Up in Smoke: Unleashing Bold Flavors in Your Kitchen
There’s something undeniably tantalizing about smoky flavors in food that are reminiscent of campfires and barbeques. Adding a touch of smoke can transform a simple dish into an elevated dish with flavors that transforms with a deep, complex richness. Although most associate smoking techniques with using a smoker or grill, you don’t need to have elaborate tools to achieve that distinctive taste. Many chefs and culinary professionals have explored new ways to achieve that same flavor in simplified methods that allow anybody to bring that beloved depth no matter your kitchen setup.
Here are some of the easiest ways you can add smoky flavors to your cooking at home:
Smoked Spice and Seasonings: The easiest way to introduce smoky flavors into your cooking is by using smoked spiced and seasonings. You can find smoked spices like smoke paprika, smoked salt, and chipotle powder at grocery stores, making this an accessible way to add bold flavors. These ingredients are smoked during the drying process which then gives a robust and smoky essence to any dish.
Liquid Smoke: This is another ingredient that can be found a grocery stores that give a potent smoky flavor. Liquid smoke is created by condensing the smoke from burning wood- a little goes a long way! You can easily add this to marinades, sauces, stews, and much more.
Smoking with a Smoking Gun: A very handy kitchen gadget for smoke flavor enthusiast is a smoking gun. This gadget is typically handheld and allows to smoke food and drinks quickly and easily without having a large elaborate smoker set up at home. You can easily add a touch of smoke to food and drinks by loading the smoking gun with your favorite wood chips, light it and letting the smoke infuse for a few minutes in a covered container you can fill with smoke.
Adding Smoke into Everyday Ingredients: An innovative way to bring smoky flavors is to incorporate a smoking process into the ingredients you plan on using for your recipe. For example, you can cold smoke butter that you can then utilize in your cooking process such as finishing steaks, spreading it to warm bread, toss with pasta, etc. Another great example would be to smoke water and using that water to make ice cubes to use for cocktails. This is especially effective in creating a Smoky Old Fashion Cocktail- as the ice melts, the smoky flavor will diffuse into the drink.
Smoke is definitely a unique flavor profile that more people are starting to experiment and incorporate more into their cooking. At The Wild Thyme Company, we have some menus that feature different smoked items including a wine barrel smoked tri-tip and when requested, we also can create specialty cocktails that uses a smoke top to individually infuse each drink.
Whether you’re a home cook who likes to experiment with flavors or
