I always thought cold meat took on more smoke and the warmer it got the less smoke it would take on. I guess I was wrong.
I've done Bacon at all kinds of smoking temps, and I took them to quite a few different temps.
IMO, just like smoke won't adhere properly to bacon or fish without a pellicle, it will adhere better to a warm dry piece of meat than to a cold clammy piece of meat. Once the cold smoking meat gets really dry, it takes smoke fine, but that takes a long time to begin.
Like I said, they ALL taste great, I just prefer warm smoked Bacon better, because I can get more smoke on it.
I think you might be thinking about how many people say meat takes on less smoke after getting beyond 140˚ internal. I don't know whether that's true or not, but that is a different thing entirely.
Remember---This is MY OPINION---Not fact.
However, I mentioned that I have found Bacon to pick up smoke better when warm smoking for under 12 hours than cold smoking for under 12 hours, to two different butcher shop guys who smoke meats. I got two different answers. One said "Yup", and the other one said "Absolutely".
Before a big "free for all" starts, I'm going to repeat to all:
These comments are things that I have found through my smoking, and are mainly based on my opinion. Others have different findings and differing opinions---Fine.
I'm not saying any of this to start an argument.
Anyone who tries all kinds of ways can have differing opinions. And people should try all of the ways, and decide for themselves.
Once I get this one into my "Signature", people can try this one [BACON (Extra Smoky)], and my other one, just called [BACON], and decide for themselves. The other one was only a couple degrees above 100˚ (almost cold-smoked) because of the ambient temp when I did it.
I think the one on this thread "BACON (Extra Smoky)" is much better, but that is my opinion.
Thank,
Bear