— Pina Hasbani

There's different types of liquid smoke. Some of it is, um, it's actually smoke, um, that's been captured in probably water. Um, and, uh, so you, you use a very, very small amount, you know, just a couple of drops at a time, maybe one drop at a time, uh, to impart, you know, some, um, some style of smokiness. Um, read the labels though, because other liquid smokes have other ingredients that you might not want to use, you know, in your own cooking or your own body. Um, are there, uh, substitutes? Um, sure. Uh, in terms of bringing in smokiness to food, you know, think about, um, ingredients that have been smoked, uh, like smoked paprika, uh, Chipotle chilies, black cardamon. Uh, you know, also there is the possibility of smoking your own food, and that can be done in, uh, a number of ways. Uh, you know, there are small just handheld, uh, portable smokers that use these little, uh, pellets. Um, and, and they, they burn and create real smoke. You can buy pellets in different flavors, um, for different, uh, types of smoke. Um, you can also use a grill. Um, you can also use, um, a stove top smoker, which is a smaller pan. It's about this big in footprint and maybe this high. Um, you'll use a rack inside with some wood chips. You wet the wood chips, put your food on top, and then, uh, put the lid on it. That goes on your, your stove top. You heat it up, um, and then it create smoke inside the box. Have your fan on, um, do it outside ideally. 'cause it might set out the smoke detectors. Uh, and that can smoke your food. You can smoke anything, okay? Um, uh, you know, chocolate meats, herbs, you do all kinds of stuff. Um, you can also maybe even get a, just a small piece of charcoal and put that into just a small container. It could be a small bowl, and then you just light that on fire, put that in your bowl, um, put it inside your pan. 'cause it's just a small little bowl. Put the lid on it and that can just, uh, smoke your dish that you're preparing. So those are a few options for you. Um, I hope you'll explore those and, um, you're, you're, you're sure to find something that, uh, that'll work for your situation.