I have been cold smoking salmon this summer in new england and have been able to keep the temperature around 78 degrees. This is the temperature that I have read through my research is ideal.
I am using a home made charcoal cold smoker using two connected webber grills.
However, winter is coming, and it is unclear to me whether I should increase the heat of the charcoal to try to maintain that 78 degree temp, or allow the temperature to go lower, possibly between 35 and 40 degrees. Of course, the benefit of that is that it is safer for bacteria growth, but I am only smoking this for 1.5 hours.
Basically my question is, will the smoke have a hard time absorbing into the salmon at 40 degrees, compared to 78 degrees? I assume closer to freezing would be a bad idea.
There were some old posts on this topic but nothing really addressing my questions.
Thank you!
I am using a home made charcoal cold smoker using two connected webber grills.
However, winter is coming, and it is unclear to me whether I should increase the heat of the charcoal to try to maintain that 78 degree temp, or allow the temperature to go lower, possibly between 35 and 40 degrees. Of course, the benefit of that is that it is safer for bacteria growth, but I am only smoking this for 1.5 hours.
Basically my question is, will the smoke have a hard time absorbing into the salmon at 40 degrees, compared to 78 degrees? I assume closer to freezing would be a bad idea.
There were some old posts on this topic but nothing really addressing my questions.
Thank you!