Did you know that we can use smoke as an ingredient? Smoke has a preservative, bacteriostatic and bactericidal action, and today it is widely used as a technique and way of flavoring ingredients and bringing unusual experiences!
Our ancestors' mastery of fire gave us an opening to what we know and have achieved in gastronomy today, but more and more we are exploring the alternatives that not only fire itself gives us, but also what it produces as a consequence, such as smoke, which back then, in the absence of refrigeration, was used as a food preservation technique
There are basically four ways of smoking and, consequently, of adding smoke to gastronomy. These are
Hot smoking
It is the process that takes place at a temperature of over 65 degrees inside a smoker, smokehouse or industrial stove, giving it its characteristic smoky flavor, color and texture.
Cold smoking
It is a process that smokes without exposure to heat, usually at temperatures below 32°C. It produces a more intense and faster smoked flavor, as well as allowing the smoking of ingredients that cannot be heated without losing their properties, shape and texture, such as alcoholic beverages, cheeses and sensitive fruits, as it does not involve cooking the food.
Smoking with products (liquid and powder smoke)
It is used as an alternative to impregnate the smoked flavor in a more controlled way, but at the same time instantly.
Liquid smoke is a natural product obtained by vaporizing water and condensing the smoke from burning wood, and powdered smoke is the condensation of this liquid smoke.
Pitsmoker
Smoking guns or glasses and jars of liquid or powdered smoke can bring more interaction between the senses and new experiences to gastronomy, and not just what was brought to us when we learned to master fire!
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