Bacon Pellicule Dillema

[mneeley490]

I'm no stranger to making bacon, I use Bearcarver's warm smoking method. But I've come to a bridge I haven't had to cross before.
When I owned a home, the night before I was to smoke, I'd take the cured meat to the cold garage and run a fan over it to form the pellicule. Now that I no longer have that space, I was considering putting it on racks outside on my covered deck overnight. There are screens in place, so no critters or bugs would get into it. But the problem is, I was counting on it being dry tonight. Yeah, it happens occasionally in the Seattle area. But no such luck.
The cured bacon is still vac packed in the fridge, but I don't have the space to set out 25 lbs of it on racks in there. So plan B would be to toss it in the freezer to wait for a dry weekend? Or do you feel that the pellicule formation is absolutely vital? If not, I could just dry them off in the morning, smoke, and hope for the best?

 

[Fueling Around]

Rain or not if your (covered?) deck is 40° or lower you should be good.
Don't sweat it, just let the belly sweat

 

[mneeley490]

Yeah, it's in the 30's tonight.

 

[indaswamp]

Could always just load in the smoker and dry them there before adding smoke, assuming you can keep the temp around 100*F with a lot of airflow and no smoke....dry for an hour or so, then start adding smoke.

 

[mneeley490]

Could always just load in the smoker and dry them there before adding smoke, assuming you can keep the temp around 100*F with a lot of airflow and no smoke....dry for an hour or so, then start adding smoke.

I thought of that. Not really possible with a Recteq. I think the lowest it will go is 180 degrees.
I've smoked this way in the past with my GMG, keeping the door lid cracked with a block of wood, but it would go down to 170. This is when I miss my MES-40 and mailbox mod.
I may have to stop when the bacon IT hits 120, then smoke again in a couple hours after it cools down.

 

[mneeley490]

Surprise, surprise! Woke up to a little snow this morning.

Got the bacon on the Recteq. Keeping the door cracked hasn't really been working, so just going to let it get to 100* IT, then let everything cool down and start again. Might try my smoke tube inside it, if I can find my lighter.
Forgot to mention that I'm doing Buckboard Bacon. Butts were $.99 lb, as opposed to $3.99 for belly. I always buy bone-in and remove the bone myself. All the deboned ones I've boughten look like they used an axe on them.

It IS putting out the smoke though.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Pellicule formation is not necessary for whole muscle meats (red) it’s really more for fish specifically but poultry may benefit. What want is just a dry meat surface. And I don’t mean dessert dry, just not wet. If you have good airflow in your smoker, 30 min to 1 hour with heat and no smoke is plenty, then apply smoke.

 

[mneeley490]

Yeah, there's no heat airflow w/o smoke in a Recteq. But things still seem to be progressing well. This is 3 hours in. The IT hit 100*, and I've shut it down. I'll let it cool with the lid open until the IT goes back down to 40*-ish or so, then start it up again. Shouldn't take long, it's still 39* out. Using mainly hickory pellets, with some maple & cherry mixed in.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yeah, there's no heat airflow w/o smoke in a Recteq. But things still seem to be progressing well. This is 3 hours in. The IT hit 100*, and I've shut it down. I'll let it cool with the lid open until the IT goes back down to 40*-ish or so, then start it up again. Shouldn't take long, it's still 39* out. Using mainly hickory pellets, with some maple & cherry mixed in.
View attachment 729125

Paper towel dry off Pryor is enough. Damp is just fine on surface.