Best way to cold smoke bacon

All about smokers hot and cold
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Truman49
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2018 6:47 pm

Best way to cold smoke bacon

Post by Truman49 »

Hi guys, thanks for adding me to this forum. I’m fairly new to smoking and haven’t brought a smoker yet.

I made some bacon awhile back and smoked it on my gas bbq using a small smoker box and wood chips. I used the far left burner and put the belly on the far right hand side of the bbq.

But I found that to keep the burner low so as not to raise the heat too much, it took ages for the wood chips to start to smoke. Then when they did they tended to smoke and burn very quickly.

Anyway take 2 I’m thinking of using on of those mesh tubes and smoker pellets. Doing it in the BBQ again but not worry about lighting any burners.

Is this the way to go? I’ve noticed some methods say smoke for4 hours or if the internal temp is at 150 for 90 minutes take it off. So does this mean we need to have some heat? Or can we smoke it with no heat at all?

Appreciate some suggestions?
Truman49
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2018 6:47 pm

Re: Best way to cold smoke bacon

Post by Truman49 »

Did I post this in the wrong section perhaps???
hoddo
Posts: 230
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 1:44 pm
Location: Northwest Sydney

Re: Best way to cold smoke bacon

Post by hoddo »

Cold smoking is a way to get extra smoke into the bacon, meat tends to absorb less of the smoke as it starts to rise in temp so by cold smoking you can keep it raw in the smoke longer and get a stronger smoke flavor. It still has to be cooked to around 160F internal before you can store/eat it. In my opinion,unless you can keep the temp down around 40f, to be safe from the dangers of raw meat sitting for an extended period at a temp that breeds bacteria you need cure#1 in the brine. Although cooking should kill any dangerous bugs, it may not destroy any toxins they produce while cold smoking, using a preservative (sodium nitrite aka cure #1) will help prevent this happening. It also helps in the conversion of the pork to ham/bacon.To help maintain the low temp for cold smoking (especially with cheese and fish) it helps if the smoke source is outside the smoker and the smoke introduced into the smoker via a tube, there are several types of external smoke boxes (aka cold smoke generator) on the market and a few good designs you can build yourself, good idea to pick a cold day also. The smoke tubes and trays are great but you may have trouble keeping them burning in a cold bbq.
Truman49
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2018 6:47 pm

Re: Best way to cold smoke bacon

Post by Truman49 »

I’ve got my belly in a ziplock bag coated in cure #1 and other salts, spices etc for 7 days before I smoke it.

So even the tubes filled with pellets still don’t stay smouldering for 4 hours? What alternatives are there?
hoddo
Posts: 230
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 1:44 pm
Location: Northwest Sydney

Re: Best way to cold smoke bacon

Post by hoddo »

They might.. you will just have to experiment with different chips and pellet mixes, and google.... I use a Smoke Daddy which you can get from misty gully here in Aus
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