Bacon Question

[swampwolf]

First let me say this is the first post I am making on this forum so if I am on the wrong part of it please excuse my ignorance! I am not new to smoking but I am new to trying different cuts of meats at the same time. I have a brinkman water smoker and I sure would like to smoke some bacon! I have 2 racks on my smoker and when ever I use only one its like a waste of good smoke! What I want to do is smoke a pork belly for bacon, smoke a pork loin for C.B. and smoke a Boston butt for bbq. Can this be done at the same time?! The Boston butt of course has to be done, but the C.B. can be finished cooking in a frying pan. Do I put water in the water pan? What grid do I put what meat? Thank all of you for a great site, in just a few hours I have learned so much from just browsing!!  

 

[adiochiro3]

Welcome to the SMF family!

If you can fit it all in, you can smoke everything concurrently.  It's the prep time with brines, etc. that you will really have to coordinate.  Just make sure that you have space between everything for good heat & smoke circulation. 

I always use water to keep temps stable and the moisture level up inside the smoker (so the meat doesn't dry out).  The water pan also keeps everything from cooking with direct heat (ie: grilling) on the upright units.

The top of the smoker will generally be warmer than the lower grate (hot air rises), so you might think about rotating your meats at least once during your smoke.  You should have quality thermometers -- accuracy tested in boiling water -- for both grate levels and for the meats to monitor progress.

Swing on over to Roll Call and introduce yourself so you can get greetings from everyone!

Good luck, and show us the Q-view!

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!

 

[alblancher]

Welcome to the forum.

If smoking bacon you want a cold smoke, below 110 degrees to keep from rendering the fat.  Never done buckboard but I would think that if you are going to cure it with Cure 1 then you will cold smoke that also.  Please check some Buckboard recipes on this site for confirmation, I have done a lot of belly bacon but never buckboard.

If you intend to cook a butt the same time you are cold smoking the bacon I expect you will have problems keeping the uncured butt safe at that low temps.  If that is the scenario you need to do two smokes, a cold smoke (below 110) and a normal low and slow smoke (220 - 250).

Just want to get a word to you about the safety thing before you start.  I love to discuss how to cure and smoke bacon and how to do the butts but YOU CAN'T DO THEM AT THE SAME TIME.  Uncured belly cooked at 225 - 250 is called smoked pork belly or I call it Pork Candy.

I may have misunderstood your original post.

Al

 

[Bearcarver]

You don't have to "cold smoke" your bacon, but everything Al said is right on the money.

Whether you cold smoke (like Al said) or warm smoke ( up to maybe 160˚ smoker temp) your Bacon, you couldn't do a Boston Butt in the same smoke, because of the higher temp it needs to get it through the danger zone. Also the CB would need anywhere from 160˚ to 180˚ smoker temp, depending on how you want to finish it.

Too many people jump into things without having the slightest idea what they are doing. It's a very good thing to ask questions, like you are. 

Welcome to SMF,

Bear

 

[mballi3011]

First off welcome Swamp Dude to SMF. You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127

then you will have a method to your newly found madness and believe me it will be a madness. Then when you start smoking things you will have to learn how to post the pictures / Qview 

here. So here's a link to a tutorial on how to post your Qview so we can see what your doing.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

Welcome to Your New Addiction  

GO GATORS      

 

[venture]

Yep.  Required temps are so different you will need to do separate smokes.

Good luck and good smoking!

 

[swampwolf]

Thank you everybody for the fast and very informative replies!! I will brine the bacon and C. B. with tender quick (I don't like my bacon to sweet so no sugar) And try my hand at cold smoking, I have never done that so I'm sure i will be watching it like a baby! (the heat) The Boston butt I will do separately and smoke it as I always do, the only difference is going to be in my rub. In one of the forums I was reading somebody did a southwestern chipotle that looked great!! Is it cool to poke large holes in to the Boston butt and fill it with rub (large fork size) or will that cause the meat to dry out in the smoke?

 

[meateater]

Aw the old ECB..."El Cheapo Brinkman". What your suggesting is 3 different heat ranges. I like to cold smoke my bacon, canadian bacon and buckboard bacon I will take to about 160* and pork butts to 200* for pulling. Butts I usually inject with beef broth and whatever concoction sounds good that day. Be careful with curing meats and make sure your math is correct or you can get pretty sick from it. It's not rocket science and many folks here can walk you through it, after a few times you'll be a pro. 

 

[Bearcarver]

Thank you everybody for the fast and very informative replies!! I will brine the bacon and C. B. with tender quick (I don't like my bacon to sweet so no sugar) And try my hand at cold smoking, I have never done that so I'm sure i will be watching it like a baby! (the heat) The Boston butt I will do separately and smoke it as I always do, the only difference is going to be in my rub. In one of the forums I was reading somebody did a southwestern chipotle that looked great!! Is it cool to poke large holes in to the Boston butt and fill it with rub (large fork size) or will that cause the meat to dry out in the smoke?

One tsp to one TBS of Brown Sugar will not make your Bacon taste sweet at all. You will not taste it at all. I never tried it without a little brown sugar, but I was told it counteracts the salt in the TQ.

Bear