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Liquid smoke vs real BBQ

Liquid smoke vs real BBQ
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  • Liquid smoke vs real BBQ

    Post #1 - June 2nd, 2009, 7:43 pm
    Post #1 - June 2nd, 2009, 7:43 pm Post #1 - June 2nd, 2009, 7:43 pm
    Anyone catch this evening's episode of Food Detective on the Food Network? There was a taste test of ribs baked with liquid smoke sprayed on and ribs smoked in a smoker. I couldn't believe 2 of the 3 testers couldn't tell the difference.
    Fettuccine alfredo is mac and cheese for adults.
  • Post #2 - June 3rd, 2009, 12:32 am
    Post #2 - June 3rd, 2009, 12:32 am Post #2 - June 3rd, 2009, 12:32 am
    Did they pick testers who had any real experience with BBQ? I don't think we're born knowing what real smoke tastes like, so if they picked "average diners," then I don't have any problem believing they couldn't tell the difference.
    "All great change in America begins at the dinner table." Ronald Reagan

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  • Post #3 - June 3rd, 2009, 6:23 am
    Post #3 - June 3rd, 2009, 6:23 am Post #3 - June 3rd, 2009, 6:23 am
    I don't even think it's "not knowing the difference"-- I don't think liquid smoke tastes like smoke AT ALL, but I think we all have such strong childhood associations between that kerosene taste and the barbecue holidays that it seems closer to our sense of "cookout" than the actual products of a cookout do.

    It's like when the Jewel house brand of root beer beat Sprecher's in a Trib taste test some years ago-- why shouldn't it? One tastes like the ingredients that go into root beer, fresh and distinct, but the other tastes like root beer in a can like you've had all your life. It's obvious which is closer to the common mental image of root beer.
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  • Post #4 - June 8th, 2009, 12:14 pm
    Post #4 - June 8th, 2009, 12:14 pm Post #4 - June 8th, 2009, 12:14 pm
    If Liquid Smoke is just smoke and water, why is it so reviled? If you put smoke in virtually anything else, such as salt, it's acceptable. Is it the water that makes it bad? :?
    "Good stuff, Maynard." Dobie Gillis
  • Post #5 - June 8th, 2009, 12:28 pm
    Post #5 - June 8th, 2009, 12:28 pm Post #5 - June 8th, 2009, 12:28 pm
    imsscott wrote:If Liquid Smoke is just smoke and water, why is it so reviled? If you put smoke in virtually anything else, such as salt, it's acceptable. Is it the water that makes it bad? :?

    Strictly a guess, but I think it's likely that some of the compounds in smoke are water-soluble, while others may be fat-soluble. So water wouldn't capture as many of those compounds (translating to much inferior depth of flavor) as a hunk of meat, which contains both water and fat. But again - that's just a guess ... any food scientists out there want to provide additional perspective?
  • Post #6 - June 8th, 2009, 4:32 pm
    Post #6 - June 8th, 2009, 4:32 pm Post #6 - June 8th, 2009, 4:32 pm
    It's reviled:

    1) Because it's a shortcut for something people labor to produce honestly and accurately.
    2) Because it's a crappy shortcut that doesn't really taste like what it's imitating.
    3) Because it's usually used with all the subtlety of a 15-year-old boy's first encounter with cologne.
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  • Post #7 - June 8th, 2009, 5:34 pm
    Post #7 - June 8th, 2009, 5:34 pm Post #7 - June 8th, 2009, 5:34 pm
    Mike G wrote:
    3) Because it's usually used with all the subtlety of a 15-year-old boy's first encounter with cologne.


    All three points are quite true, but #3 is probably the biggest reason I can't stand the stuff.
    Steve Z.

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  • Post #8 - June 8th, 2009, 6:32 pm
    Post #8 - June 8th, 2009, 6:32 pm Post #8 - June 8th, 2009, 6:32 pm
    I'm guessing, also, that it isn't exclusively smoke - or they aren't particular about what the smoke is coming from. It has a creosote flavor that tends to overpower stuff even when you only use a little.

    Has anybody tried making AB's homemade liquid smoke?
  • Post #9 - June 8th, 2009, 6:39 pm
    Post #9 - June 8th, 2009, 6:39 pm Post #9 - June 8th, 2009, 6:39 pm
    There are a few hundred different compounds released when a piece of wood is burned, depending on a number of factors such as combustion temperature. The smoke from a cool, smoldering, starved fire is very different from that of a hot fire with plenty of oxygen. These compounds react with the surface of the meat and to, some extent, penetrate beneath the surface. The smoke ring is the most visible cue of these reactions. The nature of these reactions changes as the temperature of the meat increases and its proteins denature.

    The process in which smoke percolates through water to make liquid smoke is ENTIRELY different. The difference in flavor, IMO, is dramatic. Liquid smoke, even in small quantities, makes me gag. OTOH, the acrid flavor of a smoldering, improperly managed fire can also be unpleasant.
  • Post #10 - June 8th, 2009, 8:15 pm
    Post #10 - June 8th, 2009, 8:15 pm Post #10 - June 8th, 2009, 8:15 pm
    Liquid smoke - the best way to ruin a good piece of meat. Runs along the lines of putting capsaicin on your food thinking you can take the heat. Both of these "ingredients" are supposed to be used in doses of 1-2 drops for a foodservice application, but people are so enamored with the novelty of these items that they go overboard, IMO.

