Cold smoking issue - advice needed

[angryengineer]

After nearly 14 hours of cold smoking my latest batch of bacon I decided to leave the bacon in the smoker over night to cool. After all, it’s December in Wisconsin and the temp was forecast at 8 degrees. 2 days later I pulled the bacon and found that condensation in my chimney had dripped all over one of the slabs. Is the slab ruined by the creosote drip after sitting on the meat for 2 days? Sorry, forgot to take a picture. I did rinse and scrub the bacon with hot water. It’s sitting in the fridge drying (aging) now. I would not normally be too concerned, however I plan to gift most of the batch for Christmas presents and can’t risk my reputation of amazing bacon.

Grrr...cannot figure out how to post pictures.

 

[SonnyE]

No it is not 'Ruined'.
Scrape and wash away the black crap.
I use something like large tuna can, or a small sauce pot on my top rack under the stovepipe to catch any condensate drips.
Lowe's (and probably others) sells nifty caps for water heater vent pipe (3") you might want to check into.
Won't stop the condensate, but they add a finished look to your vent.
I like the Canada Dry shelf supports. ;)

I like it because it gives me that Snuffy Smith finishing touch.
I painted the stuff black except the smoke tube.

 

[PAS]

What if you create a drip leg in the chimney. Come out the top of smoker with an elbow going into a tee then up the stack. Condensate would drip straight down and out the bottom of the tee. You would have to support it all somehow. Just a crazy idea.

 

[daveomak]

You could put a drip pan like suggested.. or maintain heat in the smoker to above freezing so condensate would not form...
I have had condensate drip on meat and I also used hot water to scrub it off... works for me....
Frozen meat will not age to create that aged meat texture and flavor..