Help smoking hams and bacon

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jetbird

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2013
4
10
Hi, I am new to this forum and located in Massachusetts. I hope you can be patient with me. I have not extensively searched this forum or taken the 5 day course yet, but I will. My immediate concern is that I have some hams and bacon that have cured in brine and I plan to cold smoke them. I have 2 partners in this venture who know less about the process than I had hoped, so now it falls to me to figure out how to build and use the smoker. So far I have a steel storage cabinet with wood hanging racks. I plan to keep the fire in a weber kettle grill set on the ground and connect the two with some solid aluminum dryer vent pipe from the grill lid to a hole in the bottom of the cabinet. A dryer vent hood will provide ventilation near the top of the cabinet on one side. Please tell me if this sounds feasible/safe in general. Do I need to remove the paint from inside the cabinet to cold smoke safely? I would like to know if I need to bury my smoke pipe to help cool the smoke. Do I need a certain length pipe? Also, I have no idea of proper smoking temps or times. Sorry to be a typical clueless twit in a hurry.
 
Hi, I have 4 hams, each are 25 pounds. I also have bacon, don't know how big the pieces are but they are the bellies from the same 2 pigs that the hams came from. How long should they smoke and how low should I keep my temps? I already have the kettle grill set up and hooked to the cabinet, my buddy has some hickory and apple wood he cut himself. I plan to drill a hole to accept a thermometer about half way up the cabinet. Any advice appreciated as I am a rank novice. Thanks.
 
Here is great thread for the ham but it is not cold smoking like you mentioned. I think if you bring the ham to 140 it is considered a fresh ham and when you bring the IT to 152-155 it is considered a cooked ham.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/89979/from-hog-leg-to-easter-ham

And I thought this one was a good bacon tutorial.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129116/finally-found-some-bellies-real-bacon-my-first

Here is a thread for both.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/133477/meaty-bacon-and-cured-smoked-ham#post_909296
 
Last edited:
Well, I got the hams and bacon smoked.  Used mostly apple wood and a little hickory.  Smoked cold for a little over one day.  Fire was in a little kettle grill attached to my smoker with 4 inch dryer vent pipe.  My buddy built a smudge fire with big chunks on it.  Lots of thick white smoke, which seemed bad to me.  I have never smoked meat before but when I burn wood in my stove thick white smoke means creosote.  Creosote is not yummy.  I dismantled his fire and built a real small hot one by splitting the wood into little sticks about 1/2" thick.  Thin blue smoke came out, that was more like it.  Had to check the fire about every 15 minutes.  Smoke flavor came out great!  Yes, nitrite was used in the cure.  I didn't do the curing, a friend did.  I think he may have used too much salt 'cause the meat is way too salty.  I will have to soak it for a day or two to use it I think.  I will get the cure recipe my friend used and post it, maybe someone can tell me if the salt can be reduced next time.  My buddy ordered two piglets for next year already, so we will get another try at it.  The guy he ordered the pigs from said half the salt we used would be fine.  Thanks all for the help. 
 
 
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