Bacon Newbie here

[Inscrutable]

Have a couple small bellies 5 days in with Pop’s wet brine/cure. For slicing/freezing for future use, is everyone cold smoking, or can ‘warm’ smoke? Temp & time advise much appreciated!

 

[DougE]

Cold smoking is fine, and I do it more during the winter when I can better keep the chamber temps low. With cold smoking, the bacon has to be later cooked to be safe to eat.

I usually warm smoke till the bacon hits an IT of 145°F the rest of the year. It is actually safe to eat without further cooking when warm smoked, but still better fried like normal.

 

[Hijack73]

Lately for both bacon and sausage I'm doing a combo. Since the nights have been dropping into the low 70's/upper 60's I'm quickly becoming a fan of putting a smoke tube in my smoker and cold smoking for 3-5 hours then turning the pellet grill on. My pellet will not under 220 or I would do like most others and hot smoke around 180-190 - but I run it at 220 just because I must, not by choice. Since I can't run that low (180-190) without flameouts, the combo is working very well for me and I finally get good excellent smoke flavor and color in the end product. Bacon I go until I'm worried that the heat is just too much then parking it in a 170-180 degree oven until it hits approximately 145-150. When it gets really cool here, I want to do some exclusively cold smoked bacon.

My hat is off to the people who cold smoke where it doesn't get under 80 at night. I tried. I don't know if it was the humidity or the temperature or just my limitations with a pellet smoker (just the smoke tube raises the temperature in the chamber by 15 degrees, so at 85 ambient temp I'm really running 100), but I wasn't real pleased with trying to cold smoke when it was 85 at night and nearly 100% humidity. I hear that cold smoked is on a whole different level than warm/hot smoked, so I'm looking forward to this winter.

 

[DougE]

When it gets really cool here, I want to do some exclusively cold smoked bacon.

Easier done in winter when temps are lower here. That is when I do cold smoked sausages and bacon.

 

[Inscrutable]

Thx! I can do 180 on the RecTeq or Ninja, so guess warm smoke will work. Still gonna be about 80 ambient here.

 

[Hijack73]

Easier done in winter when temps are lower here. That is when I do cold smoked sausages and bacon.

Oh man, I'm going to have to hit you or SE up on this cold smoked sausage thing. I didn't know you could do them.

 

[Hijack73]

Thx! I can do 180 on the RecTeq or Ninja, so guess warm smoke will work. Still gonna be about 80 ambient here.

People really dig 180. I'm sure some of the more experienced folk like Doug will chime in soon. Me, I'm just past beginner.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Oh man, I'm going to have to hit you or SE up on this cold smoked sausage thing. I didn't know you could do them.

I prefer a warm to hot smoke. This gives much better color to the final product, the smoke is nice and point for me. However if you like a deeper smoke flavor then cold smoking is the way to go. I do both but friends and family like the warm/hot smoke flavor better, me, I like the deeper smoke flavor so I do some cold smoke as well.

 

[DougE]

Oh man, I'm going to have to hit you or SE up on this cold smoked sausage thing. I didn't know you could do them.

Long as it is a cured sausage, they can. I cold smoke my cured jalapeno cheddar sausages during winter. Warm or cold smoked, I go till I get the color I want, then poach in SV for the finish.

 

[Winterrider]

I just finished cold smoking a couple bellies. I use a mailbox in my MES 40 so no additional heat. When ambient got to 75°, that was enough for me for the day. Did 3 days, 5 hrs each

 

[SmokinEdge]

I just finished cold smoking a couple bellies. I use a mailbox in my MES 40 so no additional heat. When ambient got to 75°, that was enough for me for the day. Did 3 days, 5 hrs each

That’s perfect work.

 

[nlife]

I've done bellies in my Traeger before. You aren't able to get a ton of smoke on them, but it works.

Now I use a mailbox mod on my Bradley and give them a few hours of warm smoke. I tend to cook until they reach 132f since I'm going to fry it before I eat it anyways.