My electric smoker drips water out of the downdraft exhaust pipe.
I noticed the water creates black stains on the concrete beneath the smoker.
I did a little online research and found out that liquid smoke is basically the condensed smoke from charcoal production.
My smoke generator is basically a charcoal generator because heat is applied and the wood burns in a low oxygen environment. The byproduct of my smoker is charcoal.
I did a four hour smoke on a brisket today before stuffing it into a sous vide bag to cook for 70 hours.
About an hour into the smoke, I noticed the black puddle forming on the ground and went to work on a makeshift catch.
I gathered up some brazing rod and a wide mouth canning jar and fashioned my catch for the condensation.
After about an hour, I checked the contents of the jar.
Three hours later, I had collected about 6 ounces of this brown liquid but it wasn’t completely free of particulates.
I strained the liquid through a coffee filter into a smaller canning jar.
The result was a clean brown liquid that smelled very smoky.
I tasted nasty but so does store bought liquid smoke when you taste it straight from the bottle.
The jar went into the refrigerator along with several other culinary experiments.
The liquid started out caramel colored and got darker overnight in the refrigerator.
I am anxious to add a dab of this to the next batch of sous vide steaks I cook.
