Not just another smoking wood thread

interesting, what kind of flavor do you get off of driftwood?  hot dogs cooked on coat hangers over a beach bonfire always taste better, but I don't think that's the driftwood.  is the smoke more influenced by the original wood or the sea water?  I would think sea water would be better than just water with sea salt, you'll get all of those other minerals and organic duff that give sea water it's briny, not just salty flavor.  I can't imagine just salt water influencing the smoke from wood.

Brining wood now - good stuff. Let us know what you find out. 

have never used drift wood have dragged rock weed out of the ocean though and smoked on that

Salt's not going anywhere. It'd just be left behind. Won't magically flavor the air

i can't understand the logic honestly. Sea salt is given mythical health properties and there are supposed flavor differences. Salt is salt, and the mineral content for most of these is minor. But even if it were so, the smoke won't have this flavor. 

So basically you have a piece of wood which got into the ocean in an unknown way.  It has had much of it's own tannins and 'flavor' leached out by sun and brine, and whayever flavor it picks ip from salt can't be transferred to the meat. 

Call me debbie downer, but i'd want to hear objective results. Humans are really bad at saying "this thing tastes subjectively better than the thing i had a week ago under totally different circumstances"

hell. New englander here. We cook lobster, fish, corn etc by building a fire with rocks, smothering it with seaweed (far more organics and brine in that then in driftwood) and no one says "that tastes much better than simply steaming it". 

Nah. It's the idea and romance of it that colors the perception. 

that's just my inherently skeptical, logic-based thinking. Value of said opinion? If you agree with it, high. If not, valueless. 

They don't when you use seaweed in much larger amounts for a clambake. 

st¡ke said:

They don't when you use seaweed in much larger amounts for a clambake. 

what it will do is make your egg stink

@ChillyWillis your comment about boiling in seawater versus steaming with seawater is my point in a nutshell

boiling will immerse the food in the brine. Steaming it leves all that behind and merely steams the food with (essentially) distilled water. Steam won't have those funky brine elements

@st¡ke very true. I should have been more clear. I wasn't saying that the additional flavor I find in a lobster bake came from the steaming seaweed, simply that I enjoy the flavor more. I find that you get a bit more of the flavor you find when you cook lobster over a dry heat, like over charcoal. 

NPHuskerFL said:

Thanks for all the above valid opinions. The experiment is just that. I wouldn't expect a soak in the Atlantic would give the smoke an edge over non driftwood so to speak. But, surely driftwood does impart give different flair in flavor whether using smoking or hotter. My co-worker used a sea salt brine and didn't say it gave a salty flavor just a different smoke in comparison to non brined. What's the objective or point?  Why not is what I say. The curious part to me would be a piece of driftwood on a beach that is quite possibly decades old or older would to me logically give off different flavor in the end vs a week or two week brine in ocean water. 

following stike's logic, this is probably more about what's being removed or leached from the wood that transforms it than what is being added.  who knows, maybe you could tame some mesquite by soaking it in some ocean water in the sun for a month or three.

The species of wood and having (or not) contaminants such as creosote or mold are gonna impact the flavor in the food from its smoke.  The salt ain't going nowhere.