Smoke Is in the Air

Late last summer, when I put a Culinary article on smoked foods onto our 2010 Food Product Design editorial calendar, the aromatic wisps of this trend were already wafting through the industry. And since then, barely a month goes by that I don’t see one of the industry magazines touching on smoked foods. It’s even hitting the popular press. Just this week the food section of the Chicago Tribune ran a bit on smoked foods, highlighting indoor smoking hints and tips. Smoking is hot, and it’s sending signals from coast to coast.

Sure, a handful of staple smoked foods have been hitting the table for ages—sumptuous summertime meats like brisket, that Pacific Northwest staple smoked salmon and its further-wandering cousin trout, and of course ham, sausages and bacon. This latter deliciously fatty bit has gone from smoldering to downright smokin’ in recent years as folks dig into more artisan types and finagle any and every delectable flavor combination known to humankind, combining it with everything from bourbon to chocolate, even topping cupcakes. Bacon is testing the limits of the imagination as it forms the basis of flavored salts and stars in ice cream, even forming the basis for a zero-calorie flavor spray courtesy of David Burke.

But why stop there? I just finished editing the smoked foods article—contributed by a chef from smoked-sausage king Johnsonville—that will run in the next issue of Food Product Design. Our chef-author touches on a wide range of options for taking smoke into new directions, and provides a nice overview of which woods (and even non-wood smoking media, like teas) work with best various meats, seafood items, cheeses, chiles, spices, etc.

A key point made by the chef-author is subtlety, and I think a lighter touch with smoke will dramatically broaden its appeal. I recall the first time I made barbecue sauce from scratch… I must have been around 13, and to bring that outdoors flavor in, I naturally reached for that longstanding kitchen staple, liquid smoke, all in the name of taking some ho-hum oven-roasted chicken into sun-drenched, aromatic, wood-fired backyard territory during the middle of winter. Well, just a few drops too many, and acrid doesn’t even begin to describe it… No amount of brown sugar was going to bring me back to a reasonable level of flavor. Liquid smoke has its place in on the manufacturing table and in the back of the house, but a little goes quite a long way.

When it comes to smoke, subtlety—particularly with fruit woods, as well as maple—can do wonders to accent a wide range of foods. And now’s the time to strike, while the iron is still smokin’ hot.