1st Time Bacon Cold Smoking - Using The A-MAZE-N-SMOKER Question

gretscher · May 17, 2012

Hi everyone, just purchased the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER Pellet Smoker. I am going to cold smoke the bacon using it and this is the first I am cold smoking bacon period. So I have a few questions. I did try to do a search of the forums and didn't find the exact answers I needed. If they are here and I missed my apologies for redundancy but here it goes -

1) How long do you normally cure your bacon in the firdge?

2) I see on YouTube that people light the smoker at both ends sometimes for more smoke and sometimes they don't. Do you recommend lighting both ends of the pellet smoker for cold smoking bacon or is one end enough? I believe at the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER website it says for the Pellet model you get 11 hours of smoke, so if I light both ends I'll be burning twice as much fuel therefore I would get 5.5 hours of smoke out of it.

3) How long do you cold smoke your bacon for?

4) I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles, CA and it's usually pretty warm this time of year. By 11:00 it should be about 75 F here so in the smoker even with no heat added I bet it gets to about 85 with the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER going so I need to cold smoke when it's colder. Do you suggest I cold smoke at night instead of day? It might get about 60 F at night here which maybe in the cold smoker would get to about 70 or 72 F I am guessing. Is night maybe better or do you suggest I just wake up early and do the cold smoking and if it gets to about 80 or a few degrees over in the cold smoker it's okay?

Thank You,

James

daveomak · May 17, 2012

James, morning..... Curing time for meat is generally 1/4" of thickness of the meat per day plus 2 days.... so a 2" belly, curing from both sides, would need 4 days for the thickness plus 2 days for safety.... Rotate, turn the meat every day.... Some say it ain't necessary but I do it to insure an even cure throughout the meat..... I just like turning the meat.... You can cure longer, no problem.....

As far as the temp and smoke go.... You could use soda bottles and freeze water in them to help keep the smoker colder.... a good idea... Smoke at night would help too.....

On your first attempt at smoking bacon, I would light one end and smoke for 10-12 hours.... Use a light flavored wood.... too much smoke flavor is worse than not enough..... It will give you a guide for the next smoke....

Now for the slab itself.... After curing, dry the slab well with paper towels and form a really good pellicle.... Set the slab in the fridge for a day, on a rack, so it will dry and form the pellicle... If you are not familiar with a pellicle, it is a drying, of the outer surface of the meat, that should be firm and dry to the touch.....

Dave

gretscher · May 17, 2012

Morning Dave, thanks for the quick reply.

So 1 day of curing per 1/4 inch of meat. You said for a 2 inch thick slab you'd need 4 days plus 2 for safety. Maybe my math is off but should it really be 8 days plus 2 days for safety?

4 quarters in 1 inch so that's 4 x 1 = 4 days but multiply by 2 because there are two inches and I get 8 days plus another 2 days just for safety. Trying to make sure I understand the math correctly on this.

I like your idea of using frozen water to keep the temp at bay.

If I smoke at 10 to 11 hours that is perfect because I can light one end and according to A-MAZE-N the pellet smoker burns to about 11 hours so I can go to bed and wake up and it's done.

Hope ants don't try to attack my bacon though because I have smoked meat and forgot to do a good job of cleaning up and then saw ants all over the offset smoker a few hours later. That's a fear of mine is because it's cold smoke, not hot the ants might try to attack the bacon. I understand there is smoke so that should keep them away I would think but if the smoke stops for whatever reason then the ants attack the offset smoker. What do you think?

Thanks for the tip on the drying in the fridge for the pellicle.

Thanks,

James

gretscher · May 17, 2012

Turns out my pork belly is only about 1 inch thick so the curing time won't be so long. Seems like most people here have a 2 inch thick pork belly but mine is not.

daveomak · May 17, 2012

gretscher, evening.... The cure penetration is from both sides of the hunk of meat..... 1/4" per day from each side.... I should have made that clear.... Sorry for the confusion....

... 2 extra days or more for safety..... Take pics for all to see and good smoking.... Dave

gretscher · May 18, 2012

Dave, thanks for clearing that up. I now understand what you mean by 1/4 inch a day. Mine is 1 inch, not very thick bacon but okay for the first time. So that would be 2 days plus 2 days for safety reasons. I might go with an extra day or 5 days instead of 4 just in case. I'll post pics.

Dave, I ordered the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker. I am curing now so when it arrives maybe my cure will be done and I can smoke it. I ordered hickory and peach pellets. Should I mix the two pellets up then place in the A-MAZE-N so the two woods smoke together or should I fill half with the hickory and half with the peach so they smoke separately? What's best for this?

