| New York might not be the country’s barbecue capital, butthanks to places like Daisy May’s, Dinosaur, Blue Smoke, RUB and new arrivals like Hill Country, Bar Q and Wildwood,pork is smoking in this town. It has also been smoking in my 350-square-foot apartment, where I’ve been determined to create backyard barbecue flavors using only my ventless oven. Creating smoke flavors without actual smoke is certainly feasible. Its essence can be sprinkled on using smoked Spanish paprika or smoked sea salt. By rubbing Lapsang Souchong teaover wild sockeye, a traditional salt-and-sugar-cured salmonmorphs into a smoky gravlax. And then there’s Liquid Smoke— basically concentrated smoke-flavored water — a popular additive in many parts of the country and an ingredient in lots of store-bought barbecue sauces. I brushed some on ribs and dripped a little into sauces. Ugh! It tasted artificial. ‘‘It goes right to the roof of my mouth and hangs,’’ says Mike Mills, anauthor of ‘‘Peace, Love and Barbecue’’ and the owner of the17th Street Bar & Grill restaurants in Southern Illinois.Though alternatives exist, smoldering wood produces unrivaledflavors. And real smoke is easy to create at home using a stove-top smoker, essentially a roasting pan fitted with a driptray and a rack, sold by companies like Camerons and Emerilware. Or make your own: line a large wok with heavy foil, addwood chips, lay a smaller piece of foil over the chips to create a drip pan and set a round rack in the pan. A third piece off oil becomes the lid. Use pure, resin-free, ground wood chips. Elizabeth Karmel, the executive chef of Hill Country and theauthor of ‘‘Taming the Flame,’’ says she likes to think of wood. |
