How to Smoke Olives with a Smoking Gun and Oak

Mild California ripe olives cold-smoked in a sealed bag with a handheld smoking gun and oak chips for a quick, fragrant hit of smoke.

🍳 Cook: 10 min

Ingredients

—	canned California ripe (black) olives, drained
1 pinch	oak wood chips
1 pinch	black tea leaves (alternative)

Choose mild, buttery olives — canned California ripe olives take on the smoke beautifully. Avoid heavily pickled olives, whose acid and salt overpower the smoke.
Put a small pinch of oak wood chips into the smoking gun — just a pinch.
Put the drained olives into a resealable plastic bag and seal the bag around the smoking gun's nozzle.
Turn the smoking gun on and light the wood chips with a lighter. Within a couple of seconds the chips catch and smoke billows from the nozzle.
Let the bag fill with smoke — only takes a few seconds. When full, turn off the gun, remove the nozzle and quickly finish sealing the bag to trap the smoke.
Let the cold smoke and olives sit for a few minutes, shaking the bag a couple of times to disperse the smoke. The longer it sits, the more smoke flavour infuses.
For a more intense smokiness, repeat with a fresh pinch of chips. Tip: black tea leaves work even better than wood chips. Use the smoked olives to make a quick tapenade over grilled shrimp, or in a simple quesadilla.