Liquid smoke is a real insider tip among BBQ fans, especially in Europe. In America, the strong smoke aroma from the bottle has been popular for a long time and is much more widespread. But the demand for liquid smoke is slowly increasing in Europe too. For this reason, we would like to draw attention to the trendy product from the USA and answer important questions about liquid smoke. We briefly explain the history of liquid smoke, take a look at how it is produced, give useful tips on dosing and storing liquid smoke and answer the question that keeps cropping up as to whether liquid smoke is harmful to health or not.

Let's first clarify what liquid smoke actually is. Liquid smoke is a strong and aromatic ingredient (not a sauce!) that can be used when cooking, frying or grilling to give dishes a smoky grilled flavor. Liquid smoke is particularly popular with all kinds of meat dishes - but it also goes well with fish, soups and can even be used with cheese.

The country of origin of liquid smoke is the USA. In the 19th century, the American pharmacist Ernest H. Wright came up with the idea of ​​burning hickory wood, allowing the resulting smoke to cool and condense, and mixing this condensate with water. The result was surprisingly good in terms of taste. With the help of a chemist, the method for producing liquid smoke was further developed and optimized so that substances that are hazardous to health are filtered out as far as possible. In 1985, the pharmacist Wright applied for a patent for the production of liquid smoke, which marked the birth of his product "Wright's Liquid Smoke".

Although there are very few liquid smoke manufacturers worldwide, everyone has certainly consumed a product that contained liquid smoke – usually labeled as “smoke flavoring.”

The industrial use of liquid smoke is no longer a rarity. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the use of liquid smoke saves the industry money and time. For example, ham and meat no longer have to go through complex smoking processes. A smoking chamber, which is needed for the smoking process, is also no longer necessary thanks to the use of liquid smoke. The products are usually sprayed with the liquid smoke so that they receive a pleasant smoky aroma.

In addition, certain products are difficult or impossible to smoke. One example of this is types of chips where the smoky taste is the main focus. Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients? It is very likely that it will say "smoke flavor". But even the classic BBQ sauces, which are characterized by a smoky taste, usually contain smoke flavor - usually in the form of liquid smoke.

Liquid smoke (in the form of smoke flavoring) is already used in a variety of products and has long since become part of our society, even if we have never consciously noticed it before.

In times of artificial additives and flavour enhancers, none of which have a good reputation, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether flavourings are free of harmful substances and harmless to health. To answer this question, let's take a look at "real" smoke, which gives grilled meat its typical smoky flavour. Burning wood and coal produces so-called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs for short). According to the Federal Environment Agency, these are classified as hazardous to health and the environment. From a chemical point of view, smoke is very complex and depends on many factors. For example, the concentration of oxygen during smoking, the temperature and also the wood used all play an important role. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons released during smoking usually get into the meat or the product being smoked or grilled.

When liquid smoke is produced, the smoke produced by burning wood chips or sawdust is cleaned. Harmful substances (such as PAHs) are extracted using several filters. The end product, liquid smoke, can therefore be considered to be far less harmful than "normal smoke". According to the current state of science, the answer to the question of whether liquid smoke is harmful to health is "no". In our opinion, one could even go so far as to say that the use of liquid smoke is significantly healthier than "natural" smoke, which passes into the meat along with harmful substances.