Cold Smoker that is cooled

[ddrian]

Hi,
I know how to generate smoke for the smoker I want to build so that part is ready to go.

My quest here is to bring clean smoke to the smoker, that is cool, into a Refrigerator that is running staying at about 70 degrees.
I will exhaust the smoke using a small fan. 
Has anyone done this?
Is humidity a problem? If so how would one go about correcting the problem?
I want to smoke Bacon, other meats, cheeses and fish in this unit. 
Is the interior of the fridge safe for this use?

Thoughts anyone!

 

[daveomak]

You will be fine cold smoking in a refer...   or you could wait until overnight/early morning..  I do that quite often...  Cold smoke the meat for 6-8 hours is usually enough smoke for me..

 

[ddrian]

Thanks Dave,

I read somewhere that a humidity of 60 - 70 percent is best for smoking. 

I don't get that ? The idea is to smoke the meat and cure it, and water is a bad actor when it comes to bacteria.

I have been smoking at night in Texas as per all of the  great advice here on the forums and it's about 80 degrees inside smoker temp.

It's not ideal 70 degrees but I can live with it. The first attempt bacon came out a 9.5 according ti the WIFE. She's a hard grader and give her real opinion ..... BS free.

When you go at night and wait until the next night, for the rest in between smokes.like in the case of dry cured bacon that you do in your receipt, do you refrigerate in the day time or leave it in the smoker? The temp here now is about 95 in the day times. So the smoker is most likely that temp or bit higher. From what I have been reading the cooler the meat the better the smoke absorbs?

I also read about smoking Salmon for long periods to make lox at 50-70 degrees. That was my quest with the refrigerator. To smoke fish.

Thanks for the reply.

DDR

 

[daveomak]

I usually only do 1, 6 ish hour session of cold smoke...  If I was going to do several, high daytime temps would have me putting the meat in the refer until 10PM or so....  pull and let the meat temp rise to 50-60 before I added smoke again..

From Marianski's site...
[h1]Cold Smoking[/h1]
Cold smoking at 52-71° F (12-22° C), from 1-14 days, applying thin smoke with occasional breaks in between, is one of the oldest preservation methods. We cannot produce cold smoke if the outside temperature is 90° F (32° C), unless we can cool it down, which is what some industrial smokers do. Cold smoking is a drying process whose purpose is to remove moisture thus preserving a product.

 

[ddrian]

 
I usually only do 1, 6 ish hour session of cold smoke...  If I was going to do several, high daytime temps would have me putting the meat in the refer until 10PM or so....  pull and let the meat temp rise to 50-60 before I added smoke again..

From Marianski's site...
[h1]Cold Smoking[/h1]
Cold smoking at 52-71° F (12-22° C), from 1-14 days, applying thin smoke with occasional breaks in between, is one of the oldest preservation methods. We cannot produce cold smoke if the outside temperature is 90° F (32° C), unless we can cool it down, which is what some industrial smokers do. Cold smoking is a drying process whose purpose is to remove moisture thus preserving a product.

Thanks Dave,

As always common sense rules! the multi smoke sessions worked great on the last batch of bacon here.... that and the EQ cure.

No more over salty tire patches.  

 

[daveomak]