Cold Smoke Problems !!

[dugan]

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

Hey guys Dūgan here. I'm from Chesnee SC, 46 yrs OLD maint manager and I love cooking outdoors, lowcountry, bbq, chicken boggs etc etc. If I can cook it outside then I'm all in. I have a large rotesserie cooker I built from propane tanks and I just built a smoke house, wanting to try my hand at bacon and hams. I have some great cures for the bacon and hams. Have a Black Forest cure from a friends OPA in Germany. I tried the bacon thing this weekend. And it turned out terrible. Everything looked great, but the smoke was extremely STRONG almost like tasting a piece of half burnt firewood. I used maple and apple wood. My smoke house has an underground pipe and I vents in the center of the floor. I have two vents in the eaves of both walls. I cured with #1 cure, salt and brown sugar. I hope I've came to the right place to learn what I did wrong. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[atomicsmoke]

I don't see any of the pictures.

Can you give more details about the bacon process?

 

[dugan]

I cure th bacon for 4 days at 44 deg. drainimg and redistributing the salt daily. I hung the bacon up in the smoke house for 24 hours to dry after I washed all the salt off. After 24hrs I closed the door and lit the fire box which is about 20' away and u see ground. I only used 1 handful off maple chunks and a few apple chunks. Smoked for 12hrs. And it came out all smoke. Strong and bitter.

 

[atomicsmoke]

I don't know what is inside that cure from Germany. Do you know? 4 days seems short curing time for bacon, and 44 a little too high for the curing stage. Still ...these would not explain the unpleasant taste.

Do you have good draft? Is the smoke moving out the smoke house or does it hang around?

I recommend using pink salt in the future - this and tender quick are what most people here use for bacon.

 

[dugan]

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

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• dugan
• Nov 16, 2016

I used pink salt for the bacon. The German cure is for a ham I have curing. Sorry my fault for not clarifying that. The draft is what may be the fault. I'm thinking from all that I've read, is that the smoke stayed too long without enough fresh air to really mellow it out. Not really sure what kind of air exchange I need. 1st pic shows how the smoke is supplied to the smoke house. Any ideas guys, I may have built this thing ALL WRONG.

 

[dugan]

The bacon cure is ::
1c kosher salt per 10lbs of meat
1tsp pink salt per 10lbs of meat
4tbls crushed black pepper per 10lbs of meat
1c dark brown sugar per 10lbs of meat.
Drain and reapply cure mix less the pink salt, until no more liquid is released. It took mine about 4 days.

 

[atomicsmoke]

A few issues with your cure: the pink salt is about half the recommended quantity (0.25% is the guideline). Salt seems high (5% vs 2.5%-3%).

I don't think draining was a good idea. You started with little pink salt - yet when draining you removed some of it from the curing system.

When dry curing all the ingredients should stay in the bag. No draining. The belly will eventually absorb back the liquid anyway. When you drain you lose control of the amounts of ingredients getting into the meat.

With such a weak cure I doubt the inner layers of the bacon were reached in 4 days.

 

[dugan]

Thanks Atomicsmoke. That is very helpful. Everything that I read is not even close to that. I will absolutely use you percentages. Just as soon as I can figure out what went wrong with the smoke. Thanks again

 

[atomicsmoke]

Check here first before you start the next project. The friendly folks here will get you going.

 

[SmokyMose]

Try using the same mix for 5# instead of 10#. 4 days doesn't sound like enough time. Why the draining?
The smoke should sort of flow over the meat.
Beautiful smokehouse setup, btw[emoji]9786[/emoji]️

 

[atomicsmoke]

Forgot to compliment you on the build. You went old school. Bravo.

 

[dugan]

Thanks again Atomicsmoke, I tried to get it as close as I could remember my granpas was. I was very small and I don't think that a pic was ever taken.

 

[wade]

Good advice from Atomic

Also what a great looking smokehouse - Points 

I can see from the photo where the smoke is entering the smokehouse but I cannot see any flue or top ventilation. The idea is ti have a good flow of smoke passing over the meat rather than just surrounding the meat with it. One of the primary reasons for smoking (other than for taste) is to reduce the amount of water in the meat and this requires a constant air flow.

As has been mentioned above - check your cure concentrations and increase the curing time - belly pork will usually require 7+ days.

Was the Pink Salt you used Cure #1 ?

Drain and reapply cure mix less the pink salt, until no more liquid is released. It took mine about 4 days.

This is not a good thing to do as you will be losing some what little cure you actually have with the brine that you are throwing away. If you have a vacuum packer then vac pack the pork with the cure, refrigerate and rotate it daily. 

 

[dugan]

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• dugan
• Nov 17, 2016

Thanks Wade, The pink salt was #1 cure. And I opened up the vents last night,front and back. Doubled the amount of the opening.

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• dugan
• Nov 17, 2016

 

[tropics]

That house looks great,you got some good advice from all.I like using less time in the smoker,you can always put it back in the next day Points

Richie

 

[drewed]

I think you may have made your smokehouse too well.  I think it might be too tight. The "olden days" smoke houses were not made poorly, they were made drafty on purpose.  You might need some lower vents in your smoke house as well.  A row of holes at the bottom of the door, that can be blocked off if needed could help pull fresh air into the smoke house to help vent stale smoke.  As it looks now, your only air in is through the fire.  

Re-looking at the pictures, you may need more holes up top too.  Most of what I see for designs are that you at least as much venting as supply.  I.E.  if you feed your smoke through a 6" pipe (28.270 square inches) you would want at least 37 1" holes( as a 1" hole has 0.79 sq in of area.)

You want the meat to hang in the flow of the smoke, not a smokey room.  Think of your smoker more as a wide spot in a chimney.

 

[dugan]

Thanks Drewed, that makes a lot of sense. I will add some draft holes in the block in the next couple days. And you are correct on the supply and release. I have the same coming in as going out.its fed with a 8" pipe.

 

[dugan]

Thanks Tropics, so far you guys are no joke. Seems like y'all have "been there and don that". Its my pleasure to be a part of this group. Just hope one day i can be off some help to someone also.

 

[dugan]

Thanks SMOKEYMOSE,
I will give that a try,and as far as the draining. Everything I read, said to drain the liquid off and try to keep the meat dry. It didn't really add up because I had to wash the salt off and let it dry before smoking anyway. (Smoke don't stick to water, or so I've read) So I followed what I read and ended up with what I got{A MESS}. But I'm here now, and I've found a place where I can ask questions and you guys are more than ready and able to lend a hand. Thanks again

 

[dugan]

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• dugan
• Nov 17, 2016

Well guys, here's the latest move on my chess board of bacon. It seemed to help the smoke move out faster. The smoke was a lot thinner inside the smoke house. And the fire was a lot hotter also. And I used an old trick I learned a long time ago to remove bad smoke smell out of a cooker. While the fire is burning, spray vegetable oil on the fire and spray it good, mist not stream. It will really get rid of lighter fluid smell on charcoal, and you can kick off the cooking a little quicker. And it seemed to really knock that stale smoke smell out quick.