Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> "Sonoran Dude" > wrote
> %<
>> This got me to thinking about burning some herbs on the bottom of a
>> foiled pan (no water, no sand)A guy on the food network was showing how
>> you can use some old dried herbs to add a unique smoke to food on a
>> stove top... this maybe something I want to experiment with.. Anyone try
>> burning some herbs in the cooker? The only herbs i have smoked are
>> inhaled LOL
>>
> I grow a lot of culinary herbs. For the most part the suggestion won't do
> much good, since most of the herbs and leaves you grow are fairly twiggy and
> burn right up. However basil, grown over a full season, yields nice woody
> branching stalks (especially if you keep it trimmed when it tries to
> flower). Its almost like a small tree by fall, and you can get some tasty
> smoke from it. It still won't last nearly as long as wood chunks or log
> sections, so don't put it in until you are ready to start cooking. Otherwise
> I found that the dried leaves are basically useless because they burn up
> instantly, (unless wetted which makes bitter smoke). Winter savory grown as
> a perennial will yield some woody stalks after a couple years but the yield
> is far less than basil, and of course you would need to severely cut back a
> great perennial herb that took quite a bit of time to develop.
>
> I suppose you could wrap any of the dried herbs and stalks in foil and get
> more burn time, but I can't see the twiggy stuff or dried leaves holding up
> very long over a real fire, wrapped or not. If I remember on food network
> they have shown indoor smoking using both wood chips in foil, both in the
> over and on the stovetop, and a stainless smoker which is a deep stainless
> container with a fairly deep perforated insert. They put wood chips in the
> bottom, drop in the insert, then put in the food, salmon in the instances I
> have seen with that device. I can't comment on how dried herbs would perform
> in those devices.
>
> MartyB in KC
>
>
It was from the show the next food channel star or something like that..
It was a competition for an on camera cooking demo. The judges seemed to
like the flavor and he just took some old bottled herbs off the shelf.
The judges seemed to enjoy it but yes it was in a stainless cooker.