    I'm struggling with the idea that using lighter fluid with charcoal briquettes imitates the liquid smoky taste, but liquid smoke tastes like layers of ash have infiltrated the meat, not like having a barbeque at the gas station. And who doesn't love the aroma of gas fumes with your pork shoulder? :wink:
  • Post #11 - June 10th, 2009, 6:31 pm
    Post #11 - June 10th, 2009, 6:31 pm Post #11 - June 10th, 2009, 6:31 pm
    I'd ask bbq bear, he loves the stuff and uses it all the time.

    (That would be sarcasm which hopefully is obvious, but in print, you never know).
    "In pursuit of joys untasted"
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  • Post #12 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:13 pm
    Post #12 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:13 pm Post #12 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:13 pm
    I have a recipe for pulled pork that calls for "smoke." I guess that would be liquid smoke - something I know nothing about. Any suggestions on good brands and where to buy them? Especially in a pulled pork recipe?
  • Post #13 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:18 pm
    Post #13 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:18 pm Post #13 - September 22nd, 2015, 7:18 pm
    cleanplateclub wrote:I have a recipe for pulled pork that calls for "smoke." I guess that would be liquid smoke - something I know nothing about. Any suggestions on good brands and where to buy them? Especially in a pulled pork recipe?

    I'd skip it entirely. The stuff is nasty and worth avoiding. Maybe you can use a genuinely smoked ingredient in its place, like smoked salt in place of salt, presuming the recipe calls for salt.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #14 - September 22nd, 2015, 8:38 pm
    Post #14 - September 22nd, 2015, 8:38 pm Post #14 - September 22nd, 2015, 8:38 pm
    J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT has some ideas about liquid smoke in this article over on SeriousEats.com
    http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/the- ... -ribs.html
  • Post #15 - September 22nd, 2015, 9:00 pm
    Post #15 - September 22nd, 2015, 9:00 pm Post #15 - September 22nd, 2015, 9:00 pm
    Some brands of liquid smoke are just smoke and water; some others have other ingredients (caramel coloring, artificial flavoring), and in some brands, there is no ingredient at all with the word "smoke" in it. It's like real soy sauce versus "soy sauce."

    I have a bottle of Wright's Liquid Smoke, which I bought after checking its ingredients, of which there are just two listed: water and natural hickory smoke concentrate. One bottle lasts me years because I only use it to add a couple of drops to Crock Pot pulled pork. For a pork shoulder weighting 5 or more pounds, one to three drops is plenty; any more than that is too much. The same effect, I suppose could be achieved by adding a barbecue sauce with a smoky flavor*, but I don't like to add the sauce til after the meat is cooled and pulled; that way each person can add whatever sauce he or she likes.

    *But that makes me think, aren't there probably liquid-smokey-like ingredients in a lot of commercial barbecue sauces? Those ones labeled Hickory Flavor, for example? I wonder if we ingest more liquid smoke, especially fake liquid smoke, in various brands of bbq sauce than we think.

    If you're talking about taste and taste tests and such, it seems relevant to me to distinguish between let's-call-it natural liquid smoke and artificial liquid smoke. Or if you don't like calling any of it natural, let's say by the first type I mean just water and smoke and no other ingredients.
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  • Post #16 - September 23rd, 2015, 11:56 am
    Post #16 - September 23rd, 2015, 11:56 am Post #16 - September 23rd, 2015, 11:56 am
    The one thing that bothers me more than liquid smoke is truffle oil.


    .....
    There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. (Poe)
  • Post #17 - September 24th, 2015, 9:45 am
    Post #17 - September 24th, 2015, 9:45 am Post #17 - September 24th, 2015, 9:45 am
    mhill95149 wrote:J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT has some ideas about liquid smoke in this article over on SeriousEats.com
    http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/the- ... -ribs.html


    I left a comment on that article, because I've actually tried the sous-vide-with-liquid-smoke rib treatment before. Didn't really like it. The texture came out very tender and juicy, but it did not have the textural contrast that you get with real BBQ. Smoked spare ribs get a little crustier on the ends, and more tender in the middle, they have chewier sections and softer sections, just a lot more interesting product than the sous vide ribs which came out uniformly soft.
  • Post #18 - September 24th, 2015, 7:23 pm
    Post #18 - September 24th, 2015, 7:23 pm Post #18 - September 24th, 2015, 7:23 pm
    Thanks all! Good advice all around. Katie - it's interesting you use it pulled pork since that was the recipe I was considering. I would have used way more than you suggest so thanks!

    I decided to skip the pulled pork altogether and cook up various sausages from Paulina Meat Market.
  • Post #19 - December 6th, 2022, 12:40 am
    Post #19 - December 6th, 2022, 12:40 am Post #19 - December 6th, 2022, 12:40 am
    Among others here, G Wiv should appreciate this recent video from Ordinary Sausage . . .



    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #20 - May 19th, 2023, 8:24 pm
    Post #20 - May 19th, 2023, 8:24 pm Post #20 - May 19th, 2023, 8:24 pm
    "Glorious Elixir"?!

    Interesting, well-reasoned deep dive by Adam Ragusea . . .


    The original liquid smoke controversy (it's fine, btw)

    I'm unswayed but that certainly doesn't mean he's wrong about it.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #21 - May 25th, 2023, 11:18 pm
    Post #21 - May 25th, 2023, 11:18 pm Post #21 - May 25th, 2023, 11:18 pm
    Oy . . .


    BBQ brisket and chicken made with liquid smoke

    I really enjoy Mr. Ragusea's videos and he's selling hard but I don't think I'm buying. That said, I am tempted to try this, if only as a debunking mission. What a waste of a brisket, I envision.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world

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