Smoked Sea Salt

I tried smoking some coarse sea salt last weekend with a pretty good result. Used a sheet of aluminium foil with folded edges for a "tray" and put a thin layer of salt on it. Then while I was making some beer can chicken I left it on the grate away from the bird (but in the smoke). It took on a nice brownish grey color and I used a little in some sauteed snow peas... it added a nice "outdoor" smokiness to an "indoor" meal.
Comments? Suggestions?

Joe,

Good going! FWIW, if you liked your results and are interested in pursuing salt further, you might try this...

Use a large flake style of salt or one that is coarse. The smoke adheres to it better.

Smoke at lower temps <275

Longer smokes may prove beneficial. It may be due to the fact that salt is hard and the smoke has a more difficult time adhering to the surface. You can't form a pellicle on salt.

Don't smoke salt with meats. Salt will pick up other flavors.

Experiment with various woods. Include used oak barrel wood that held wine or liquor if you can find it.

Play with it and enjoy. If you smoke more, please give us a review.

Paul

thanks, Paul. Could you gimme a link for the oak barrel wood?

You pretty much have to surf around and find good deals. Oak barrel wood is a specialty item so it's not necessarily offered by the regular wood suppliers. Here's one link for oak wine barrel chips. Remember with 'chips', you should wrap them in heavy duty foil and then pierce the foil a few times. This will allow the chips to smolder as opposed to burning off real fast. Here's one for Jack Daniels oak chips. The Jack Daniels chips are much easier to find.

Paul