Using Liquid Smoke

[Morning Glory]

I would really prefer the natural smoke. We have a friend who cooked barbecue steak that was smoked. He used wood that he had brought, maple maybe. The taste of the steak was pretty good although it smelled too much of the smoke. My husband took home the leftovers and re-heated it the next day. It tasted much better.

My hunch is that any health issues with Liquid Smoke will also be true of natural smoke. The liquid smoke is, it seems, is made directly from the smoke from wood chips which is channeled into a condenser. So really, it is just wood smoke. Perhaps others know more about this.

 

[Berties]

Never used the liquid , and probably never will , I change the wood types or add sugar , play with cures and flavours, even the method, hot or cold , don't need to add another unknown

 

[Morning Glory]

Never used the liquid , and probably never will , I change the wood types or add sugar , play with cures and flavours, even the method, hot or cold , don't need to add another unknown

Well I wouldn't use it either if I had a BBQ to hand, or if it was convenient to smoke food in my kitchen (have done, but its not something I'd do often as I have a very small kitchen). The thing about the liquid smoke is that you can put a tiny drop in something (for example a chilli or a homemade burger) and it will add an authentic smokey taste. And it is, after all, simply condensed wood smoke. Of course, I could use smoked paprika - but the liquid smoke really does taste of wood smoke!

 

[cupcakechef]

I never knew about any dangers of liquid smoke but now I'm kind of worried and probably need to research it more.

We make Hawaiian Kalua pig in our slow cooker pretty regularly and use liquid smoke to achieve that particular flavor that comes with it. Thanks for bringing that to my attention though, it had legimitately never even crossed my mind that there may be health implications from using it.

 

[Corzhens]

I never knew about any dangers of liquid smoke but now I'm kind of worried and probably need to research it more.

We make Hawaiian Kalua pig in our slow cooker pretty regularly and use liquid smoke to achieve that particular flavor that comes with it. Thanks for bringing that to my attention though, it had legimitately never even crossed my mind that there may be health implications from using it.

I see liquid smoke as flavoring and the possible risk did not cross my mind before. But now, that carcinogen thing pops up with the mention of smoke and burning. But anyway, the tradition of the smoked meat is still in practice so it is up to us to choose whethere to avail of the smoke flavoring or be on the safe side. We used to buy the smoked ham which never fails to satiate our taste buds. And that smoked ham is a tradition we inherited from our grandparents. So I'd say smoke flavor is not really that harmful.