clever masterchef idea

[rachel lindsay]

I saw a clever use for wooden wine/whisky presentation boxes on Masterchef. The chef filled the box with some hay, lit it, let the flames go out, put his cooked meat into the smoking hay, closed the lid and left it in until he felt he got the smokey flavour he wanted. So basically something we'd normally throw out he turned into a mini smoker, it would probably work to smoke cheese too. The chef on Masterchef smoked some duck on the night. It looked really good, I'm going to try it some night.

[Pudge72]

mmm...smoked food.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Thanks for the tip ... mmmm smoked Duck, sounds delish.

could even add in a few drops of the hard stuff of one's choice for an extra dimension

[DavidH]

Interesting idea but I'd be wondering what chemicals I was leaching out of the wood. It wasn't designed to be food safe so who knows what glues, varnishes, preservatives and bug killers have been used. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

[rachel lindsay]

Shouldn't be a problem, the boxes aren't usually varnished inside and there wouldn't be enough heat generated to release any glues or chemicals. I take your point though, we do have to question what goes into our food preparation.

[IainB]

I've seen it done with a biscuit box so I guess you could use metal whiskey tubs without too much worry. You can also buy oak sawdust from angling shops which could also work but it would be harder to get them to smoulder without an external heat source which I guess rules out wooden boxes. I've hot smoked fish in a metal box before in this way but I've found you need to brine the fish first or it dries out too much. I guess though straw smoking in a wooden box may be different.

[DavidH]

I have seen, on MasterChef Australia, smoking done just in tin foil and a frying pan or wok.

We should have a recipes forum!

[aaagul45]

It wasn't designed to be food safe so who knows what glues, varnishes, preservatives and bug killers have been used. Maybe I'm just paranoid.??

[Solianne]

Sound great! Have you tried it?