Smoked Sugar?

jmforester · January 19, 2011, 04:59:02 PM

Has anyone tried smoking sugar? One of my consulting jobs is creating cocktail recipes and menus for restaurants and cocktail bars. I've used a handheld smoke gun to bring smoke flavor and aroma into cocktails and spirits, but I am thinking of smoking sugar, then making that into a smoked simple syrup. This way I could have various smoked syrups to use in cocktails. The melting point of sugar is 186 °C / 367 °F so I don't think there should be a problem. I'm going to try it when I smoke some salt and cheese this weekend.

Smokin Soon · January 19, 2011, 05:07:07 PM

Why not? I smoke a lot of spices in coffee filters with mixed results. Give it a go and report.

jmforester · January 23, 2011, 09:53:56 AM

Damn... I forgot to smoke some sugar when I smoked cheese and salt yesterday. Will report back when I remember.

TMB · January 23, 2011, 02:54:48 PM

Quote from: jmforester on January 23, 2011, 09:53:56 AM
Damn... I forgot to smoke some sugar when I smoked cheese and salt yesterday. Will report back when I remember.

Please do sounds interesting

jmforester · January 24, 2011, 11:39:11 AM

I smoked some sugar, same as I would salt, and it seems interesting. I only put two hours of apple/hickory on the sugar while I was cold smoking some Mozzarella and a PRIME London Broil (going to grill that up tonight), and it's tasty, but needs more smoke. I'll put it back in next time I do a smoke and see how it develops.

TMB · January 24, 2011, 12:56:22 PM

Quote from: jmforester on January 24, 2011, 11:39:11 AM
I smoked some sugar, same as I would salt, and it seems interesting. I only put two hours of apple/hickory on the sugar while I was cold smoking some Mozzarella and a PRIME London Broil (going to grill that up tonight), and it's tasty, but needs more smoke. I'll put it back in next time I do a smoke and see how it develops.

If it's like salt then the longer you let it rest the better the smoke taste will be. I would think 1 to 2 weeks before using but that's just a guess.

jmforester · January 24, 2011, 04:04:24 PM

I did another two hours on the sugar and now I'll let it rest for a few weeks and see.

Devonboy · February 15, 2011, 12:55:07 PM

Keep us posted, I sell lots of cocktails in my bar and this would be an interesting twist.

mjdeez · February 15, 2011, 06:47:05 PM

Yah I keep forgetting about this. I'm doing a cold smoke with some Salmon this weekend so I'll make a note to put some sugar in there. My guess is i'll need to try it the next day because hanging around the smoker with a glass of scotch and beer I just won't get the nuance of the smoke.

jmforester · February 18, 2011, 02:20:45 PM

The smoked sugar came out pretty good. It had about four hours of smoke on it and rested for several weeks. I haven't made it into a simple syrup for cocktails, and wish I had yesterday because I attended a Zubrowka vodka (bison grass flavored vodka) event where we had hundreds of ingredients, and could bring our own, to make cocktails. But there weren't any smoky ingredients, and I wished I'd had the sugar. As it was they asked for the recipes of the two cocktails I created, and they are going to publish them.

jmforester · March 02, 2011, 06:06:21 AM

After many experiments the smoked sugar is a success. BUT, you need to smoke the heck out of it. 6-8 hours of cold smoke, although I haven't tried hot smoke. Sugar melts at 367F so you could try taking it as high as the Bradley goes. I will try that next.

Letting the sugar mellow for a week or two, like the salt, improves it. It makes coffee so much better, and what it does to hot chocolate and tea is great. The simple syrup needs to be made with heavily smoked sugar, but it still comes off as a mellow smoke, very different from using a cold smoking gun to actually smoke a cocktail.

kinyo · March 02, 2011, 06:23:45 AM

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiment!

Really interesting!

Feel free to share your cocktail recipe. ;)

Kinyo

muebe · March 02, 2011, 09:33:52 AM

I smoked some Starbuck's ground coffee and some sugar. After two weeks resting I tried them last Sunday and they were a great pairing together ;D

mjdeez · March 02, 2011, 12:29:48 PM

Quote from: jmforester on March 02, 2011, 06:06:21 AM
After many experiments the smoked sugar is a success. BUT, you need to smoke the heck out of it. 6-8 hours of cold smoke, although I haven't tried hot smoke. Sugar melts at 367F so you could try taking it as high as the Bradley goes. I will try that next.

Letting the sugar mellow for a week or two, like the salt, improves it. It makes coffee so much better, and what it does to hot chocolate and tea is great. The simple syrup needs to be made with heavily smoked sugar, but it still comes off as a mellow smoke, very different from using a cold smoking gun to actually smoke a cocktail.

Try grinding a portion of the sugar into a finer powder and see if it smokes faster. Maybe the additional surface area will pick up the smoke better. ... or maybe you'll just end up with a gunked up spice grinder, I'm not really sure. You'll still have to mix the sugar often, I imagine.

I smoked 1/4 cup of relatively coarse sugar a couple of weekends ago but I didn't put any thought into the consistency... we were just throwing random stuff in there. I wish I had put some coffee in.

I'd also love to see these drinks. I know the recipes would be guarded but can you name the restaurant / location / drink name?