Cooking with Lapsang Souchong

[rrrrowsdower]

For years I have wanted to use Lapsang Souchong as a rub or marinade before smoking some meat on the grill and I think I am finally about to give it a shot. Has anyone else ever tried this? If so how was the outcome? Too much? Or was it like a dream?

[12Tea]

I haven't cooked with lapsang in particular, but most of the times, when I use tea for cooking, the tea flavour doesn't really come out in the food. For instance, I simmered eggs for hours in oolong tea, but in the end the tea eggs don't really taste like tea. I really have to add other Chinese spices to improve the flavour.

[J-P]

For years I have wanted to use Lapsang Souchong as a rub or marinade before smoking some meat on the grill and I think I am finally about to give it a shot. Has anyone else ever tried this? If so how was the outcome? Too much? Or was it like a dream?

Think about the quality in 1) the tea and 2) what you want to flavour or give aroma to.

Giving flavour to something more dominant in character (like an egg) is going to be tough. You could infuse milk and create a custard. That would certainly work...

Tea mixes or pairs well with like flavours. I like poaching fruit (pears for example) or making a syrup with a particularly aromatic oolong. Adding that to something oily (like cream or ice-cream) works well. Dark chocolate and Lapsang or other dark tea, also a good combo. It's a tough balancing act.

Different tea has different accents.

[rrrrowsdower]

Well I tried this two ways over the weekend. The first method I brewed a few cups of the tea and dumped it in a crock pot, and dilluted with more water, then put about a spoonful of tea leaves, some salt, pepper, onion and rosemary with some chicken breast and let it cook all day. Meat was ok, had a very very faint almost unnoticable tea aftertaste, but otherwise was just like plain old chicken.

2nd method is I grinded up a good amount of the Lapsang Souchong leaves and mixed it up with some black pepper, Himalayan pink salt, and garlic powder. Took some beef and used it as a dry rub. Packed it generously onto the meat, wrapped them up in foil, then cooked them on my grill over coal and wood for a little over an hour, until temp was cooked.

My idea here was that as the meat cooked and released its' juices the tea leaves would basically be steeping in the juices of the meat and imparting flavor. It SOUNDED great, but once I cut into it and took a bite the tea was a bit too much. It didnt give it much smoky flavor but the flavor of the tea rub was overpowering. Its hard to explain as it wasnt alot of flavor, but I could kinda "feel" the super concentration of tea and it was too much. I felt if I ate too much I may end up getting sick, or overload on caffeine.

So there you have it.

Now I wonder what would happen if I used brewed Lapsang in place of water/milk in hot chocolate mix. What can I say I love the lapsang.