What it does
Wood is burned under controlled conditions and the smoke is condensed into water, then filtered and fractionated. The purification step is the point: traditional smoking deposits polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the product along with the flavour, and purification can reduce these compounds, but the specification and current authorisation must be checked for the intended market and use. Different fractions give colour, flavour or the surface tack that helps casing adhesion.
Where it works
Cooked and cured meat, cheese, sauces and snacks. Its commercial value is usually not the flavour itself but what it removes: a smokehouse is a slow batch process, a capital item, a cleaning burden and a bottleneck, and a product smoked by addition skips all of it.
Where it does not
It will not reproduce every aspect of a genuinely smoked product, particularly the surface drying and skin formation that happen in a smokehouse at the same time as the smoke deposits. A product that relies on that skin for slicing will not get it from a flavour.
What it interacts with
Application method, since spraying, dipping and in formulation addition give different distributions. pH and protein, which affect how the colour develops.
