[CH] Smoking and other deviant pleasures
YYZkid@aol.com
Wed, 27 May 1998 12:46:45 EDT
Judy sent in recipes:
>I was looking for tomatillo recipes and I found these in my file:
I look forward to trying several of them. Thanks...if you're ever in the LI,
NY area, feel free to swing by for a free day of striped bass fishing.
In regards to chile smoking, Bear wrote:
>Soak the wood in water before placing it on the coals so the
>wood will burn slower and create more smoke. The barbecue
>vents should be opened only partially to allow a small
>amount of air to enter the barbecue, thus preventing the
>fires from burning too fast and creating too much heat.
Please indulge me for a spell. Although I've never smoked chiles (that will
soon change) I would strongly advise against over-smoking *any* foods. Until
recently, I used to smoke meats and wonder why they always had a very bitter
flavor. Here's why, according to Clark "Smokey' Hale--author, publisher, and
barbecue chef.
*********************
OUTDOOR COOKING WITH SMOKY HALE
By Smoky Hale
<major snippage>
As more and more people are learning, meat cooked in the smoke stream of
burning wood gets marred with all the cresols and phenols and other
noxious volatiles which make good wood preservatives but don’t taste
very good - even to an unskilled palate. Since early time, even
primitive man with primitive palate learned that food tastes better
cooked over coals than over flames and smoke.
<more snippage>
Regardless of the species of wood, too much smoke is offensive. It is
truly amazing that those whose palates do not rebel at creosote
contaminated meat are the same ones who claim that they can discern the
flavor of grape leaves, wine barrel French oak, Mackintosh apple or June
berry. Fact is that, except for a few wood species, such as hickory and
mesquite, less that 5% of the palates in the world can tell what kind of
wood was used to cook.
It’s time we clear the air with some facts.
Five Reasons why wood coals are superior to flaming wood for cooking:
1. Green woods are 20-40% water. This must be boiled off before the wood
can burn. This means that BTUS (British Thermal Units - a measure of
heat) are used to boil water rather than to cook.
2. Dry wood still has 8-12% moisture and contains many compounds which
must be cooked out - absorbing BTUs - before the temperature can rise.
3. As long as there are moisture and volatiles to boil out, the
temperature cannot rise above the boiling point of the substances.
Therefore, in order to reach broiling temperatures - 5-700 degrees - all
the moisture and volatiles must be driven out. At that point the wood
becomes embers/coals.
4. Successful broiling - steaks, burgers, chops - requires high radiant
heat. Flames of burning wood do not generate radiant heat at
temperatures as high as live embers.
5. In the hours’ long cooking periods, such as roasting and barbecuing,
the smoke flavor in the wood coals is more than ample. Anytime that you
see a full plume of smoke coming out of a barbecue cooker, you know that
the cook in making a serious error.
**************
So there you have it. Bottom line: get your hands on some good hardwood, burn
them down into glowing embers, and smoke away. The smoke stream will be barely
visible, but the flavor is outstanding. I'd be interested in reading your
experiences with smoking.
Check out the entire web page at www.barbecuen.com. After I studied the proper
techniques and applied them to my cooking, my smoked pork chops and beef
briskets have been unequalled in flavor.
And thanks, George Dark, for making me laugh my ass off at work...
>forced to forgo the dynamic balance test
Kid