Combustion and Comestibles

Yep. A new feature here on our show is favorite foods. Today I'm going to talk about smoked foods. Yeah. I'm killing time for 5 minutes until I take the kids to a birthday party. And we went to the market yesterday.

1. Have you ever been sitting around the campfire and thought, "that smells so good I wish I could eat it." Now you can. Russian double-smoked sausage is the closest thing you can get to chewing on a burning cedar log. Minus the heat, of course.

2. My brother-in-law's smoked trout. Vaughn sent me a bottle in September and it was awesome. I forced myself and the kids to only eat tiny bits at a time, like candy, so it would last longer. Apparently he just uses plain old brown sugar to sweeten it during the smoking process, but it tastes better than any maple or honey smoked meat from the store. Also, trout is a strong tasting fish, but not as strong as salmon, so all of the flavors blend a bit more.

3. Cold-smoked mackerel. I just picked this up at the market yesterday and haven't actually tried it yet, but it comes whole and intact, so it actually looks like a meal.

edit: Just tried it. Very good. Extra-smoky. If you like fish on the oily side it is excellent, your enjoyment will drop from there depending on your tastes.

4. Smoked brie -- 'nuff said. (Brie is cold-smoked, too.)

5. Montreal-style smoked-meat. Interestingly, I've never had really great smoked meat in Montreal. I'm sure it's there, but I'm always going after other tastes when I'm there. I've only had it once and it seemd fine, but not dramatic.

6. Prosciutto. Love the taste, better than Montreal-style but I find the stringy fat impossible to chew. Too much work for the taste.

7. Edit 2: How could I forget smoked mussels and oysters? I guess it's because I tend to think of them as being in the pickle family more than the smoked-food family. Must be the oil that they are packaged in. One of my favorite snack foods, made even better by the fact that the kids like it too.

So there's my Sunday morning diversion.

Cheers