The holiday’s experimentation continues.
I have been sitting on the fence for ages trying to pluck up the courage to attempt a smoked salt. So today was the day that I decided to give it a crack. I checked the cupboard and I had a full bottle of Pink Himalayan rock salt and that was all I needed to push me over the edge to give it a go. I was ready to smoke my own salt on the Kamado Joe
Low and Slow is the way to go
The process is pretty easy just set the Kamado for low n slow and you are aiming for temperatures around 108C [225F] to 122C [250F]. I made sure that I added quite a few chunks of smoke wood in this case the smoke wood was Peach and my gosh it smells delicious. From there it was just a matter of lighting the fire. I used four fire starters and let the Kamado heat soak for about 40 minutes.
Once the Kamado was up to temperature it was time to prepare the salt and that was just as simple as pouring the salt into aluminium foil tray placing on the grill.
Spritz to maximise flavour
The only other method is to spritz the salt in the tray every 30 minutes or so. Every time I spritzed the salt I made sure to give it a good stir/shake to hopefully get an even covering.
The reason for the water spritz is that I have read or have been told somewhere along the line that misting the salt actually helps the smoke particles stick to the surface of the salt. The smoke doesn’t actually penetrate the salt so you are relying on the smoke particles stick to the outside of the salt to induce the flavour. The water provides the method to enable the smoke to “stick” to the salt.
For my first attempt, I let the kamado smoked salt go for a total smoke time of around 6 hours, and spritzing every 30 minutes or so. After I let it cool, I simply placed it back into the bottle it came in and it is currently waiting for the next recipe to use it in.
Definitely a colour change
The end product definitely changed colour, from the vibrant pink of the original Himalayan rock salt to what you can definitely see as smoked salt. From a taste perspective, I can definitely taste a difference, I wouldn’t call this a strong smoke flavour, rather just something that is different to normal salt, in a good way.
Not sure if rock salt is the perfect version to smoke? Perhaps something with a smaller size would take on more flavour. Watch this space for the next experiment.
Improvements?
A couple of things that I would probably change next time :
- Use a coarse ground salt
- Look to use a wire smoking rack like these fine mesh splatter screens
- Add even more smoke wood
I am pretty happy with the result and glad I lit up the Kamado and tried something different. I love this BBQ, it makes me happy 🙂
Till next time
Joe On !!!
