Cooking bacon strips in a smoker.

[idahofarmer]

We run a bed and breakfast in northern Idaho. Folks enjoy our bacon (commercially produced and bought from the store) grilled on the bbq or on broiler pans in a convection oven (at about 385 degrees F.) Now we are thinking about making an ugly drum smoker or making one from an oven. My idea would be to put the bacon strips into the smoker and hot smoke it for our guests' breakfasts. I'm wondering about needing to use the broiler pans to catch grease. Or is there some other idea for all that grease which will end up in the bottom of the smoker if we don't contain it. I've smoked rabbits and made our own bacon a long time ago with a frige converted to a smoker. We have alder available to use for wood and I'm thinking a hot plate in the bottom of the smoker. Please help me think this through! :) Thank you.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Well if using a UDS, you could just let the drippings fall down to the coals, I guess. Most would get burnt up. You could use disposable tin pans with a bit of water to collect the drippings too.

If you want smoked bacon, why not cure and cold smoke your own?

 

[potliquor]

A UDS would work great if you didn't mind getting it going just to do bacon every morning, don't let all that fat drip in the fire! A lot of black smoke and bad flavor. You need a barrier that will give radiant heat but contain the grease. To be frank, the easiest way to do a lot of bacon is in the oven on a rack above a sheet or in a fryer. Assuming you don't have a flat top. Same concept though, make a sheet out of heavy duty foil edges up to contain the grease and do the bacon on the rack above.

 

[turick]

I was just about to post the same question as Idahofarmer, but a quick search landed me here.

I kind of have the same question.  I am dying to cure and smoke my own bacon, however I don't have a slicer and I don't want to attempt it without one. 

My daughter works at a bar/restaurant that has really excellent bacon, probably the best bacon I've ever had.  We asked her to ask the owner where he gets it, and he basically said he gets a case of 15 lbs for $58 and he would order us some if we wanted.  I've yet to price pork bellies, but either way, $3.87 / lbs for bacon is insanely cheap.  Even though the bacon is really, really good, it isn't very smokey -- the down side.

A lot of people swear by baking their bacon.  I've tried it and thought it was good, but not necessarily an improvement over fried bacon.  Before I tried it, I thought it would be far inferior, but honestly there didn't seem to be a whole lot of difference to me.  99% of the time, if I'm making bacon, I'm also making eggs, so I prefer to fry it so I can fry the eggs in the bacon grease.  Either way, I've come to look at my MES40 as basically just an oven that I can add smoke to, and as a complete novice, that's how I've cooked everything so far... big hunks of uncooked meat, turn up the heat, add smoke. 

So everybody smokes their bacon, slices it, but then to actually cook it, they fry or bake it without smoke.  Why doesn't anybody do the actual cooking process of the bacon in the smoker with smoke, the same way we smoke/cook other pieces of meat?  Has anybody actually tried this?  It should be the equivalent of simply baking bacon, but with added smoke, right?

 

[rgautheir20420]

turick, if you love their bacon but don't think it's smokey enough, I would suggest adding another round of smoke to it. Heat your smoker to 110-120 and hit it with as much smoke as you want. This will prevent any fat from rendering and add additional smoke flavor. 

My favorite part of bacon is the smokey crispness of the fried slices. If a whole belly of bacon was to be hot smoked, you wouldn't end up with anything near what I would call bacon in my mind. Yes, you'd be using bacon to make your product, but I wouldn't call it that. Now, how about you smoked the bacon belly until a IT of 165 and then dice it up and put it in some baked beans or a big pan of mac 'n cheese? 

Now....you just might be making some delicious though! And if you do this, please take some q-view!

 

[turick]

Thanks rgautheir!  But just to be clear, I'm talking about pre-sliced bacon and baking it like this:

http://www.momontimeout.com/2011/07/baking-bacon-how-to-guide-to-making/

Some people prefer this to frying, but I don't see much of a difference.  That's where I was thinking of "baking" the slices in the smoker with some smoke.  Are you saying I can smoke the slices at 110-120?  Or could I get some butchers twine and attempt to recreate the whole piece of belly meat out of the individual slices?  If that would work, seems like it would be a great idea!

