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T.G · 11-19-2012, 10:19 AM

I can't say. I'd recommend you just try it. Maximize the surface area and stir often. Just keep smoking it until you get it to where you like it, and remember, you can always do it in multiple sessions, it doesn't really matter if it's a continuous smoke or not.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just kind of let you know that it's going to take some time and not to give up on it too soon.

The mesquite smoked salt that I attempted was with a fine grain sea salt, where the grain was a bit smaller than the typical Morton-esque table salt in the blue can shaped containers. It had It had a nice aroma, and a little bit of flavor, but didn't pack much punch in the smoke flavor department, color had only progressed to a tan.

Then one day I ran into chef Jimmy T (local BBQ sauce producer and caterer to some of the wineries) and we started talking smoking and trading cooking thoughts and I noticed he had some smoked salt. This smoked salt was gorgeous dark brown, almost black, you open the container and the aroma is intense, nothing like the French smoked sea salt you see in the markets where it comes in a fancy spring top jar but the salt is light brown at best with a few token dark crystals here and there. Being that this was after my sorta-failure with the mesquite, I asked him about it and he told me the story of his alderwood smoked salt. He has a huge commercial smoker, I think he said he does 800lbs of salt at a time. First time he tried it, 8 hours smoke, and it was nothing. 12 hours, nothing. 18, eh. 24, a bit. Then he just got pissed off and packed the smoker with wood, lit it and left. Came back three days later and checked on the salt and it was awesome dark and smokey. Now he's running with custom built trays that vibrate so the salt gets evenly coated and this has allowed him to reduce the times to about 48 hours.

While he is making a commercial product on specialized equipment and I don't know the source of his sea salt, the descriptions of his early, shorter runs seemed to mirror my experiences.

11-19-2012, 10:19 AM	#19
T.G Grrrrrr Join Date: Mar 2009 First Name: The Other Adam Posts: 15,559 Trading: (37)	Re: Salt I can't say. I'd recommend you just try it. Maximize the surface area and stir often. Just keep smoking it until you get it to where you like it, and remember, you can always do it in multiple sessions, it doesn't really matter if it's a continuous smoke or not. I'm not trying to discourage you, just kind of let you know that it's going to take some time and not to give up on it too soon. The mesquite smoked salt that I attempted was with a fine grain sea salt, where the grain was a bit smaller than the typical Morton-esque table salt in the blue can shaped containers. It had It had a nice aroma, and a little bit of flavor, but didn't pack much punch in the smoke flavor department, color had only progressed to a tan. Then one day I ran into chef Jimmy T (local BBQ sauce producer and caterer to some of the wineries) and we started talking smoking and trading cooking thoughts and I noticed he had some smoked salt. This smoked salt was gorgeous dark brown, almost black, you open the container and the aroma is intense, nothing like the French smoked sea salt you see in the markets where it comes in a fancy spring top jar but the salt is light brown at best with a few token dark crystals here and there. Being that this was after my sorta-failure with the mesquite, I asked him about it and he told me the story of his alderwood smoked salt. He has a huge commercial smoker, I think he said he does 800lbs of salt at a time. First time he tried it, 8 hours smoke, and it was nothing. 12 hours, nothing. 18, eh. 24, a bit. Then he just got pissed off and packed the smoker with wood, lit it and left. Came back three days later and checked on the salt and it was awesome dark and smokey. Now he's running with custom built trays that vibrate so the salt gets evenly coated and this has allowed him to reduce the times to about 48 hours. While he is making a commercial product on specialized equipment and I don't know the source of his sea salt, the descriptions of his early, shorter runs seemed to mirror my experiences. Last edited by T.G; 11-19-2012 at 10:29 AM.