First Cold Smoked Bacon

[SmokinVOLfan]

Beautiful bacon Joe! A couple of the best looking slabs I have ever seen. I prefer mine cold smoked too you pretty much did exactly what I do aside from the cure 1 and TQ methods. Congrats on the ride my friend very well deserved!

 

[xray]

Awesome looking bacon. You must have a really nice slicer. My 10" has trouble with the size of a whole pork belly.

Thanks fullbore!

I have the Chefs Choice 615A. It was one a member posted here during the holidays. It came with an extra non-serrated blade. $89 if I remember correctly.

That's a real meaty looking bacon. I've got two slabs curing now, one will get smoked tomorrow and the other next weekend. Mine are not nearly that meaty, but will still eat good!

Thanks Fished! Make sure to post them up. I’m sure they’ll be excellent.

Wow, you did a beautiful job and got some great color on those bellys, Like! I just hot-smoked a batch so I'll have to wait 9-10 months to give cold-smoking a shot. RAY

Thanks Ray! Your bacon looked absolutely phenomenal! I’ll probably try hot smoking later when Spring is here.

 

[xray]

Damn Joe!! I've made a lot of bacon and seen tons of bacon made by other people but I gotta tell you, that's about the best looking bacon I've ever seen!! It is beautiful!! I've always smoked mine at low temp for 8 hours or so but you have me thinking cold smoking may be the way to go. Excellent job my friend.

Robert

Beautiful bacon Joe! A couple of the best looking slabs I have ever seen. I prefer mine cold smoked too you pretty much did exactly what I do aside from the cure 1 and TQ methods. Congrats on the ride my friend very well deserved!

Thanks guys! It does look good but I don’t know about best looking. That’s a pretty strong compliment. There’s tons of guys here that have posted killer looking bacon. Wouldn’t be possible without them.

Robert, I’ll definitely try cold smoking again. The days are getting longer and warmer, so that window of opportunity is shrinking. I have no shade where I smoke so my smoker easily gets 100-110 degrees without adding heat or smoke.

John, I’ll have to try TQ. I have a big bag of it sitting in the cabinet.

 

[hoity toit]

You have a nice golden color. I know they are good and smokey. Congrats.

HT

 

[SmokyMose]

Got to try my hand at cold smoking bacon for the first time. I got a new slicer for Christmas, so I was out of excuses. Once again many thanks to the knowledgeable members here at SMF that make this possible. I read over posts by @daveomak disco and @dirtsailor2003 for guidance. Thank you again guys, it is very much appreciated.

Two bellies were weighed for the proper amount of Cure#1, salt and sugar using diggingdogfarms cure calculator.


Bellies were dry cured for 14 days. I flipped and massaged the bellies each day. After the two weeks, I rinsed the outside off, dried off with paper towels and added black pepper, onion and garlic powder to one and brown sugar, onion and garlic powder to another.
View attachment 434883

The bellies were placed uncovered on a wire rack in the fridge for two days. Then they were smoked for 7 hours with a mixture of Hickory and Maple. My highest temperature in the smoke chamber was 80F. I used my a-maze-n tube to generate the smoke.
View attachment 434881

Here they are after 7 hours. They went back in the fridge overnight for a second smoke session the next day.
View attachment 434880

The second day, I smoked for approximately 6 hours. My highest recorded chamber temp was 89F. So in total, these were smoked for 13 hours split between 2 days.
View attachment 434879
View attachment 434878

Next, the pork bellies were placed back in the fridge for 3 days until it was time to slice. Boy these came out awesome!!!! I need to make more ASAP! It's a bummer that I only did 5lbs, but I wanted to test the waters before buying a larger amount of meat.

Some sliced pics. Definitely a good meat to fat ratio on these slices!
View attachment 434877
View attachment 434876

I had a small sampling, I got a late start this morning so I only made a few pieces of bacon (mostly the irregular slices) and some toast. I cubed up the bacon ends for future meals. I'll add some to beans and I really want to make the pasta carbonara ala @indaswamp
View attachment 434885

Also, I used some of the leftover bacon grease to finish coating a CI pan. My mom dropped a rusty one off that she wanted me to fix up for her. Did about 6 coats of seasoning and then wiped with some bacon grease and into the oven.

Sanded down to bare metal.
View attachment 434882

Here it is ready to go. Once she starts cooking on it and taking care of it, it will darken more.
View attachment 434886

Thanks for looking,

Joe

VERY nice, Joe! I have a problem getting nice slices like that, even if do it with the meat almost frozen (cheap slicer?), but like you said the irregular slices can be used in many things as well as beans (A couple of days ago I made a batch of Haluska using some of my "offcuts").
I've never done more than 7 hrs smoke. I may try more with the batch I have in brine right now.
Again, VERY nice!
Dan

 

[tander28]

Beautiful bacon with a great breakdown, thanks for sharing!

