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Burning Things
Image by Julian BurgessI've been thinking about smoked food lately. This might be because I have several pounds of beef back ribs in my freezer. I was wondering what sort of wood to use to smoke them with... when I asked myself, why does it have to be wood?
Wood certainly isn't the only thing that burns and gives off smoke. Right? Some things will burn and give off nasty smoke, but I'm sure that there are some sorts of non-woodsmoke out there that would result in perfectly tasty food.
What about woody herbs like rosemary? What about spices? Cinnamon sticks, cracked nutmeg, and whole seeds (cumin? mustard?) seem like possibilities. What about dried fruits or vegetables? Nuts? Dried flowers? Tea? Herbal teas?
I don't know what the results would be, but I am curious.
Is this a technique that is used?
Herbs like rosemary are often added to woodsmoke for flavor. My guess is that most simply don't burn well enough to do the job otherwise so you'd need to add charcoal or something. And unless you have A LOT it would cost a fortune.
It's used widely. Search around and you'll see plenty of chefs using vaporizers and smoke guns to inject smoke from all sorts of things into, onto, and around food items.
A couple examples I've seen lately:
Lavender, just for aroma
Infusing cinnamon into vodka
I have actually heard of plenty of these things. I think I was just coming at it from... maybe a more conventional standpoint? As cool as they are, do we really need smoke guns and fancy gadgets to smoke things with unusual flavors?
You may recall some burning orange peel - though it wasn't set on fire, it was caramelaserized.
Actually, the fact that is wasn't burning is relevant here. That wasn't smoke, per se.
I hear corn cobs are good. A friend of mine threw some ginger on the coals and it was good. As for teas, Ive been thinking about cooking pasta in smoke tea but not the other way around. Ill let you know how it goes.
Tea smoking is popular in Asian cuisine.
The use of branches of fragrant rosemary and oregano for smoking smoking meat, poultry, or fish goes back hundreds of years.
(There's a good page about using rosemary for food smoking at http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2001/0901/kgk091501.html )