Cold Smoked Bacon

[JBCWCHS06]

Attempting my second batch of cold smoked bacon. I don't have any vacuum sealer so just rub it with the dry cure and place in a Ziploc bag. It has been in the cure for almost 2 weeks and there has been no liquid at all in the bag. Is that fine or did I do something wrong is my bacon now bad or what. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[hoity toit]

Attempting my second batch of cold smoked bacon. I don't have any vacuum sealer so just rub it with the dry cure and place in a Ziploc bag. It has been in the cure for almost 2 weeks and there has been no liquid at all in the bag. Is that fine or did I do something wrong is my bacon now bad or what. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Your bacon is fine as long as you used the correct cure and amount. Soak it in water changing the water every 30 mins or so about 3-4 times, pat it dry and cold smoke it under 100* until you have that nice golden/bronze color. Some folks smoke 3-4 hrs then rest it a while and give it one more round of smoke.

HT

 

[JBCWCHS06]

Your bacon is fine as long as you used the correct cure and amount. Soak it in water changing the water every 30 mins or so about 3-4 times, pat it dry and cold smoke it under 100* until you have that nice golden/bronze color. Some folks smoke 3-4 hrs then rest it a while and give it one more round of smoke.

HT

OK good yeah I used the normal cure that saw on here. Which was 1.5 % of the weight of the belly in kosher salt, .25% of curing salt but upped the sugar to 1% of the weight of the belly instead of .75 which is what I did originally. The wife wanted a little more sweetness to the bacon this go around.

 

[SmokinEdge]

OK good yeah I used the normal cure that saw on here. Which was 1.5 % of the weight of the belly in kosher salt, .25% of curing salt but upped the sugar to 1% of the weight of the belly instead of .75 which is what I did originally. The wife wanted a little more sweetness to the bacon this go around.

Your bacon is fine. Water extraction is variable, mostly based on the freshness of the meat. The longer it has been frozen the less water extraction, this is my experience.

Since you used an equilibrium cure (1.5% salt) no water soak is necessary nor do I recommend doing so. Just pat it dry with paper towels and smoke.

 

[indaswamp]

Guys have you covered. Only thing I will add is that by definition, cold smoking is drying with the addition of smoke, not a cooking step. Properly cold smoked bacon, you can expect a moisture loss of 10-15% which concentrates the flavor.

 

[JBCWCHS06]

Thanks everyone for the help. Ready to finish this bacon off this weekend. Been curing for 2 weeks in the fridge now adding a light dusting of brown sugar to sit on it for a couple of days then cold smoking Saturday for 4 hours and Sunday for 4 hours. Rewrapping after that and then letting it sit for another 3-4 days in the fridge until I'm ready to slice.