Home smoked salts

[Scotty-G]

A while ago I remember seeing a posting on making home made smoked salt.
Tried searching but was not able to find it.

Has anyone had any luck making homemade smoked salt
   Using Hickory, Mesquite, ?
   Kosher, Sea, ? salt

How did you do it?
   Hot or Cold Smoke?
   How long?
   Salt in a bowl or on a screen?

What did the finished product look like?
Would you do it again?

Thank you
Scotty-G

[Gizmo]

Here is a thread I remember.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=6489.0

[Habanero Smoker]

I have smoke kosher salt, and sea salt. The first time I cold smoked it, but later batches I have used higher heat between 200°F - 210°F. Salt is a mineral and will not burn, and with the higher heat the smoke seemed to adhere better. I use four hours of hickory and the color is a very light amber, so I would go longer; such as Manxman using eight hours.

I've also started smoking black pepper, since I saw McCormick Smokehouse Ground Black Pepper. When I get a chance I'll post that method, but that is not as simple as placing peppercorns in the smoker to smoke.

[manxman]

I oak smoke coarse ground sea salt for about 8 hours (see HS's post), I spread it out on greaseproof paper in a thinnish layer. To date I havent tried any other puck "flavours".

Originally I cold smoked like HS but found the salt would absorb moisture from the atmosphere as it is a dessicant, particularly if it was a damp day. I found I was then having to dry the salt in the oven as it got too moist and clumped together.

Now I put the BS on a lowish heat which stops moisture absorption and therefore gives better smoke adhesion, just as Habs says.

Smoked black pepper looks interesting Habs.  :)

[love the smoke]

I am quite interested in the smoked black pepper, have a big jug of peppercorn medley I would like to try smoking.
I did a little research on the WWW and found little on the subject other than they smoke it for around 24 hours. Do you think it is cold smoked or just low temp hot smoke?

LTS

[Habanero Smoker]

Manxman and LTS;

I'll type up my smoked black pepper results on another thread. I've tried cold smoke, and hot smoke and found hot smoke worked better. With the Bradley I only used four hours, maybe it could have used more. This is the only thing that I recommend mesquite wood for. :)

Scotty-G;

I came across this site Experiments Smoking Salt, he gets his salt dark amber, but he uses a water (bullet) smoker. Make sure you click on part II at the bottom of the article. You will see he recommends lower temperatures of 85°F; but in the same sentence he state 225°F works well also, but if higher then that it will burn the adhered smoke off the crystals. As Manxman states the low heat works best.

[Oldman]

I've given this some thought and as soon as I can this what I'm going to try. Now this approach is differant than Manxman's.

1. Take a cloth material that is tight weaved like that of a full T-shirt.
2. Place it in the smoker dry.
3. Once the material is colored due to the smoke I would remove the cloth from the smoker and spray it down with water.
4. Next place the cloth into a ziplock bag and then allow enough dwell time so that the water picks up the smoky flavor from the cloth.
5. Then place the cloth back on the rack and place a screening material on top of the cloth material.
6. Add just plain ole ice cream salt on top of the screen.
7. Return it back to the smoker @ 225 F.

With salt being so hydroscopic, as the water vaporized from the cloth material the salt should soak up the smoky flavored vapor like a sponge.

I would also keep my vent as closed as I could in order to retain as much vapor as possible.

Once the color of the salt looked good I would take it all out, remove the screening material, lightly spray the cloth with water (just damp) and then roll up the salt in the cloth material, place it in a ziplock bag and give it a week or more dwell time.

I'm sure that for the first few times I would have to make some adjustments.

Now if I can just find the time to try this out.
Olds

[Mr Walleye]

This is a very interesting concept Olds. If you do give it a try let us know how it turns out. I've tried doing salt but I've never had the results I was looking for.

Mike

[manxman]

Interested to see how your idea turns out Raye.