? I'm with you on the salts being so expensive and the cost out weights the benefits. This is an interesting subject and should possibly have it's own thread.

Joe
 
A simple method for smoking whole peppercorns, kosher and sea salts is to pour some in a peice of cheesecloth (usually found on the baking isle at the Grocery store), tie the cloth into a bag and set or hang from a smoker shelf where it will catch plenty of smoke. Most smoke flavored salts that I have seen have been Hickory but with your own woods, you can make up your own flavored salts and pepper.
 
Dutch, I would have to crack the peppercorns first? I think next year I'm going to try to grow some paprika peppers and smoke them .. I have habanero, Jalepino, and goat peppers smoke and dried .. a few jars each .. My wife dries mushrooms in the fridge in a paper bag and then I smoke'm to finish them off .. I think I'm going to get into smoking more spices when I have extra room on the smoker .. BTW It's smokin Bacon saturday .. 6lbs ... cured and no nitrates .. <can ya tell how excited I get about smokin the bacon>


Joe
 
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