Anybody smoked salt?


 
J

Jason Hixon

New member
I was thinking about smoking some salt?

I think it would add some nice smokey flavor when cooking not using the grill?

I found a little info online about doing it. It has to be a cold smoke and done alone because the salt will pick up other flavors.

Just looking to see if anybody has done it on here I might try it next week.
 
I have, its not too rough, just takes a while. I spread course sea salt on a couple spatter guards
salt1.jpg


Make a cold smoke generator out of an soup can with some holes drilled it in, a NEW soldering iron, and a good fill of hickory chips
salt3.jpg


Then ever hour or two for 12-18 hours stir the salt and replensish the wood chips.
salt2.jpg


Its the same setup I use to cold smoke cheese, it just takes a million times longer to leave enough smoke deposited on the salt.
 
I'm making this up off the top of my head but you could also try making a solution with salt and water with as much salt as the water will hold, and then boiling that off in a pot inside the smoker and then scraping out the pot. The water might help the smoke infuse the salt that remains.

I disclaim any responsibility if you ruin a pot doing this though!
 
Can you explain the cold smoke generator setup more? I don't quite get the soldering iron...

Is that used to heat the wood chips inside?

I have a similar setup I use for cold smoking cheese, but I end up just firing up 5 coals of charcoal in a soup can with holes.
 
using a NEW soldering iron will heat the the chips to the point of smoking. You have to use a new one since solder contains a lot of bad stuff you would not want on your salt or cheese.

Think of it like a wood burning kit. have you ever seen those kits that you can write on or decorate wood. Those are basically a soldering iron. they heat up pretty hot but will not heat up the WSM very hot perfect for cold smoking.
 
ok, I got that, but in the pic, are the burnt wood chips on the side just the old ones from the first few hours of smoking and the can is really loaded with chips?

Since it gets so hot, I gotta imagine it's burning through some electricity...isn't it more cost effective to light up a few briquets and just drop a few new ones in every few hours while you are adding more wood chips? Or do you just turn that thing on initially to get the smoke going and then turn it off?

I like the splatter guard idea.
 
Oh yeah I suppose the mess in the picture is misleading. The pile of chips is largely spent chips that I just dumped in the kettle when reloading mixed in with a few fresh ones that I dropped when reloading the can. The important thing is your smoke wood chips are in the can with the soldering iron slowly cooking away.

As far as power goes, that is a 30 watt iron. About $5 from the automotive section in walmart. Consider your old style incadescent bulbs are often 60 watts for a comparison. An added bonus is I don't have to tend a fire and try to keep it low when smoking cheese. Ymmv.

On a side note, I forgot to mention that I loaded the can up with lump and hit it with a hairdryer for a cherry red burn off of any protective coatings in it before using it.
 
I know everyone likes to do things ourselves, but you can always order some smoked salt from spicebarn.com. They have a lot of great spices and they ship out next day. Also, you can buy in bulk and the prices are very reasonable.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Derek Yoder:
I know everyone likes to do things ourselves, but you can always order some smoked salt from spicebarn.com. They have a lot of great spices and they ship out next day. Also, you can buy in bulk and the prices are very reasonable. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
"Contains: Salt, Hickory Flavored MaltoDextrin, Caramel Color, and less than 2% Silicon Dioxide for free flow.
"

I'd like to do a side by side comparison of that and my product.
 
I think I am going to try doing it myself. There is a good spice company near where I live (Chicago Spice House) to get cool stuff like that but I am the kind of guy that would rather do it myself.

Thanks for the info though
 
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