 

[xray]

You have a nice golden color. I know they are good and smokey. Congrats.

HT

Thanks HT!

VERY nice, Joe! I have a problem getting nice slices like that, even if do it with the meat almost frozen (cheap slicer?), but like you said the irregular slices can be used in many things as well as beans (A couple of days ago I made a batch of Haluska using some of my "offcuts").
I've never done more than 7 hrs smoke. I may try more with the batch I have in brine right now.
Again, VERY nice!
Dan

Thanks for the kind words Dan. The bellies were pretty squared from the butcher so maybe that helped some. I used a cheap chefs choice 615 slicer. I had maybe an inch towards the end where the bacon wouldn’t sit flush when I used the guard on the tray. I enjoy my fingers, so I called it a day and finely cubed the rest.

I liked breaking the smoke up in two days, made for an easier day.

Beautiful bacon with a great breakdown, thanks for sharing!

Thanks tander, I’ll be doing more real soon.

 

[73saint]

Beautiful bacon! That's almost exactly like I do mine...So good! Like!!

 

[chopsaw]

My goodness . That is some of the best looking bacon I've ever seen . Fantastic !!

 

[civilsmoker]

Nice Work xray! BACON!!!! Love it.

Like the CI refinish. I have a couple of "put in the garbage" CI pans that I've been happy to take of peoples hands only to turn them in to highly prized polished CI pans! Can you believe folks get 200-300 for a polish CI pan.....

 

[johnnyb54]

Got to try my hand at cold smoking bacon for the first time. I got a new slicer for Christmas, so I was out of excuses. Once again many thanks to the knowledgeable members here at SMF that make this possible. I read over posts by @daveomak disco and @dirtsailor2003 for guidance. Thank you again guys, it is very much appreciated.

Two bellies were weighed for the proper amount of Cure#1, salt and sugar using diggingdogfarms cure calculator.


Bellies were dry cured for 14 days. I flipped and massaged the bellies each day. After the two weeks, I rinsed the outside off, dried off with paper towels and added black pepper, onion and garlic powder to one and brown sugar, onion and garlic powder to another.
View attachment 434883

The bellies were placed uncovered on a wire rack in the fridge for two days. Then they were smoked for 7 hours with a mixture of Hickory and Maple. My highest temperature in the smoke chamber was 80F. I used my a-maze-n tube to generate the smoke.
View attachment 434881

Here they are after 7 hours. They went back in the fridge overnight for a second smoke session the next day.
View attachment 434880

The second day, I smoked for approximately 6 hours. My highest recorded chamber temp was 89F. So in total, these were smoked for 13 hours split between 2 days.
View attachment 434879
View attachment 434878

Next, the pork bellies were placed back in the fridge for 3 days until it was time to slice. Boy these came out awesome!!!! I need to make more ASAP! It's a bummer that I only did 5lbs, but I wanted to test the waters before buying a larger amount of meat.

Some sliced pics. Definitely a good meat to fat ratio on these slices!
View attachment 434877
View attachment 434876

I had a small sampling, I got a late start this morning so I only made a few pieces of bacon (mostly the irregular slices) and some toast. I cubed up the bacon ends for future meals. I'll add some to beans and I really want to make the pasta carbonara ala @indaswamp
View attachment 434885

Also, I used some of the leftover bacon grease to finish coating a CI pan. My mom dropped a rusty one off that she wanted me to fix up for her. Did about 6 coats of seasoning and then wiped with some bacon grease and into the oven.

Sanded down to bare metal.
View attachment 434882

Here it is ready to go. Once she starts cooking on it and taking care of it, it will darken more.
View attachment 434886

Thanks for looking,

Joe

Beautiful looking bacon and nice presentation on your process. Also points on the cast iron pan refurb.
Quick question on the bacon, I’ve only hot smoked bacon with really good results. What is the difference or benefits from cold smoking the bacon? Does cold smoking improve the taste or texture?

 

[Smokin' in AZ]

WOW Jeff that bacon is to die for!

Looks fantastic....Big Like.

Congrats on the ride.

John

 

[disco]

Brilliant bacon, Bro! Big like!

 

[SmokyMose]

Beautiful looking bacon and nice presentation on your process. Also points on the cast iron pan refurb.
Quick question on the bacon, I’ve only hot smoked bacon with really good results. What is the difference or benefits from cold smoking the bacon? Does cold smoking improve the taste or texture?

Not sure about the difference, johnny. I've only cold smoked. If you hot smoke, does that mean it's pre-cooked? Do you still fry it?

