Originally Posted by sportgd
Second I am trying to decide what temp to smoke it at, I see a wide range typically from 100 - 145... for those on either extreme why is it that you choose to smoke at that temp?
Thanks for any help and guidance and I promise to follow up with pics!
They variety of temp is based on what people are trying to accomplish with their bacon making and smoking.
I'm no authority only having done 16 pounds one time but I did lot's of homework to figure out what I wanted.
I chose to hot smoke at 165F until the IT was 145F.
The smoker temp at 165F was to keep from rendering fat from the bacon. If you get the smoker too hot the bacon fat starts turning to liquid and draining/dripping out. That is not good for bacon or for sausage making.
I chose the IT of 145F so it was considered safely cooked according to FDA standards. I liked my bacon soft rather than crispy so knowing it was already pre-cooked I could lightly fry it without safety concerns.
What I learned from my experience:
-145F IT was awesome! I found that you can totally taste the difference and specific wood flavoring when the meat is at 145F or lightly fried to be soft bacon. I loved this discovery!
Others have reported that you don't taste the difference in the wood used when making bacon. This confused me quite a bit but I discovered they weren't wrong they were just making their bacon crispy. I found with crispy bacon the wood flavor details seemed to get lost and just taste like smoked bacon... which was still great bacon.
-at 145F IT I like eating my vacuum sealed bacon right out of the package!!! It was basically like an amazing bacon sandwich meat. I didn't expect this to be the case but it seems I eat more of my homemade bacon like this than fried lol.
-at 145F IT I didn't want to wait to taste the bacon when it came out of the smoker, which means I also didn't want to fry it up to try it when I pulled it out. It was a nice little perk to taste test as it came out and to snack on while slicing and vacuum sealing.
-at 145F IT I didn't have to worry about anyone having undercooked bacon as a gift. This seems silly but I've known a person to mess up making boxed mac'n cheese where they failed to properly boil water hahahaha.
-at 145F IT the bacon seemed no different in texture or appearance than semi cooked store bought bacon. I was worried it would seem different but nope. It looked the same but was fully cooked.
I'm not arguing against cold smoking. I'm just answering your question about the temp variations and why they exist. My goals were fully cooked bacon I could lightly fry without worrying about whether it was fully cooked or not or worry that people would some how managed to under cook the bacon I gave to them.
Other's on here have reported liking to do their bacon "semi" cooked, fully cooked, cold smoked-uncooked.
The question you may want to ask and answer is, "What is sportgd looking for in his bacon?".
I did a very detailed post of my bacon attempt, what I was looking to discover/accomplish, and what I learned. See here
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...ng-some-bacon-mysteries-solved-qview-included
Enjoy!!