Smoked Almond fail

[smokeisshowing]

SMOKED ALMOND FAIL....ok so for my first smoke I did Almonds. They failed.here is what I did....... Soaked almonds in kosher saltwater for 24 hours. Let them air dry over night.
Got the OBS to 200 degrees. Vent wide open
Hickory smoked for 3 hours.

Tried them.... Really couldn't taste a smokey flavor, just salty almonds.

Closed vent pretty much all the way. Smoked for another hour... Still not happy.... Gave up.

They just taste like salty almonds.....

[KyNola]

Saw your post on Facebook.  As was said there I'm guessing it is the 24 hour soak.  The almonds are waterlogged.  I have smoked plenty of almonds and have never soaked them at all.  4 hours of hickory should have given you more than plenty of smoke flavor.  Also, don't close that vent for any reason!  You will trap moisture in the tower.  It will begin to condensate and will rain "black rain" on your food making it inedible.  Worse yet it will run down the inside of the door, under the door and out on to whatever your smoker is sitting on, giving it a black stain that you can't remove.(Don't ask me how I know this. :o)  Closing the vent will also cause the smoke to back up into your smoke generator, thereby destroying it over time.

[rveal23]

Saw your post on Facebook.  As was said there I'm guessing it is the 24 hour soak.  The almonds are waterlogged.  I have smoked plenty of almonds and have never soaked them at all.  4 hours of hickory should have given you more than plenty of smoke flavor.  Also, don't close that vent for any reason!  You will trap moisture in the tower.  It will begin to condensate and will rain "black rain" on your food making it inedible.  Worse yet it will run down the inside of the door, under the door and out on to whatever your smoker is sitting on, giving it a black stain that you can't remove.(Don't ask me how I know this. :o)  Closing the vent will also cause the smoke to back up into your smoke generator, thereby destroying it over time.

Great info to know. I haven't closed it yet, but now I know I shouldn't!

[Habanero Smoker]

The brining should not have had any effect on the almonds being able to take on smoke. Smoke needs some moisture to adhere and penetrate. So you should have obtained a good smoke flavor, unless the almonds were dripping wet, and what smoke particle attach to the almonds got washed off, and this doesn't seem to be the case, since you air dried them for a while.

It could be you added to much salt to the brine, and the strong salt taste is masking any other flavors. If you ate them just out of the smoker, put them in an air tight container, wait a day or so, then try them again.

[tskeeter]

Smoke, here's a thought to consider.

With my one almond smoking experience, I wasn't very happy with the amount of smoke the almonds absorbed.  By comparison, the cashews were great after about an hour 20 of smoke.  I suspect that the difference was due to the amount of oil on the surface of the nuts.

Almonds seem to be a fairly low oil nut.  Smoke tends to adhere to the oils or proteins on the surface of what you are smoking.  Did your brining wash the residual oil off the almonds? 

Roasting nuts brings some of the oils (and flavor) to the surface of the nuts.  Would roasting the nuts for 15 minutes or so after the brining process bring some oil back to the surface of the almonds and allow the smoke to adhere better?

By the way, as Habs suggested, I have found that allowing smoked nuts to rest for several days after smoking seems to allow the flavor to develop a bit.

[Habanero Smoker]

Smoke is soluble in oils, so that may be a factor; but I have smoked raw almonds at about 200°F with no seasoning or coating and they picked up plenty of smoke. I've only brine my almonds once and I can't recall how the smoke flavor was compare the unbrined almonds. Though it had to have been descent; I would have remembered if there was no smoke at all, but at my age my recall is not the best. :) Generally I will rub my almonds with a light coating of oil, and apply my seasonings that I have pulverized into a fine powder.

As for the lack of being able to pick up the smoke flavor, I was thinking more about flavor fatigue (aka sensory fatigue). When one is expose to a particular smell or flavor for an extended period of time, one can temporarily loose the ability to smell and/or taste that particular flavor.

[smokeisshowing]

thanks folks......I'll keep at it ;)

[NePaSmoKer]

Fact

Smoke does not adhere good to wet food items. Why do we pat down meats, fish, dry sausage casings at low temp?

[Habanero Smoker]

Fact; moisture adds to the penetration and adhesion of smoke particles. Pellicle that forms on meat and fish have moisture.