Liquid smoke is a water-soluble yellow to red liquid used as a flavoring as a substitute for cooking with wood smoke while retaining a similar flavor. It can be used to flavor any meat or vegetable. It is generally made by condensing the smoke from wood without any food additives, but many derivative formulas contain additives for functional purposes, which must appear on product labels. History Pyrolysis or thermal decomposition of wood in a low oxygen manner originated prehistorically to produce charcoal. Condensates of the vapors eventually were made and found useful as preservatives. For centuries, water-based condensates of wood smoke were popularly called "wood vinegar", presumably due to its use as food vinegar. Pliny the Elder recorded in one of his ten volumes of Natural History the use of wood vinegar as an embalming agent, declaring it superior to other treatments he used. In 1658, Johann Rudolf Glauber outlined the methods to produce wood vinegar during charcoal making. Further, he described the use of the water insoluble tar fraction as a wood preservative and documented the freezing of the wood vinegar to concentrate it. Use of the term "pyroligneous acid" for wood vinegar emerged by 1788. In the United States, in 1895, E. H. Wright inaugurated the era of commercial distribution of pyroligneous acid under a new name, liquid smoke. Among Wright's innovations were the standardization of the product, marketing and distribution. Wright's Liquid Smoke, since 1997 owned by B&G Foods, and its modern-day successors have always been the subject of controversy about their contents and production, but in 1913, Wright prevailed in a federal misbranding case. Case judge Van Valkenburg wrote: Historically, all pyroligneous acid products, Wright's product and many other condensates have been made as byproducts of charcoal manufacturing, which was of greater value. Chemicals such as methanol, acetic acid and acetone have been isolated from these condensates and sold. With the advent of lower cost fossil fuel sources, today these and other wood derived chemicals retain only small niches. Today there are many manufacturing locations around the world, most of which pyrolyze wood primarily to generate condensates which are further processed to make hundreds of derivative products. These are now referred to less as liquid smoke products, and instead as smoke flavorings, smoke flavors, and natural condensed smoke. Production The condensed products from the destructive distillation of wood are called "liquid smoke" or "pyroligneous acid". There