How to Smoke Water: Simple Guide

Like liquid smoke, you can instantly infuse just about anything you are whipping up in the kitchen with a smoky flavor using smoked water. Just like regular drinking water, you can buy smoked water by the bottle online. But did you know that making smoked water at home is surprisingly easy?

Water can be smoked using a covered grill or smoker. Water should be smoked for about 30 minutes. A smoke infuser gun may also be used to cold-smoke water. For best results, cold water or ice cubes may be used. That’s because smoke tends to adhere so much quicker and better to cold or frozen water.

There are a lot of dishes, sauces and even beverages that you can smoke.

And this is why having smoked water handy is a wonderful idea, especially if you would like to be known among your family and friends as the expert in smoked gastronomic gems. Read on to know how to smoke water.

Liquid Smoke vs. Liquid Water: What’s the Difference?

Simply put, liquid smoke is highly concentrated. Liquid water, on the other hand, is highly diluted. When used for cooking or flavoring, most recipes call for the use of a few drops of liquid smoke only. Meanwhile, liquid water can be used liberally or until the desired smokiness level is obtained.

The name may sound confusing, but liquid smoke is a thing — it’s the condensed smoke from burning wood.

Got an idea of how water is distilled? Well, liquid smoke is made in pretty much the same manner: smoke, which contains water vapor, from burning wood is collected in a condenser in order to turn smoke into liquid.

Because of the making process involved, liquid smoke is concentrated and potent. As a matter of fact, it is used in drops only — adding two to three drops is usually more than enough. For flavoring a large quantity of meat, one teaspoon of liquid smoke is enough to flavor up to five pounds of meat.

On the other hand, smoked water is not anywhere near the potency of liquid smoke. Despite this, it’s something that you don’t chug after working out or during a particularly hot and humid day.

While you should use liquid smoke sparingly in order to keep food from tasting burnt rather than delightfully smoky, you can use smoked water liberally to your heart’s content to obtain the level of smokiness you like. As a matter of fact, smoked water can be used as an alternative to water when cooking, not just as seasoning.

How Do You Make Smoked Water at Home?

Smoked water can be made at home using a covered grill or smoker. Using a wide pan is recommended as it allows more water to come into contact with smoke. The process usually takes around 30 minutes to complete. Using a smoke infuser gun to make smoked water may take longer.

As of this writing, smoked water is not as widely commercially available as liquid smoke.

You can always order smoked water on the internet. Or you can choose to smoke water in your backyard or kitchen and make homemade smoked water which you can use right away for a wide variety of purposes or applications.

Making liquid smoke at home can be daunting as you will have to get your hands on special equipment. On the other hand, the equipment you will need for making smoked water from scratch is already probably sitting pretty in your backyard — making smoked water requires only either a covered grill or smoker!

Materials:

Covered grill or smoker
Wood chips
Charcoal starter
Newspaper
Dried herbs
Wide pan
Cold water or ice cubes
Large strainer
Cheesecloth

Directions:

Add your preferred wood chips to the grill or smoker.
Using charcoal starter and newspaper, light the wood chips.
Sprinkle some dried herbs into wood chips.
Place wide pan with cold water or ice cubes on the grill or in the smoker.
Cover grill or smoker.
Wait for about 30 minutes.
Carefully remove wide pan from the grill or smoker.
Allow smoked water to cool for a while.
Strain smoked water using a large strainer lined with cheesecloth.
Transfer smoked water to a covered container.

That’s how simple it is to make smoked water from scratch — no need to wait for a bottle of smoked water purchased online to arrive at your doorstep two to three days or sometimes a couple of weeks after ordering it!

As mentioned earlier, it’s a good idea to use cold water or ice cubes as smoke will stick to it so much better.

But you can use room temperature water, too. Just make sure that you give the smoke in the grill or smoker plenty of time to do its job — sometimes up to 90 minutes. Also, place the water in the widest pan you have that can fit nicely on your grill or in your smoker in order to make the smoking process faster and more effective.

Have no grill or smoker? No worries! That’s because you can use a smoke infuser gun!

Materials:

Smoke infuser gun
Wood chips
Dried herbs
Wide pan or bowl
Cling wrap
Cold water or ice cubes

Directions:

Place cold water or ice cubes in a wide pan or bowl.
Cover the pan or bowl with cling wrap.
Add wood chips and dried herbs to the wood chamber of the smoke infuser gun.
Place the hose of the smoke infuser gun under the cling wrap.
Switch on the smoke infuser gun.
Allow smoke to fill pan or bowl with cold water or ice cubes.
Switch off the smoke infuser gun.
Remove the hose and quickly seal the pan or bowl.
Every now and then, give the content of the pan or bowl a gentle slosh.
Wait for about 90 minutes.
Transfer smoked water to a covered container.

How Do You Make Smoked Ice Cubes at Home?

There are a couple of ways to make smoked ice cubes. If a subtle smoked flavor is preferred, ice cubes may be smoked with a smoke infuser gun and then added to drinks. For a more noticeable or stronger smoky flavor, cold water may be smoked using a covered grill or smoker for 30 minutes and then frozen.

Many drinks, including cocktails, can turn from typical to fantastical with the addition of smoked ice cubes.

It’s a good thing that you don’t have to scour the entire city to search for a fancy bar where smoked drinks are offered. All you have to do is make some smoked ice cubes from scratch and keep lots of them in the freezer!

Making DIY smoked ice cubes is as easy as placing some ice cubes in a bowl covered with cling wrap and filling it with smoke with the help of your trusted smoke infuser gun. While this is a quick and simple way to make smoked ice cubes, the method will only let you enjoy ice cubes with a subtle smoky flavor.

If you want ice cubes that pack a lot of smokiness, it’s a good idea to opt for a more complex method.

Materials:

Covered grill or smoker
Wood chips
Charcoal starter
Newspaper
Dried herbs
Wide pan
Cold water
Large strainer
Cheesecloth
Ice cube trays

Directions:

Add your preferred wood chips to the grill or smoker.
Using charcoal starter and newspaper, light the wood chips.
Sprinkle some dried herbs into wood chips.
Place wide pan with cold water on the grill or in the smoker.
Cover grill or smoker.
Wait for about 30 minutes.
Carefully remove wide pan from the grill or smoker.
Allow smoked water to cool for a while.
Strain smoked water using a large strainer lined with cheesecloth.
Transfer smoked water to ice cube trays.
Place ice cube trays in the freezer.

That’s it — you just made your very first batch of smoked ice cubes! The process may not be as quick and easy as using a smoke infuser gun, but it will surely make your friends go wow even more.

In order to save yourself from having to do the steps given above again and again, consider getting your hands on several ice cube trays and making lots and lots of smoked ice cubes at once. In the freezer, homemade smoked ice cubes will remain smoky indefinitely.

Just Before You Start Smoking Water

You can buy smoked water online. Or you can make it from scratch either in your backyard using your grill or smoker or in your kitchen using your smoke infuser gun.

Either way, it can make just about any dish, sauce or beverage you add it to astonishing!

It’s not just smoked water that you can make by following the how to smoke water steps mentioned above — you can also make smoked ice cubes, which you won’t be able to purchase online.