Heat for Smoking: How to Know What’s Happening in the Pot

Appears in
top 1000The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

  • About
To start the smoking mixture burning is no problem, though it can take upwards of 10 minutes over high heat if the pot is properly heavy and your stove is not the mightiest. Given a healthy stovetop, usually 4–6 minutes are required to start the sugar burning and to send aloft the first delicate whiffs of smoke, then about 2 minutes more for the dainty whiffs to turn into convincing puffs. At this point one covers the pot and the process begins in earnest.

Once the cover is in place, two things are crucial. One is to insure that the smoke is contained within the pot in order to do its job. Two is to adjust the heat to maintain a steady puff of smoke—not a trickle that will not do anything at all, and not a burning cloud that will scathe the food harshly, but a steady smoke somewhere in the middle.