Do you taste cigarette smoke in food prepared by people smoking cigarettes around the food/while preparing the food? Do you taste smoke in food that has been sitting around smoke, after being prepared? If either answer is ‘yes’, answer ‘yes.’ If either is ‘no,’ please answer ‘no.’
Got screwed on the poll option…guess it’s just open to discussion and no voting…sorry.
i’ve never come across any one that smokes while cooking.
A smoker friend of mine prided himself on being a good cook, but he had lost so much of his own taste that he merely threw together ingredients that sounded good together.
Never tasted it in the food, but certainly tasted it in the flair.
Guys who toss together patty melts while smoking always seem to do it more …naturally.
Who knew?
Well, I smoke in the kitchen. Haven’t had any complaints about dinner, but being this time of year, I smoke while making bourbon balls or rum cakes. Which leads my partner to make comments about ‘being afraid to give the food to anyone, since it will taste like smoke.’ I don’t see it. I smoke above the food and on the other side of the kitchen, so how does the smoke really penetrate the food? Being a smoker, I’d never know. I’m looking for a non-smoker to weigh in here and attest how they can taste smoke contaminated food. Perhaps I won’t find any, as I suspected. I don’t think my partner can really taste smoke either, since he lives with two heavy smokers.
I assure you that you have. Most restaurant kitchens (unless you’re in a non-smoking state or in a non smoking restaurant) are, or at least were full of smoke. It wasn’t that long ago that it would be common to walk into a kitchen and find most of the cooks with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. That mostly stopped as bare hand contact with food got banned and people had to start wearing gloves. But if you’ve ever been in restaurant or bar were smoking was allowed, more then likely the kitchen was full of cigarette smoke as well.
The only way I could possibly see the taste getting into the food would be to purposely do it. Blowing smoke into a bottle of water and shaking it makes that water taste awful…that I know. But frying hamburgers right next to (or above) some broiling fish isn’t going to make my beef taste like seafood. Cooking pasta and meatballs right next to the fryer isn’t going to make it taste like fried food.
I really don’t think someone smoking a few cigarettes in the kitchen is going to make the food taste like smoke. Besides, if they smoke in the house, the house is going to smell like smoke anyways.
I’d bet if you cook/bake something in a house while smoking and do it again while not smoking (even in another, smoke free house) and did a blind taste test, the tester wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
The only way I could see anyone picking something up is if old ingredients were being used. I could see things like flour or dried herbs that have been sitting around for months or years in non-air tight containers may pick up cigarette smoke over time and that may make it into the food. But I’d be surprised if the act of smoking while preparing the food actually made a difference…provided ashes didn’t fall into the food.
Ditto.
My dad usually makes supper, and he’s a smoker, but he doesn’t even smoke inside, let alone while preparing food.
So, my answer to the OP would be “no,” I suppose.
coming from someone who works in a restaurant kitchen, i think the hoods would have taken care of any cigarette smoke lingering into the kitchen. and i don’t know how strict health standards were back when you were allowed to smoke in restaurants, but i would be horrified if you were allowed to smoke in the kitchen. not just from the smoking a cigarette and getting ashes into the food aspect, but touching your mouth and then touching food is a big no-no.
I recall back when smoking was allowed in donut shops, all the pastries that were on the shelves tasted like ashtrays, so yeah, the cigarette smoke can make food taste gross.
Yes, certainly. Mostly in things like bread.
If you deep fry fish and chicken next to each other, though, the chicken will frequently taste like fish.
When I’ve tasted smoke in food, it’s generally because I was eating in a house full of smokers, ranging from heavy smoking to downright chain smoking. And by chain smoking, I mean these people would literally light their next cigarette from the butt of the previous one. So, maybe the food itself tasted of smoke, maybe I just couldn’t taste anything else because of the smoke in the air. I’m not particularly eager to experiment.
This. I don’t notice it when I’m at my grandmother’s house (she’s a heavy smoker), but when I bring her bread home (to a non-smoking household), I can definitely taste smoke.
Totally agree with this. I worked in the restaurant business from 1987 to 2005, starting as a dishwasher and working up to Sous Chef, and never once saw anyone smoke on the line in any kitchen I worked in.
I’m a smoker, since about 1986, and I’ve never smoked while on the line.
YES.
Years ago we would go to a great aunt’s house on Christmas Eve every year. The house was full of smoke. (Mid-1960’s, about every male in our family except my father smoked, as did several of the females.) Our aunt sent us home with extra baked goods.
While we had not tasted smoke in the food while we were in Aunty’s smoke-filled house, when we bit into the brownies or cupcakes the next day in our smoke free home, we could taste the cigarette smoke. Mom would usually toss out most of the stuff.
No.
In separate fryers or in the same one? Because we’re talking about fumes/smoke not flavored being transferred by oil.
Same here. I used to be a moderately heavy smoker (1-1.5 packs a day on average) and it never occurred to me to smoke in a kitchen while preparing food. That’s just disgusting.
Take a smoke break? Sure. Smoke in the same room while the food is being prepared? No way.
As for the OP, I would imagine you could especially taste pastries and stuff that have been hanging out in a smoky environment, but I’ve never actually done a test. All I know is that it doesn’t take much time in a smokey wood environment to start imparting flavor to food. They have these things called handheld food smokers where you just pass the smoke over whatever food it is you want to “finish,” wait a couple minutes, and then serve. You can definitely taste the smoke even from a one minute exposure, although that exposure is usually done in a contained environment.
Yes, I’m aware that one can ‘smoke’ food. But it is a world apart from cigarette smoke, since one would have to assume that a smoker isn’t dragging on a cigarette and exhaling directly onto the food. Perhaps they are actually trying to keep the smoke away from the food.
Yes, I know you know that you can “smoke” food. I’m saying that one minute in a cold smoking situation imparts a very noticeable flavor to smoked food. My point is that I would not be surprised if an extended period of time in a room with a dilute concentration of smoke would have a similar effect. Like I said, I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s probable, and a few posters in this thread have concurred with direct personal experience.
But it’s all anecdotal. I doubt a scientific, double-blind study has been done on this topic.