smoked salt

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munkiestyle

Fire Starter
Original poster
Apr 16, 2014
55
15
Omaha
I cold smoked some sea salt in my MES 40 using an AMNPS. Threw some coarse sea salt on one of the screen trays I made and let it go until the AMNPS burned out. Probably around 15 hours. Put it on at 11am and it was still smoking when I stumbled in at 1am. Thanks to the best DD ever... my wife.



Mixed in a tiny bit of uncooked for color contrast in the grinder. It really took the smoke well.
 
I have been putting this smokey goodness on everything. On some popcorn its a winner.
 
I cold smoked some sea salt in my MES 40 using an AMNPS. Threw some coarse sea salt on one of the screen trays I made and let it go until the AMNPS burned out. Probably around 15 hours. Put it on at 11am and it was still smoking when I stumbled in at 1am. Thanks to the best DD ever... my wife.



Mixed in a tiny bit of uncooked for color contrast in the grinder. It really took the smoke well.
And you use it sparingly on things I guess. Wanna do that! Ya know a person can only do so much smoked stuff. Have done chex mix and kids liked it more than me, good for a while, but 55 yrs. on this earth,can only take so much and got to eat some good stuff, greens and all.
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I'm just learning how to cold smoke for the purpose of smoking salt. Is cold smoking just using the heat from the wood? What type of wood & salt, at what temp? I read in an article where the person smoking said normal coarse salt does not absorb the smoke. True?  Can you help? Thank you!        
 
When you cold smoke salt it is important to keep the smoker quite warm. The first time I tried it (a few years ago) I smoked it overnight in a cool autumn evening and the combination of the damp night air and the moisture produced by the smoker resulted in a smoked salt slurry the following morning.
 
I cold smoke spices in the cold all the time. Most of my winter it's under 40f. The key is not to create moisture in the smoke chamber. That's the difficult part. As we all know a warm interior and a cold exterior will produce condensation. If both the temps are equal then you won't have any issues. When I cold smoke I use my mailbox mod which keeps the heat out of the smoke chamber. Therefore the smoke chamber is the same to as the exterior and condensation isn't formed. The smoker I use isn't tightly sealed or insulated so that also helps avoid condensation forming. The humidity where I am isn't much even when it's snowing so that isn't much of a factor, but could be in humid climates.
 
That helps tremendously. Thank you. I'll be fine I think as long as I take the water pan out. I'm in No.Cal where the weather is pretty moderate so I don't think condensation is going to be an issue. I have a dual door smoker where the wood box & 3 racks are on one side and 2 racks on the other so I have a couple options.

Do you smoke any other herbs or spices?  
 
I cold smoke spices in the cold all the time. Most of my winter it's under 40f. The key is not to create moisture in the smoke chamber. That's the difficult part. As we all know a warm interior and a cold exterior will produce condensation. If both the temps are equal then you won't have any issues. When I cold smoke I use my mailbox mod which keeps the heat out of the smoke chamber. Therefore the smoke chamber is the same to as the exterior and condensation isn't formed. The smoker I use isn't tightly sealed or insulated so that also helps avoid condensation forming. The humidity where I am isn't much even when it's snowing so that isn't much of a factor, but could be in humid climates.
Yes - warm and cold days are not a problem. It is the damp Autumn nights where I have had a few mishaps in the past. I just avoid smoking salt on these days now. 
 
For things like salt 100 F (38 C) is not a problem - It will not spoil. Damp is the problem here as the salt crystals will begin to absorb moisture from the air and begin to soften and dissolve. Avoid the risk of condensation and it will be fine.
 
 
Have you tried using different types of salts? Kosher, Sea, Himalayan..?
smoke plain kosher or sea salt, but IMO avoid smoking the speciality salts such as himalayan, andean, fleur du sel...

The whole point of those salts is their different  flavours, which IMO would be completely overwhelmed by smoke.
 
I've smoked the others and in my opinion it just adds another layer of flavor. For the most part in a good way. Just like adding a new spice to a tried and true recipe. Ya never know if it will make it a new hit or not. Step outside the box and experiment, you may or may not like the end result but you'd never know if you didn't try. We did a salt sampler a few years back where we took 8 different salts and smoked them. Then tried each one with a few items we like salt on. The salts we liked we kept smoking the others we didn't. One of my most favorites that we make is Sea Salt, mixed with dried and crushed Serrano's (from our garden) smoked with Alder. So good, on everything!
 
Ahhh, got it. The article I read the lady was talking about the surface of the granules not absorbing the flavor, at the time it sounded more procedural than product. We just got back from Alaska where they have a lot of smoked salt blends and I think I can come up with something comparable to their blends for less than $7 for 4oz.  I really appreciate all the information I've gotten. I've learned a lot and any little advice or info is huge. THANK YOU!! 
 
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