As Santa came a little early this year, I’ve already received my presents. One thing I got was a smoker, which is basically just a covered roasting pan with a drip tray and wire rack. The idea is that you put wood chips (oak, alder, apple, hickory) under the drip tray and put the whole thing, kaboodle as well as kit, on the stovetop. The wood chips will smolder, infusing the food with a smoky taste.
Last month, I was reading an issue of Gourmet Magazine, in which one restaurant was stated to offer tobacco-smoked salmon. When I mentioned this to a CIA-graduate friend, her mouth watered. And evidently, a lot of NYC restaurants are reacting to Bloomberg’s smoking ban by offering tobacco-infused drinks and dishes.
Now I understand that ingesting tobacco can be harmful, if not fatal. My mother told me this 30 years ago, so it must be true.
So I have a few questions:
Is it harmful? More so than wood smoking?
What does it taste like? Something other than dirty ashtray?
Can I use any tobacco? Can I rip apart a few butts and use that, or are there too many additives? Could I instead use a good pipe tobacco?
I don’t really know the answer to this so I should probably stay out of it, but, fwiw:
The problem with tobacco smoke (bleh) seems to be the actual smoke and the additives in the cigarettes (I believe they list them on numerous commercials; they sound repulsive). Having smoke in your lungs is different than having smoked meats in your stomach. It would probably be bad for you to smoke hickory shavings, too, but people use hickory to smoke meat all the time. Lungs are not really meant as smoke filters, and they need to be clean to work properly.
As for chewing tobacco, I think it also has lots of bad crap in it, and lots of sugar to screw up your teeth. And, ugh.
So, my WAG is that using pure tobacco to smoke meat is not bad for you; although using commercial cigarettes to smoke meat might add some carcinogens to your dinner.
This was my thought as well. I remember reading about how various tobacco alternatives have been tried in cigarettes, such as cloves, and it was found that they were far worse than tobacco. In fact, isn’t tobacco among the safest things to smoke? (Relatively speaking.)
Interesting questions. I have been known to smoke a pipe, and I can tell you that the quality of tobacco is miles ahead of the crap they put in cigarettes. I have no clue about the health issues, though I expect it wouldn’t be any more dangerous than meat infused with any other smoke flavor. It would be interesting to know just exactly WHAT we consume when we eat smoked food.
Quite frankly, I don’t even know how good it would taste. If you’re tired of hardwood, I’d suggest you try tea before tobacco.