I'm almost out of smoked salt and about to replace it.

[conuly]

So what IS the difference between, say, mesquite and hickory and cherrywood and all? (Anybody being excessively literal here and saying "the wood used" can just pretend they said it without saying it. You know I mean "why would I use one instead of the other?")

Comments

[movingfinger]

Hickory smells like sweetish bacon and mesquite smells like cowboy tri-tip. Cherrywood, IDK, probably smells like a pipe. What are you cooking, would be a factor, I guess?

[alexseanchai]

yeah, it's subtleties in the flavor the smoke imparts that…pretty much amount to "the wood used". I have no idea how to describe the differences.

except that I would bet hickory doesn't smell like bacon, hickory smells like hickory-smoked bacon. which is more useful than it sounds, because it means one can go acquire hickory-smoked bacon and mesquite-smoked bacon and cook them identically and compare the flavors!

[conuly]

Cheaper to buy samples sizes of the salt.

[alexseanchai]

nodnod

[conuly]

Various food items, so that's no help :)

[movingfinger]

I don't do woodchip cooking/smoking myself,* but eating in places where they do gives me the impression that mesquite is a good all-purpose wood, except for fish for which alder tastes better**. I feel hickory is well used for smoking things and mesquite for cooking them; mesquite would overwhelm the food's flavor.

There is probably regional bias to flavor preferences. In the South (and traditionally in the Northeast) hickory was available and mesquite wasn't. Nowadays applewood might be more a Northeastern flavor.


*Although I could! I have a grill!

**Then there's the whole hot-smoked vs cold-smoked fish debate. I personally feel that hot-smoked fish might as well be called fish leather.

[silveradept]

I am given to understand it mostly had to do with flavors imparted by the smoking process. Choice of wood meant choice of flavors.

[conuly]

Yes, naturally, but is there any way for me to pick and choose without having to taste test every salt?

[jo]

This guide might help? https://www.salttable.com/wp-content/uploads/Guide-3-Smoked-salt.pdf

[silveradept]

I do not know. Maybe if the salts describe themselves in things that you can understand.

[cactuswatcher]

Hickory is the traditional flavor for red meats and pork. More flavorful than say oak or elm.
Mesquite adds a faint BBQ sauce taste before you put on any sauce. It's a favorite in the Southwest where the trees grow, they use it for everything. BBQ potato chips are likely to taste of mesquite. More strongly if they are labeled mesquite.
Fruit wood like cherry and apple add a hint of fruit juice like sweetness. Best for pork, chicken or in particular fish, kind of a waste on burgers and beef steaks.

The flavors are subtle. Using the 'wrong' one wouldn't be much of a problem. Generally, go crazy.

[movingfinger]

Different salts are going to have different intensities of smokiness, too. It is something of a crap shoot.

A local guy makes and sells alder-smoked pepper, which is mildly smoky and has been good on everything I've tried it on (I have not tried it on EVERYTHING, though). Particularly good on a buttered potato, but great on meats.

[conuly]

That guide is not as helpful as they think. Every description is either "smoky" or "clean" or sometimes both.

[conuly]

I'm not eating anything capable of describing itself ;)

[conuly]

Peppercorns or chile pepper?

[conuly]

All right, I will.

[movingfinger]

Black peppercorns. He sells them in a convenient shaker jar. I don't know whether he smokes whole peppercorns and grinds them or smokes the ground pepper (it is on the coarse side).

Smoked Ancho chili pepper is an excellent enhancer, too. I add it to chocolate cake.


ETA: I checked: whole peppercorns, then cracked. And. They've started doing mail order! Same people make tonic water flavor concentrates.

Assume any smoking done by this company is alder.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

They have slightly different flavors. Hickory is the traditional smoke flavor; cherrywood has a sweetness to it; I haven't had mesquite, so can't say anything about it. Unless you're being compulsively 'foodie' for some reason, I'd say buy what's cheapest, because probably no one will ever be able to tell what flavor of smoke your salt has.

[conuly]

I'm always being compulsively foodie for some reason.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

So, buy all three, compare and contrast - smoked salt doesn't go bad. Maybe different flavors are better in different dishes.

[conuly]

I'm going to, and then my sister is going to look at me one day and go "Why do we have so much smoked salt?"

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, and then you can show her this post.

Hey, off-topic, here's something you may like - a Brit friend of my bro recommends them highly. I haven't read them, but they sound hilarious:

Nigel Molesworthy: “The Hogwarts” Before Hogwarts (https://www.tor.com/2015/06/29/the-hogwarts-before-hogwarts/)

[conuly]

Oooh, thanks for the rec :)