Smoking your own ingredients is easier than you think
telegraph.co.ukHeston Blumenthal, who uses smoke frequently in his cooking, we have a primeval instinct that we are safer and happier sitting around a fire, and woodsmoke reawakens this.
Anthropologists agree – after all, a fire not only imparts heat and cooks food, but also keeps predatory animals at bay. Until central heating became the norm in the 1970s, the fireplace was where we gathered, socialised and had fun.
No wonder smoky things taste great.There used to be a more prosaic role for smoking, in preservation, drying the food and coating it with an antimicrobial and antioxidant layer of chemicals.
But it would have taken a heavy dose of smoke, in combination with hefty amounts of salt, to be effective. Not very delicious, or convenient: old recipes require bacon to be blanched in boiling water to make it palatable.
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