No Smoke without Flavor
Cigarette smoking is not as bad as was characterized in many studies by anti-tobacco researchers.
In modern society, smoking cigarettes has nearly become damnation, but smoking foods were more in vogue than ever. In general smoke is consider to be the fifth flavor with the capability to transform, contrast with and accentuate the food that has been exposed to it, whether that is salmon, pork, fruit, chili peppers or tea.
In cookery, smoke is the door to another room, an active, misty space that is at once promising and almost infinite, yet also dark and dangerous.
In our days, smoking is done mainly for flavor, or rather for the distinctive aroma compounds it gives. Smoking has been a part of our cooking for as long as we know. For example, our ancestors used smoke as a way to conserve food. They hanged meat or fish over an open fire, for to speed the drying process and keep flies away. And after prolonged smoking, the meat would be not only dry but also covered in substances with the dual ability to kill bacteria and form an impervious stratum that sealed out air and therefore protected against deterioration.
In the past the flavor was only a pleasant side effect in a world where pleasure always came second to survival. For example in Norway the smoking of foods became a rule not an exception. Such a food preparation was not until the 18th and 19th centuries.
Today very few people know what make smoked foods so appetizing. Even though, people like to smoke cigarettes and to be exposed to smoke, and with such great pleasure. They like this only because it is genetically implanted in human body from a time when all cooked food was slightly smoked and all uncooked food was unsafe.
Smoked food does allow for more and different flavors. Few tasty dishes do not benefit from the supplement of a little bacon. But the smoking process itself seems inaccessible and mysterious to many home cooks.
A scientist narrated in an article: “I discovered the joy of smoking (food) by chance about 10 years ago, on a visit to the basement of the apartment block where I was living. There, in searching for the water main, I found a dark room, one of those places that give you the shivers but also a vague, exciting feeling that a treasure might be nearby.
“And so it was. After I flicked the light switch, the room remained nearly as dark as before: The walls were completely covered in tar. I had come across the smoking room of a long-abandoned butchery. The smokers there still seemed to work, so I bought some wood shavings, returned and started a fire. On my trial run, I set off the fire alarm at 11 p.m., resulting in a rear court full of sleepy and worried neighbors.
But after I started closing the door more efficiently, I quickly progressed. With professional-grade equipment, smoking was not difficult, and in the following months I exposed everything but my neighbors to my new hobby: curing my own bacon and smoked salmon and also lamb shanks, cheese and even an ice cream base, in a strange and not altogether unsuccessful attempt at smoked vanilla ice cream.
“The most surprising result was a green apple that managed to remain as fresh as ever, its characteristic cool, crisp acidity combined with deep, rich smokiness reminiscent of an Islay malt whiskey.”
The smoking mystery from the past will never come back, because it has too many enemies who want to remove it from the World.
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
google_ad_client = “pub-0556070842124237″;
/* info site medium 468×60, created 6/11/09 */
google_ad_slot = “1869336094″;
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//–>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”
src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>
</script>