Thanks much Dave!

daveomak · May 18, 2012

James, morning... Smoke is personal preference.... Store bought "big producer" bacon has little smoke... Hickory is the "advertised" smoke flavor in a lot of bacons on the market....

If you are planning on 10-12 hours of smoke, since peach is supposedly a mild smoke, (don't know, never used it), I would mix the pellets and add the mix to the AMNPS so you have a blended smoke..... maybe 50-50 mix.... You could also go with 100% peach for a first go-round flavor test..... I would not want your first smoke to be overpowering in the smoke flavor end of the process....

Someone who has smoked with peach and hickory will add their views here...

Where do you live ???? What are the temperatures going to be ????

You want the temps below 80 deg to keep the fat from starting to melt in the bacon.... Keep pop bottles of frozen water in the smoker to keep the temp down.... Pop bottles keep the moisture down also, in comparison to ice in a tray....

As far as the ants go.... I don't know what "chocolate covered, smoked, bacon flavored ants" taste like.... might be good..

.... they don't eat much....

I know on some foods I apply smoke 2 hours.... others 6-10 hrs... it is hard to judge and keeping good records on what you do will improve your skills for each following smoke...

I hate being vague but... personal preference dictates each application... Dave

gretscher · May 18, 2012

Morning Dave,

A friend of mine had a dried out dead peach tree in his backyard. Since his dad passed away in 1998 my friend did not take care of it. Over the years it died out. He is handy capped, Cerebral Palsy so he asked if I could cut it down for him. I took the electric chain saw and cut it down, most of it at least and cut up the wood into manageable pieces. Went to the cheap offset smoker (COS) and started lump charcoal, put some of the peach on it and grilled rib eye over it. Man one of the best steaks ever. So I am hoping peach will work well with the bacon. People love hickory bacon here at this forum so I thought as you are thinking hickory could be overpowering so I thought maybe I'll do half peach and half hickory.

I've used Almond in smoking meat and although I heard great things about it I did not care for the taste. It's okay but peach is better in my opinion or pecan. Hickory is a great standard though, maybe for smoking ribs and pulled pork or brisket maybe stick to the standard hickory.

So I will mix the pellets together as you suggest. Per your suggestion at the risk of overpowering it with smoke I will probably not fill up the entire A-MAZE-N pellet smoker. Maybe 3/4 of the way as to not over smoke the first time. Maybe I can get an 8 hour smoke.

I'll do it overnight because where I live in the South West it gets to be about 70 F by 9 or 10:00 AM then 80 about this time of year about 11:00 AM. At night it's about 62 or maybe slightly less. I think that if I do an overnight cold smoke it will be under 80 in the smoker no problem. I'll do your suggestion with frozen water. I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Not the City of LA but a neighboring city outside of LA almost at the start of the San Gabriel Valley. About 25 miles from the ocean. We have nice weather this time of year but being the South West it will get really hot by mid June or sooner so that's why I must not chance it and do a night smoke when I am asleep.

Thanks for your help Dave!

chefrob · May 18, 2012

looks like dave has you covered.......i will say don't wory about yer temps. i live in the PHX area and i just did some bacon yesterday from 8am to 9pm with out any issues. not sure what smoker you are using but i would keep the AMNSP away from your bacon since there is a lttle heat generated.

gretscher · May 18, 2012

chefrob, thanks for your insight. Dave really helped me a lot and I appreciate his help. I have a better understanding of what needs to be done. Been researching this for some time but just recently posted here with specific questions. I still might smoke it at night anyways because I just sleep while it's going on. Just got the AMNSP this morning, about an hour ago in the mail. The owner of the company really ships fast. I think I ordered it two days ago. Comes with oak but purchased the hickory and peach as well. I'm impressed by this unit. I will not be able to use it for about a week though because I'm curing the pork belly now and I will be out of town for a few days next week also, so it will be when I get back I'll cold smoke it.

How long did you cure yours and how thick is your slab? Mine is only about 1 inch thick.

Thanks!

chefrob · May 18, 2012

todd (the owner) is a stand up guy.........personally, i would do 1/2 hickory 1/4 oak and 1/4 peach and mix them all up ine the AMNSP for the burn. i don't do belly, i do buck board bacon from the shoulder (but) but i trim it and treat it just like belly.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/121456/pitmaster-blend-bbb

scarbelly · May 18, 2012

I agree with Rob, mix the pellets - you got some great advice from Dave and Rob. Once you start using the AMNPS you will love it - just make sure it has enough airflow and it will pump out TBS (thin blue smoke) for you for 10 hours

gretscher · May 18, 2012

chefrob, I'm going to follow your suggestion with the 1/2 1/4 1/4 mixture. I have a feeling it's gonna turn out great. Thanks for the suggestion. I never heard of buck board bacon until I started researching bacon at this website. Never had an idea there was such things. Now if this pork belly turns out good then I might try to do some BBB too.

