Smoked salt, times two…

BeanHead

Looked at several old forum posts and several recipes online and decided to give this a try. Last weekend my grapevine cooking friend made us steaks for lunch. What I neglected to mention is he smoked a couple pounds of brisket fat trimmings with two broken up heads of garlic and a big handful of rosemary at 350° in a CI Dutch oven, this ended up frying the garlic into crispy chips. He then poached the steaks in the oil at 160° on the smoker followed by a CI sear (excellent steaks). Long story longer, as we were cleaning up we decided to make garlic rosemary salt with the leftovers. It is amazing and reminds me of a smoked rub I have had. So this morning I added a load of corse black pepper to the mix and set up the MM to cold smoke with apple and oak sawdust. Didn’t think it through enough and ended up needing to use three sushi dipping bowls to elevate the rack above the garlic salt mix so I can try smoking regular Maldon sea salt flakes in the same cook. Used my grill mesh to elevate the salt above glass pie plates to avoid cross contamination. Hope this isn’t just a huge mess to clean up this afternoon!

fishlessman

i wouldnt be thinking about the mess, i would be thinking of using the salt in a bloody mary....  make sure to put the salt in a sealed container like a mason jar so the smoke doesnt dissipate.

lousubcap

Creative engineering on display.  Fully expect great results.  

Canugghead

Nice tan on the salt. Have you tried smoked butter yet? It turns crackers into cracks 

BeanHead

Don’t want any early color credit, that tan one is the garlic salt at the start of the cook. Hopefully it will pick up more flavor and color! And yes, I made some clarified smoked butter with a load of garlic on the egg and it is amazing. I’m doing another batch this weekend because a friend ran off with my half jar after trying it on some bread I made. 

RRP

Love smoked salt! Flashback maybe 20 years ago I got to smoking olives and the ones that escaped being eaten right then I would slice for inclusion on pizza or on a speared garnish with Bloody Mary’s which also got shakes from smoked salt.

fishlessman

BeanHead said:

Don’t want any early color credit, that tan one is the garlic salt at the start of the cook. Hopefully it will pick up more flavor and color! And yes, I made some clarified smoked butter with a load of garlic on the egg and it is amazing. I’m doing another batch this weekend because a friend ran off with my half jar after trying it on some bread I made. 

spritzing with water helps.  when i used to do this i found the wetter grey salt takes on better smoke but spritzing is the way around using more expensive salts

BeanHead

Ended up with okay color and excellent smell. We had a very humid morning here so I didn’t add any extra water to the mix. May try spraying it as we get back to our regular RH. Gonna see what a couple folks think of the flavor and may throw it back in for a few more hours. This was with three hours. And @RRP I am now going to be smoking olives soon, it had never crossed my mind (and one of my research areas was olive production). 

RRP

LOL - 24 hours and not one comment about that Texas size roach! Albeit a plastic one.

poster

RRP said:

Love smoked salt! Flashback maybe 20 years ago I got to smoking olives and the ones that escaped being eaten right then I would slice for inclusion on pizza or on a speared garnish with Bloody Mary’s which also got shakes from smoked salt.

Smoked olives sound really good. Did you smoke the ones in oil, or brine?

fishlessman

RRP said:

LOL - 24 hours and not one comment about that Texas size roach! Albeit a plastic one.

are you sure thats not a snack

MaskedMarvel

I did hickory smoked and pecan smoked pink Himalayan one year and gave gifts to friends and family of side by side salt grinders. 

The next Christmas I got three bags of unopened Himalayan pink salt as gifts from those guys lol

I use a mesh pan suspended over an aluminum pan to catch the drop throughs. Shake every 30 minutes or so. Longer the better. 

We mainly use it as a finishing salt, or I frequently plate dishes by doing a quick grind on the plate first, then the food. 

BeanHead

Glad you like my roach clips @RRP 🤣. Mesh pans sound like a great idea @MaskedMarvel also sounds like your salt was a hit! One blog I read used grease splatter protectors but I didn’t have one to use. 

caliking

RRP said:

LOL - 24 hours and not one comment about that Texas size roach! Albeit a plastic one.

They come in other sizes??

BeanHead

Yah @caliking you would LOL at what some folks call a giant roach. Edit… I also have a sis-in-law who is terrified of roaches and almost gave her a heart attack when she opened the whatnot drawer. Now I hide the roach clips prior to her visits. 

RRP

poster said:

RRP said:

Love smoked salt! Flashback maybe 20 years ago I got to smoking olives and the ones that escaped being eaten right then I would slice for inclusion on pizza or on a speared garnish with Bloody Mary’s which also got shakes from smoked salt.

Smoked olives sound really good. Did you smoke the ones in oil, or brine?

No - I preferred to use at least the Queen size pitted but not stuffed. Then I would simply remove them from the brine and not wash them. Then I’d use my p/s legs up and put them on a screen on top of my grate. I tried various woods but I liked hickory for the more robust flavor. Smoke them for an hour to hour 15 at a low 225. They will shrivel up a bit plus the salt in the brine will cause a white cast to the final look.

BeanHead

Thanks for the extra tips Ron!