More soon on this weekend's all-day hickory smoking adventure, but first, a little libation.
Hickory Smoked Cherry Limeade
Juice of 2 dozen limes
1 1/2 cups simple syrup (more or less to taste)
2 cups water (more or less to taste)
Stir these together in a large pitcher with 2-3 handfuls of smoked cherries.
Hickory Smoked Cherry & Bourbon Lemonade
2 quarts lemonade (fresh or from concentrate)
1 cup triple sec or orange curacao
2-3 cups bourbon (to taste)
1 cup smoked cherries
Pour over ice. For a lighter drink, top with seltzer.
So how do you happen to come upon smoked cherries? Prolly not in your local 7-11. Seeing as I was spending 8-ish hours smoking brisket, I figured I might as well put the top racks to use. Took a couple of foil baking pans, and laid in a layer of fresh cherries in each. Two hours in the low, steady lump charcoal heat, suffused with the heady smoke of beer-soaked hickory chips left the cherries with unbelievably rich, mellow, sweet-smoked flavor. Seeing our guests repeatedly sidling over to the bowl with the extras, and plucking them from their cocktails to savor on their own makes me think I've stumbled upon something pretty distinctive. I've a notion there will be a goodly bit more experimentation as long as they're in season.
Next outing - we smoke the lemons & limes, and potentially a few peaches. Wanna come over?
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Lemonade 101
16. I also have found, in the grocery store, a product called 'liquid smoke'. I haven't tried it on the cherries yet (ran out) but it's awesome on meat. This may take some time out of 2+ hours of BBQing if you don't have the time.
Toni at 1:54PM on Jul 24th 2007