Scarbelly, I see you are from Fallbrook. My mom lives there. I was just there about a month ago. Nice area that Fallbrook. Right behind Camp Pendleton.

I'll make sure I have air flow. Thanks for the suggestion.

gretscher · May 27, 2012

Well as of 7:30 PM PST, that's wild west time zone, I had the A-MAZE-N pellet smoker blowing thin blew smoke and had the pork belly on. Took some pics and will take more tomorrow morning. I'm going for an 11 hours smoke therefore I'll have to wake up early tomorrow at about 6:30 and take off at 7:30 AM WWT (Wild West Time Zone). This will be my first home made bacon. I did a fry pan test and it did taste too but I barely cut any off to test so I really don't know how it really is. When I finish smoking and slice and cook I'll know. I'll post pics when I am finally done.

smokinhusker · May 27, 2012

Can't wait to see and hear about the final results! Sounds like a good blend of smoke flavors.

gretscher · Jun 3, 2012

Not sure what a QView is but I guess it's posting a pic. Let me give this a try. Well if this works you see my first attempt at making bacon from scratch at home -

pops6927 · Jun 3, 2012

gretscher said:
Not sure what a QView is but I guess it's posting a pic. Let me give this a try. Well if this works you see my first attempt at making bacon from scratch at home -

Looks delicious! How did it taste? Will you go back to store-bought bacon ever again?? lol!

The term Qview" was decided on a long time ago by the moderators and Tulsa Jeff, the owner, as the 'official' name of pictures on the forum. It is pictures, or a 'view' of your 'Q', or your BBQ'd product. Qview. It had to be named because everyone was calling pictures something different, including 'food porn' and such. As this, unlike many other forums, is G-rated, family-friendly oriented, 'food porn' is totally unacceptable terminology for pictures here. And that is how Qview was born and used ever since! Thank you for understanding!

gretscher · Jun 3, 2012

Pops, thanks for the info on the term QView. I always thought QView meant Quck View but makes sense that QView means BBQ View! I'm with you, I hate the term porn. I am a guitar fan and have many and at some guitar forums they'll refer to guitar pics as Guitar Porn. I absolutely detest that term. Not being political but everything is getting so sex oriented it's sickening. Now back to the fun stuff.

No, won't go back to the store bought stuff. Pop's it was good but I learned a lot from this of what to do or not do. It was good but it tasted very much like Honey Baked Ham. I love HBH so tasting like that is not a bad thing but it was not quite bacon tasting so I think the reasons were that I added too much sweet to the brine and also maybe brined/cured too long. So if I back off the time it is brined and I back off a bit on the sweet I think it will be totally right next time.

I see some people saying they brine/cure it for 12 to 14 days but Dave Omak above says "Curing time for meat is generally 1/4" of thickness of the meat per day plus 2 days.... " He refers to 1/4 inch each side per day so mine which was only 1 inch wide 2 days plus 2 days for safety but I did about 9 days as a happy halfway point between the 12 to 14 days some do and the 4 days I came up with. But next time I follow Daves suggestion with the 1/4 inch per day plus 2 for safety because 9 days made it more like Honey Baked Ham than bacon. So next time 4 days and less sweet or if I have 2 inch pork belly I'll do 6 days.

Glad the Chinese super grocery warehouse in downtown LA had the Sodium Nitrate because it was hard to find. The pork belly was from another Chinese store but not a food warehouse but 99 Ranch Market they call it. They always have pork belly, thank God!

Thanks

mneeley490 · Jun 3, 2012

"How did it taste?" --My question exactly! I have a 12 lb. belly in the smoker right now, using Todd's pitmaster blend. I've had to open the door a couple times (did some cheese, too) and now my shirt smells great!

gretscher · Jun 3, 2012

The pellets I used was 1/2 Hickory, 1/4 Peach and 1/4 Oak. The smoke combo was really good. This bacon was a good tasting bacon just was more like Honey Baked Ham which was odd. I should make some again like that because Honey Baked Ham cost a fortune but if I do this this will cost pennies on the dollar for what HBH cost! I smoked about 4.5 lbs but next time I'll do about 10 or 12 to get more done at once and not have to do this so often.

1st Time Bacon Cold Smoking - Using The A-MAZE-N-SMOKER Question

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