Chatty Cathy wrote:

> I am curious about "liquid smoke"... I have seen quite a few RFC-ers
> talk about it, but its not something I have tried or seen over here.
> Does it really make the meat taste like it was done on an open grill
> as some of the sites I found claim? (I had to google to find out what
> the heck it was. LOL.)

No.... not by the proverbial long shot. Liquid smoke should more properly be
called liquid creosote.

Let me divert here a bit. Grilling, or the "open grill" flavor actually has
little to do with wood flavor and is more about the caramelization of the
meat and the aromatics of the vaporized fat which then coats the meat. By
definition, grilling simply doesn't have time to properly pick-up and absorb
much, if any, wood smoke for proper flavoring. Grilling is my favorite way
of cooking things like steak, burgers and sausages; leaner and tender meats
are great for grilling, but would be ruined by bbqing them.

In BBQ the wood smoke does two distinct flavor things. One *is* the smokey
flavor, a flavor that -- when done correctly -- blends into the the meat so
well that smoke flavor has indistinct margins of where it begins and where
the flavor of the meat begins. Smoke should only enhance the flavor of the
meat, it should not overwhelm it.

The second is the contributing flavors -- apart from smoke -- that creates
distinct variations in tastes when applied to meat. Each wood contributes
unique characteristics: spiciness, nuttiness, earthiness, sweetness,
bitterness, etc. If you use apple wood to bbq a pork shoulder, the meat will
have a different flavor and aroma then if you use hickory. With hickory, you
get more of a bacon-like flavor.

To a pit-master, wood smoke is treated like a spice. The amount of smoke to
allow, the amount of smoke exposure for different woods, the type of meat vs
types of wood, the moisture of the wood, whether to use or not use wood with
bark attached, whether or not to pre-burn some wood to charcoal first, when
or if to add moisture to the fire, etc., etc. The pinkish-red smoke ring you
see in bbq is the mark of something special.

That don't come in no steekin' bottle :-)

--
Dave
www.davebbq.com