I live in NW DC. I have a beef tenderloin recipe that calls for these ingredients. Any idea where I can purchase? Many thanks.

Don't know about smoked salt but I am reasonably sure that Dean & Deluca carries smoked Maldon.

I have never seen "smoked" Maldon salt-- Maldon salt can be found at Balducci's, some Whole Foods stores, Dean and Deluca and at BlackSalt market. You could put a dish of Maldon salt in a stovetop smoker to flavor it with smoke, I guess. Ditto for black pepper. McCormick's used to sell hickory smoked salt, although they discontinued it. You might check Penzey's to see if they sell smoked salt.

Where did you find this recipe?

I found it in the September issue of Gourmet that I just received today. It actually is in an advertisement for beef and features recipes from chefs including Michel Richard. The recipe I am interested is from Laurent Tourondel. I was thinking it would be easier to find smoked salt than smoked pepper, so maybe I will use that and regular black pepper? (I don't have a stovetop smoker).

You might try contacting Jane Sibley at Auntie Arwen's Spices (mail-order out of Connecticut). I don't see them on her website's product list, but she had a couple of smoked salts on display last week, including one that was absolutely intense with alderwood smoke.

Balducci's in Alexandria has some nice smoked sea salt, but it is not Maldon (which -- if I recall correctly -- is flaky sea salt). It is more of a coarse sea salt.,

I bought some of the smoked salt that Balducci's carries. Very coarse, it says it's smoked over old Chardonnay barrels (Whatever, right? However, it does have an interesting and tasty smoke smell to it). I used it on some pork tenderloin, but the smoke flavor wasn't very prominent in the finished meat. I think I'll try it in mashed potatoes next.

Whole Foods in Silver Spring sells some guchi salts, including the chardonnay-smoked sea salt and a hawaiian red sea salt - some sort of clay mixed in. The flavor on the latter isn't very distinct, but it makes for an interesting presentation when sprinkled on a dish.

Maldon has just released a limited amount of smoked salt! This is a new product, and will be in very limited supply initially. I'm not sure where word got out previously that Maldon makes smoked salt (as far as I know, they never have). Halen Mon makes a beautiful Halen Mon Gold salt that is smoked with Welsh Oak, but it is chunkier and more like filo-dough than Maldon's very flat, think crisp flakes. There is a lot of home smoking, so perhaps TinDC is referring to some home-smoked Maldon. At any rate, we will have a good supply of the smoked Maldon at our shop, www.atthemeadow.com. Smoked Maldon is produced using "hardwood," meaning the company doesn't wish to divulge which woods it is using. Smokers are habitually secretive sorts, and guard their secrets closely, so this comes as no surprise! While I've tasted a sample batch earlier (someone at the NYC fancy food show was sneaking around with a baggy of it), I will wait until I have the production line in hand before commenting in depth on it. A "buy" button will be appearing on our website soon here>>. Cheers! Mark Bitterman, Selmelier, The Meadow

Anyone ever try smoking their own salt? Seems like it would be pretty easy, plus the commercially available smoked salts are not cheap.

I find it doesn't stay in the rolling papers very well. (rim shot)

Seriously, this eGullet thread has some discussion about smoking salt, as does this one. There's not a lot on the web about doing it yourself.

You should try freebasing it.
My butcher out in Crofton sells smoked salt. I got a containerful - they certainly do smell of smoke and are quite powerful. So much so that I think they overpower any food I've ever put them on. Perhaps I should give a few other smoked salts a try before condemning them all. But for now, my money is with the various sea salts (though the aforementioned Hawaiian red lava salt does have a really nice appearance and gives a great salty crunch to mashed potatoes. My dinner guests make specific requests for it).

Slightly offtopic, but I prepared some "malted salt" on friday to add to the fries I was making. big handful of kosher salt + malt vinegar enough to wet all the salt, mixed around, then baked on a sheet pan for ~15 minutes to evaporate the vinegar. Inspired by Rustico (the fries are called "malted fries" on the menu), but something that's pretty easy to do at home. Of course, I ended up making way too much of the stuff, but I imagine it'll keep ok in the mason jar in the fridge, and probably would be ok at room temp since it's just vinegar+salt.

That's a very creative idea. I wonder how a "lemon salt" made by the same technique would be...