In Michael Ruhlman's "charcuterie" he says you should smoke the bacon until it reaches an internal temp of 150. This does not render the fat very much at all it simply loosens up the meat and lets that smoke really penetrate. When I smoke my bacon I do so at between 170 and 200 degrees for 2 to 3 hours. In Ruhlman's book he doesn't even bring up cold smoking bacon and insists that if you don't have a smoker that you put you cured belly in a low oven until it reaches the desired temp.
As I mentioned previously If you wish to call hot smoked salted pork bacon it is your perogitive. When we refer to bacon we normally mean a cured, smoked product
If you hot smoke the salted belly to those internal temperatures and then keep it refrigerated you do not need cure.
Of course there are many ways of doing these things.
In europe they rarely use chemical nitrates think of a parma or even a virginia country ham. That is simply salt, pork and time and its stable enough to last for years and can be eaten raw. It's also very salty so it's a bacterial wasteland.
Heres a guy who uses no nitrates and cold-smokes but does it for days and days
This is a documentary of how things used to be done. Modern food preperation techniques and the proper use of cures has greatly increased the safety of our food supplies
I think the main thing is don't be scared,
This is from Michael Ruhlman's Website:
The Big Common Sense Issues:
—If you’ll be thoroughly cooking the food before eating it, as with bacon or pancetta, there are no bacteria or botulism issues since cooking food to those high temperatures takes care of any bad microbes and the botulism toxin, should there be any. Don't know where to start with this one, I believe there are heat stable toxins. Beside who wants to eat something that smells bad?
—All mold except for chalky white mold should be immediately removed from the meat with a brine or with vinegar. It does not mean that you should throw it away. But be if mold has been allowed to grow for a long time, it can penetrate the meat. Use your common sense.
—If your food smells rotten or looks unappetizing, don’t eat it. If you have reason to be concerned about bacterial contamination and don’t want to throw it away, cook it before eating it. Kind of contrary to the first statement
—When dry-curing sausage, always use a curing salt to protect against botulism bacteria. How is dry cured sausage different from dry cured bacon?