How to Make Liquid Smoke

Liquid smoke has become wildly popular gas grill gourmets. It gives an outdoorsy flavor to food cooked on a grill without coals. If you can't find liquid smoke in supermarkets near you, you make it with the following steps, your grill and some supplies available at any hardware store.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Charcoal grill and lid
• Grilling rack
• 8" cylinder
• 8" steel funnel
• Duct tape
• 5 lbs. charcoal
• 16-qt. bucket
• Glass coil condenser
• Plastic container
• Plastic tubing
• 5 lbs. hickory wood chunks
• Aluminum foil

1. Position the grilling rack in the center of the grill. Put an 8-inch steel cylinder on top to serve as the chimney. Turn an 8-inch steel funnel upside down and tape it to the top of the grill. Place charcoal inside the cylinder. Ignite the coals and allow them to burn.

2. Fill a 16-qt. bucket with ice water. Tape a glass coiled condenser to one side of the bucket.

3. Push the other side of the coiled condenser through the top of a 1-qt. plastic container. The liquid smoke drips into this container.

4. Tape one piece of plastic tubing approximately 20-inches long to the outside end of the bucket. Make sure the tubing rests on the bucket since the smoke coming through the tubing later on must come in contact with a cold surface. Attach a second piece of similar sized tubing to the top of the steel funnel. Place hickory wood chunks on top of the burning coals.

5. Cover the grill with the lid and seal around it with aluminum foil. The hickory wood flavors the smoke produced by the burning coals. The smoke then passes through the tubing in the bucket, is condensed by the ice water and the condensed liquid flows into the plastic container.