Consider the Smoker
And other unnecessary things
One of my favorite food writers is Bee Wilson, a British food writer and historian.1 As a teacher, I have recommended her book “First Bite” to numerous families over the years as they deal with their picky eaters. I am fascinated with how we form eating habits, and “First Bite” is a deep dive into how we learn to eat. Why do some children, and adults for that matter, love vegetables and some wouldn’t be caught dead eating them?
An idea that really resonated with me in the book is that kids don’t really hate vegetables. They hate the texture of vegetables. Sneak the vegetables in their food and as they get older, they will begin to tolerate textures better. I made bean and pasta soup last night for my onion-hating children. The onions were pulverized beyond recognition, and they polished it off.
But this book, “Consider the Fork” is actually about kitchen gadgets, a topic near and dear to my heart. She discusses how different tools in the kitchen have shaped cuisines. Think cauldrons in British kitchens and carved-out gourds in Peru. I went to my first home show as a child and saw a demonstration for a Wonderknife, which I still own, and I was immediately hooked on the idea of cool gadgets for my kitchen. I love my Instant Pot and my rice cooker. I use the former almost every day. And, I would like to add, the Instant Pot is a more sustainable cooking appliance than an oven. It uses less energy, and less water to cook.
Much like my post about the Bridgerton Collection at Williams- Sonoma, this was going to be a post about expensive cocktail-making gadgets that I don’t need, but also do need because lusting after the Williams-Sonoma catalog is one of my toxic traits. However, I went down a smoking cocktails rabbit hole that I am now living in, burrowed amongst cottontails of brume. It all began with said catalog….
I first noticed the Crafthouse Cocktail Smoking Box for a cool $299.95. This would be a conversation piece in case you don’t have ANYTHING to talk about. “What is that glass contraption?” “Why, it’s a smoking box for infusing my cocktails.” And that is how far that conversation would go. This is a bestseller on their website. Would I use this? Sometimes, but enough enough to justify the price.
If you don’t want to spend $300 on a smoke box, you can take it down a notch with cloches. I can’t wait to be at an event and correctly call this a cloche, and the person next to me will pretend they also knew this was called a cloche. The most expensive option here is the one on the left, and the “sustainably sourced black walnut base” makes this $250. If you don’t know much about wood, black walnut is high-end. But it does come with the smoker. However, the next price point is the Breville smoking cloche and gun at $154.95 with no base. So it looks like the black walnut base is adding $100 to the price point. Your cheapest option is the plain Breville smoking cloche with no gun. Instead, it has a hole to place a gun on the off chance you already own one.
This had me thinking- do we need stuff? Can I smoke a cocktail with a plain old cloche, and also where does one purchase a plain-old cloche? Or, do I even need that? While I add “finding a cloche” to my to-do list, I researched other methods to smoke cocktails. While I love a good kitchen gadget, I can’t help but think that smoking food has been going on for a long time, and smoking guns, well guns that produce smokey aroma for cocktails, are a relatively new invention. It turns out it is super easy, as long as you do not set your house on fire, and you can use herbs from your garden.
The method is quite easy. Light something on fire and place a glass over it. In the video below, I ran a sage leaf over a flame for a minute or so and then placed a glass over it. This allows for a subtle addition of smoky flavor that is quite nice.
There are other things you smoke too, but those are for future posts. Today, I am making a smoked sage maple whiskey sour in this glass. Begin by running a flame over a piece of sage and placing glass over it. This also doubles as a way to ward off evil spirits. I LOVE when I can kill two birds with one stone. While you let that sit, mix the contents of the whiskey sour:
Maple-Sage Whiskey Sour
1 oz maple-sage syrup (recipe below)
1/2 oz lemon juice
2 oz bourbon
ice
large ice cube2 (optional-can use regular ice)
Place all ingredients except large ice cube in a cocktail shaker. Place large cube in glass, shake and pour over glass.
Maple-Sage Simple Syrup
Place equal parts water and syrup in a pan and bring to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and add a few sage leaves, depending on the amount you are making. Let cool completely and remove sage leaves. Store in the fridge until use.
Cheers,
Anne
It notes in her bio on GoodReads that she is the daughter of a Shakespearean scholar, and I am the sister of one! Is this a community I don’t know about? Family of Shakespearean Scholars? Can we make this a thing?
I am using a large ice cube here because I want something that is slower to melt. The smoking adds a very subtle, pleasant flavor, and I do not want it watered down too fast.