Even if I do something like that, my question still stands about actually following the instructions in the link I posted, but doing it in the smoker.  I'm sure it would work, but not sure how much smoke it would take on.  I guess I just find it odd that nobody seems to do this or have tried this.

P.S. your idea for the mac n cheese sounds like a money maker!!!

 

[rgautheir20420]

turick, I have to agree that baked and fried bacon are pretty much the same thing for me. Crispy goodness. 

Bacon is already cured and smoked and in a raw state. So with that, I don't see why it would be a problem to give it more smoke for say 6 hours. Someone else chime in here to make sure I'm not giving advice that will make someone sick please. 

As far as actually cooking the bacon in the smoker, you'd need to be able to get to a decent temp (at least 300 I'd think) to be sure you'll be getting crispy bacon. I know when I do a fatty in my MES, I do it on the highest setting (275 F) and the bacon doesn't get super crispy. It does however get an amazing smoke flavor! So, if you can get your smoker up pretty high I think you'd get some damn good double smoked bacon simply laying the slices out and smoking it at high temps. Keep us posted!

 

[turick]

Ah, that might be my downfall... I too have a MES, so I probably won't be able to reach the desired temps.  Hmmm..... now contemplating putting my AMNPS in the oven....  (JUST KIDDING!)

So I'm sure you're right about the bacon.  It seems others will apply multiple smokes over multiple days.  If my bacon is frozen, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to just thaw it out and give it another smoke bath.  The question is, do I lay out each piece of bacon on the racks and smoke it, or do I tie it up to recreate the pre-sliced hunk of belly meat?

I'm really excited and can't wait to see how I can improve on this bacon.  I would REALLY like to make my own completely from scratch, however this should be a pretty great cheap alternative!

 

[rgautheir20420]

I would test what you can actually do with some slices of bacon and the MES on high! In my head, I'm thinking the reason the bacon wouldn't get super crispy is because it was wrapped and around other meats that were adding additional juices and moisture to the mix. I have a feeling that with enough time at the 275 F on the MES, you should be able to get some slices crisped up. Give it a shot!

 

[addertooth]

I always grill my bacon and bell peppers when I am making Dutch's beans (recipe found within this forum).  Crisped over smoky fire elevates bacon to another level.

 

[superdave]

I put the deli counter pepper bacon we buy in shallow tin pans and smoke on high.  The bacon tastes great AND, I get smoked bacon grease for use in other dishes.  I save all my bacon grease in the old coffee can in the frig. 

P.S. - Extra thick cut bacon doesn't turnout as well or takes a heck of a long time if you like your bacon crispy.

 

[wolfman1955]

Ah, that might be my downfall... I too have a MES, so I probably won't be able to reach the desired temps.  Hmmm..... now contemplating putting my AMNPS in the oven....  (JUST KIDDING!)





So I'm sure you're right about the bacon.  It seems others will apply multiple smokes over multiple days.  If my bacon is frozen, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to just thaw it out and give it another smoke bath.  The question is, do I lay out each piece of bacon on the racks and smoke it, or do I tie it up to recreate the pre-sliced hunk of belly meat?





I'm really excited and can't wait to see how I can improve on this bacon.  I would REALLY like to make my own completely from scratch, however this should be a pretty great cheap alternative!

IMHO I would lay the slices of bacon out on my racks and put my AMNPS in there with what ever pellets you desire and cold smoke it for about an hour. {no added heat} Then just fry it or bake it. That would eliminate the grease in the smoker. When I grill steaks I cold smoke them for about 1.5 hours then through them on my hot grill and it gives them that great smokey flavor we all love.

 

[dave from mesa]

IMHO I would lay the slices of bacon out on my racks and put my AMNPS in there with what ever pellets you desire and cold smoke it for about an hour. {no added heat} Then just fry it or bake it. That would eliminate the grease in the smoker. When I grill steaks I cold smoke them for about 1.5 hours then through them on my hot grill and it gives them that great smokey flavor we all love.

This sounds like the way to do it. Just add some smoke to the pieces. Gonna have to try this when it is cooler here (if that happens).

 

[turick]

I sincerely apologize for hijacking this thread.  I've started a new one over in the bacon section where I've started my little experiment:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/171389/the-bacon-experiment#post_1253965