Omelet wrote:

> <laughs> True. ;-) The nitrate vs. nitrite thing is something I grew
> up with. Taught to me by my sainted mom.
>
> If you can give me references to prove her wrong, I'm always willing to
> be re-educated...
>
> As far as abalone go tho', I'd not want to ever slow smoke them. When I
> was a small child, mom and dad used to take us to the Tide Pools on the
> west coast when Abalone were more common. They would build a pit fire
> and grill the fresh caught abalone in their shells and serve them with
> lemon and butter. Quick cooked like that, they were delectable and a
> precious memory!
>
> A lot of seafood benefits from quick cooking. Squid and abalone are
> distantly related as mollusks:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid
>
> Squid benefits from hot and fast cooking, so do other mollusks. 2
> minutes max. Anything over that and they'll need to be cooked for a much
> longer time as they will turn tough at one point.
>
> Smoking is a longer process. To me, that'd be a waste of perfectly good
> abalone but as always, YMMV!
>

As I said, if you go past the initial "hot and fast" window
you have to then go all the way to an hour or more, at which point
it begins to tenderize. Did you look at the link I posted?

Another example:

Scungilli alla Sorrentina
Mario Batali
<http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/molto-mario/scungilli-alla-sorrentina-recipe/index.html>

> If the OP does smoke them, I'm interested in his results...

The OP was yours truly and they came out great.


--
Mort