 

[tx smoker]

Not sure about the difference, johnny. I've only cold smoked. If you hot smoke, does that mean it's pre-cooked? Do you still fry it?

I've never cold smoked, only "hot" smoked. Temps running about 165 to 170. I let it run for 7 to 8 hours, just till the fat cap starts to turn the color of wheat. The IT of the slabs seems to be around 125 to 130 at that point. It's not fully cooked so it does need to be fried/grilled/baked to temp. The smoker temp is not high enough to melt the fat in any way so the bacon retains it's integrity. A couple years ago a friend of mine tried smoking bacon on his BGE and it didn't come out well. You can't maintain temps low enough, the fat started to render, and it was a God awful mess trying to slice it. I've read where folks will smoke the bacon to temp for being fully cooked and have what they called "bacon lunch meat", so it has and can be done. I've never really given any thought to cold smoking...until I saw this thread. That is some great looking bacon!! I just finished up about 30# that's in the freezer but when that's gone I am very likely to try cold smoking. This looks like a possible game changer for me.

Robert

 

[SmokyMose]

I've never cold smoked, only "hot" smoked. Temps running about 165 to 170. I let it run for 7 to 8 hours, just till the fat cap starts to turn the color of wheat. The IT of the slabs seems to be around 125 to 130 at that point. It's not fully cooked so it does need to be fried/grilled/baked to temp. The smoker temp is not high enough to melt the fat in any way so the bacon retains it's integrity. A couple years ago a friend of mine tried smoking bacon on his BGE and it didn't come out well. You can't maintain temps low enough, the fat started to render, and it was a God awful mess trying to slice it. I've read where folks will smoke the bacon to temp for being fully cooked and have what they called "bacon lunch meat", so it has and can be done. I've never really given any thought to cold smoking...until I saw this thread. That is some great looking bacon!! I just finished up about 30# that's in the freezer but when that's gone I am very likely to try cold smoking. This looks like a possible game changer for me.

Robert

Thanks Robert. I've always wondered about that.
No way I can get those temps with my smoker. I believe those temps fall in the realm of "warm smoking".
If you want to cold smoke in Texas, you'd better get crackin! Pretty soon it'll be too hot (unless you smoke at night maybe).

Dan

 

[tx smoker]

If you want to cold smoke in Texas, you'd better get crackin!

Actually you can cold smoke meat in warmer temps because even in the TX heat, you're not gonna see 165 degrees in your smoker. What you cannot smoke is cheese. It'll melt into a coagulated mess real fast. I just wrapped up about 30# of assorted smoked cheese not too long ago which will hopefully get me through. Please don't tell Tracy this but last Summer I was getting low on smoked cheddar. She left town for a business trip and was gonna be gone for a few days. I brought my 20# sausage smoker in the house, put it in the fireplace, and commenced to smoke a bunch of cheese in the family room.

Shhhh....
Robert

 

[xray]

Beautiful bacon! That's almost exactly like I do mine...So good! Like!!

Thanks Saint, It came out awesome!

My goodness . That is some of the best looking bacon I've ever seen . Fantastic !!

Thanks Chop! That's a pretty high compliment, I appreciate it.

Nice Work xray! BACON!!!! Love it.

Like the CI refinish. I have a couple of "put in the garbage" CI pans that I've been happy to take of peoples hands only to turn them in to highly prized polished CI pans! Can you believe folks get 200-300 for a polish CI pan.....

Thanks CS!

People pay $200-300 for a CI Pan that's crazy!? I have a matching one just like this and another Lodge pan. I definitely like the smoother finish of the older pains. I would love to find and old Griswold or Wagner pan.

 

[xray]

Beautiful looking bacon and nice presentation on your process. Also points on the cast iron pan refurb.
Quick question on the bacon, I’ve only hot smoked bacon with really good results. What is the difference or benefits from cold smoking the bacon? Does cold smoking improve the taste or texture?

Thank you Johnny. If you hot smoke bacon to a safe temp of 145F, it is essentially cooked and you could eat it as is. I've never made hot smoked bacon so I can't give you a side by side comparison. People have all different ways of making it: less smoke, more smoke, hot smoke, cold smoke etc etc.

The bacon I made is what "my" idea of what bacon is. It's all preference, do what suits your taste the best.

I see Robert got you on the right track.

WOW Jeff that bacon is to die for!

Looks fantastic....Big Like.

Congrats on the ride.

John

Brilliant bacon, Bro! Big like!

Thanks guys! It was some good stuff.

 

[Bob Sanders]

Nice job on the bacon!
Not to highjack the thread, but what about cold smoking other meats prior to hot smoking? Steak for example. Can you cold smoke a nice thick tbone for ten hours or before you throw it on the traeger? Would it make a difference?