re barbecued foods and health risk this reminds me of the last graham kerr cooking show i saw today he smoked meat on the stovetop in a big pot he used a strange technique i d never seen before he took a big pot with lid and placed a tray in it made from aluminum foil the tray was about the size and shape of a typical coffee table ash tray made by crumpling a sheet of foil around the edges in the tray he placed a couple spoonfuls of brown sugar a similar quantity of brown rice he said any rice will do the contents of two teabags of earl grey tea and a few cloves on top of this was placed an ordinary aluminum basket type steamer with two chicken breasts in it the lid was put on and the whole assembly went on the stovetop at high heat for or minutes later he removed what looked like smoked chicken breasts what surprises and concerns me are no wood chips where does the smoke flavor come from about or years ago i remember hearing that carmel color obtained by caramelizing sugar a common coloring and flavoring agent had been found to be carcinogenic i believe they injected it under the skin of rats or something if the results were conclusive caramel color would not be legal in the u s yet it is still being used was the initial research result found to be incorrect or what about or years ago i remember earl grey tea being implicated as carcinogenic because it contains oil of bergamot an extract from the skin of a type of citrus fruit does anyone know whatever happened with that story if it were carcinogenic earl grey tea could not have it as an additive yet it apparently continues to do so wrt natural wood smoke i ve smoking a duck right now as it happens i ve noticed that a heavily smoked food item will have an unpleasant tangy taste when eaten directly out of the smoker if the smoke has only recently stopped flowing i find the best taste to be had by using dry wood chips getting lots of smoke right up at the beginning of the cooking process then slowly barbequing for hours and hours without adding additional wood chips my theory is that the unpleasant tangy molecules are low molecular weight stuff like terpenes and that the smoky flavor molecules are some sort of larger molecule more similar to tar the long barbeque time after the initial intensive smoke drives off the low molecular weight stuff just leaving the flavor behind does anyone know if my theory is correct i also remember hearing that the combustion products of fat dripping on the charcoal and burning are carcinogenic for that reason and because it covers the product with soot and some unpleasant tanginess i only grill non drippy meats like prawns directly over hot coals i do stuff like this duck by indirect heat i have a long rectangular weber and i put the coals at one end and the meat at the other end the fat drops directly on the floor below the meat and next time i use the barbeque i make the fire in that end to burn off the fat and help ignite the coals and yet another reason i ve heard not to smoke or barbeque meat is that smoked cured meat like pork sausage and bacon contains nitrosamines which are carcinogenic i m pretty sure this claim actually has some standing don t know about the others an amusing incident i recall was the duncan hines scandal when it was discovered that the people who make duncan hines cake mix were putting a lot of ethylene dibromide edb into the cake mix to suppress weevils this is a fumigant which is known to be carcinogenic the guy who represented the company in the press conference defended himself by saying that the risk from eating duncan hines products every day for a year would be equal to the cancer risk from eating two charcoal broiled steaks what a great analogy when i first heard that my immediate reaction was we should make that a standard unit one charcoal broiled steak would be equivalent to duncans
