{
 "schema": 1,
 "type": "fry",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "images": [],
 "id": "smoke-then-fry",
 "names": {
  "name": "smoke then fry",
  "aliases": [
   "smoked and flashed",
   "smoke-fried wings"
  ],
  "said": "Smoked wings, flashed. The second step takes seconds and it is the one the kitchen worries about."
 },
 "region": [
  "memphis",
  "the-south",
  "us"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "kind": "smoke"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Cooking the wing through in smoke, then dropping it briefly into hot oil or onto high heat to tighten the skin. Smoke gives flavour and colour that a fryer cannot; the fryer gives a crust that smoke alone leaves flabby. The rub or the sauce goes on after.",
  "story": "The temperatures explain the problem. Hot smoking runs at 52–80 °C / 126–176 °F, which cooks food while flavouring it but is far below the 177–191 °C a crust needs; smoke roasting, above 121 °C / 250 °F, combines roasting and smoking and still leaves poultry skin soft. Above 85 °C / 185 °F foods can shrink, buckle or split, so a smoker cannot simply be turned up. Hickory, oak, pecan, apple and mesquite are the common North American woods; different tree species have different ratios of components and so give different flavours.\n\nBuffalo's own reference text records the alternatives without endorsing them: traditionally the wings are deep-fried, but alternatively they may be baked, grilled, or broiled.\n\n*Tradition holds —* barbecue houses that sell wings usually smoke first and finish in the fryer, and describe the finish in seconds rather than minutes. This project has not found a published house method that states a time.\n\n*Inference —* the technique is a barbecue kitchen borrowing a bar's last step, which is why it shows up on menus where the pit is the main business and the wing is the appetiser.",
  "how": "Dry the wings, rub if the house rubs. Smoke at a hot-smoking temperature until cooked through, taking colour from the wood. Rest and dry the surface. Drop into hot oil for a short finish, or onto direct high heat, only long enough to set the skin. Sauce or dust after; a sauce applied before the fryer burns, and a rub applied before the smoke can turn bitter over a long cook.",
  "today": "Standard at barbecue counters that sell wings, and increasingly at bars with a smoker out back. *Inference —* it is also a scheduling method: the smoke happens in the morning and the fryer happens to order, so a slow cook reaches a bar's service speed."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "smoked-bbq-wing",
   "as": "The style this method makes, and the one that argues with the fryer for possession of the wing.",
   "rel": "style"
  },
  {
   "to": "central-bbq",
   "as": "A Memphis pit on this project's list, where a wing arrives out of the smoke rather than the vat.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "big-bob-gibson-bar-b-q",
   "as": "The Alabama house whose white sauce is built for smoked chicken.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "memphis-dry-rub",
   "as": "The dust that goes on after, in place of a sauce.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "alabama-white-sauce",
   "as": "The mayonnaise-and-vinegar dip this method is usually finished into.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "deep-fryer",
   "as": "Borrowed for the last thirty seconds, and only for the skin.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "to": "grill",
   "as": "The other finish, over direct heat instead of in oil.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "wet-and-dry",
   "as": "The choice this method forces at the end: dust it or sauce it.",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking",
  "s:wp-buffalo-wing"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking",
    "note": "the house method is explicitly unsourced and hedged; closing paragraph marked inference"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "tradition",
    "note": "no published house method found; this is the sequence the technique requires"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "inference"
   },
   "names.said": {
    "tier": "tradition"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "blurb": "Cooking the wing through in smoke, then dropping it briefly into hot oil or onto high heat to tighten the skin. Smoke gives flavour and colour that a fryer cannot; the fryer gives a crust that smoke alone leaves flabby.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "memphis",
   "name": "Memphis",
   "state": "TN",
   "note": "dry rub off the rib counter, put on wings"
  },
  {
   "key": "the-south",
   "name": "The American South",
   "state": null
  },
  {
   "key": "us",
   "name": "The United States",
   "state": null,
   "note": "use when a node belongs to the whole country"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "smoked-bbq-wing",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Smoked barbecue wings",
   "as": "The style this method makes, and the one that argues with the fryer for possession of the wing.",
   "rel": "style"
  },
  {
   "to": "central-bbq",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Central BBQ",
   "as": "A Memphis pit on this project's list, where a wing arrives out of the smoke rather than the vat.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "big-bob-gibson-bar-b-q",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q",
   "as": "The Alabama house whose white sauce is built for smoked chicken.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "memphis-dry-rub",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Memphis dry-rub wings",
   "as": "The dust that goes on after, in place of a sauce.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "alabama-white-sauce",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Alabama white sauce",
   "as": "The mayonnaise-and-vinegar dip this method is usually finished into.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "deep-fryer",
   "type": "fry",
   "name": "the deep fryer",
   "as": "Borrowed for the last thirty seconds, and only for the skin.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "to": "grill",
   "type": "fry",
   "name": "the grill",
   "as": "The other finish, over direct heat instead of in oil.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "wet-and-dry",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "wet and dry",
   "as": "The choice this method forces at the end: dust it or sauce it.",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Smoking (cooking)",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_(cooking)",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-buffalo-wing",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "Buffalo wing",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_wing",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-wp-smoking-cooking",
   "note": "the house method is explicitly unsourced and hedged; closing paragraph marked inference"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "no published house method found; this is the sequence the technique requires"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "inference"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "alabama-white",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Alabama white sauce wings",
   "as": "How a pit gets wing skin to tighten before the sauce goes on.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "from": "smoked-bbq-wing",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Smoked barbecue wings",
   "as": "The finishing move that fixes slack skin, and the one step that makes a smoked wing eat like a fried one.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "from": "alabama-white-sauce",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Alabama white sauce",
   "as": "The cooking this sauce meets at the end, never during — mayonnaise splits over fire.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "from": "jerk-marinade",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Jerk marinade",
   "as": "The method it belongs to: smoke for the flavour, fryer or grill for the skin.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "from": "memphis-rub",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Memphis dry rub",
   "as": "The method a rubbed wing most often goes through: smoke for colour, fryer for skin.",
   "rel": "fry"
  },
  {
   "from": "grill",
   "type": "fry",
   "name": "the grill",
   "as": "The other way out of the fryer, with the crust bought back at the end.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "par-cook",
   "type": "fry",
   "name": "the par-cook",
   "as": "Another split cook: the slow part in the morning, the fast part on the ticket.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "central-bbq",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Central BBQ",
   "as": "Stops at the smoke; this pit does not finish a wing in oil.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "elmos-bar-and-restaurant",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Elmo's Bar & Restaurant",
   "as": "Runs the sequence backwards — fry first, then grill the sauce on.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "bob-gibson",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Bob Gibson",
   "as": "Did the smoke half of it in 1925; the fry half came later and from elsewhere.",
   "rel": "fry"
  }
 ]
}