Hot Smoked Bacon?

[nawlinsborn73]

What IT is your sweet spot when you HOT smoke bacon?

 

[SmokinEdge]

145*F

 

[DougE]

A lot of times, I'll run just a smoke tube with no heat for a few hours, then crank up the heat to 160° or so, and pull when the bacon hits 145°.

 

[daspyknows]

145 to 150. smoke at 175 to a maximum of 200 with apple or cherry wood

 

[SmokinEdge]

145 to 150. smoke at 175 to a maximum of 200 with apple or cherry wood

Yeah, no. Not how it’s done.

175? To start. You havent smoked much bacon, have you? Do tell.

 

[daspyknows]

What temperature do you smoke bacon your bacon? If you think I am smoking it to 175 degree IT read it again. The temperature in the offset is between 175 and 200 degrees. The internal temperature of the pork belly is 145 to 150 degrees. I have smoked over 100lbs of bacon over the past few years so more than one or two times.

 

[SmokinEdge]

What temperature do you smoke bacon your bacon? If you think I am smoking it to 175 degree IT read it again. The temperature in the offset is between 175 and 200 degrees. The internal temperature of the pork belly is 145 to 150 degrees. I have smoked over 100lbs of bacon over the past few years so more than one or two times.

At those temperatures the fat out and greasy texture is not good.

while your method gets it done when you don’t have a proper smoke set up, your way produces an inferior product because of the hard surface(cooking and drying of the meat) and rendering of the fat.

Temperature in the cooker should never exceed 170F.

For hot smoke bacon, or hams, or loins, start temp at 130F for 1 hour to dry no smoke, then 1 hour with heavy smoke, then increase temp 10* every hour to a maximum of 170F until IT is 145F.

Meat usually trails smoker temp by 20-25* So 170F is sometimes needed to get final IT.

I finish all my smoked meat, except for hams, in SV this gives me a quality product with complete control of the the process. Smoke is usually applied for 4-5 hours less than 130F then finished SV.

 

[daspyknows]

You do you. The friends who I share the bacon I am making sure seem to like my inferior product and regularly ask for more.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Depends on how much smoke you want your bacon to get...a personal preference which is different for each of us. I personally only cold smoke my bacon, but using the method that @DougE Stated you will get more smoke time. The hotter and faster you smoke it the less smoke you'll get.

Ryan

 

[Hockeydudde]

I want to pull on this thread. Like @daspyknows , I hot smoke my bacon "too hot". I struggle to control my offset (ok joe highland) art anything below 250. I typically smoke bacon (back, belly and buck board) between 250 and 300. It gets plenty of smoke flavor for our taste.
I concede some fat renders and it dries out a little bit. But I nearly always fry it or bake it at 350. So it was going to get above 170 no matter what and dried out as well. Why the hang up about fat rendering?
My bacon is hands down better than can be bought, imo. But if it could be better, I could be motivated to try out a different method.

 

[Brokenhandle]

I want to pull on this thread. Like @daspyknows , I hot smoke my bacon "too hot". I struggle to control my offset (ok joe highland) art anything below 250. I typically smoke bacon (back, belly and buck board) between 250 and 300. It gets plenty of smoke flavor for our taste.
I concede some fat renders and it dries out a little bit. But I nearly always fry it or bake it at 350. So it was going to get above 170 no matter what and dried out as well. Why the hang up about fat rendering?
My bacon is hands down better than can be bought, imo. But if it could be better, I could be motivated to try out a different method.

Only way to know is try a different method. As mentioned all our tastes are different. Gonna love it, hate it, or it's ok. We can give opinions but they don't work for everyone. Doubt I'll ever hot smoke my bacon cuz I like it the way we do it now. But who knows, maybe sometime I'll try it.

Ryan

 

[LoydB]

I've been making delicious bacon for decades with the smoker way over 170. Next time I do it, I'll try lower and see what happens, but if you think the bacon is being ruined by over 170 well, I can't help you.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I want to pull on this thread. Like @daspyknows , I hot smoke my bacon "too hot". I struggle to control my offset (ok joe highland) art anything below 250. I typically smoke bacon (back, belly and buck board) between 250 and 300. It gets plenty of smoke flavor for our taste.
I concede some fat renders and it dries out a little bit. But I nearly always fry it or bake it at 350. So it was going to get above 170 no matter what and dried out as well. Why the hang up about fat rendering?
My bacon is hands down better than can be bought, imo. But if it could be better, I could be motivated to try out a different method.

I understand where you are coming from. Let’s lay down some definitions of process so we can keep this conversation on track.

SMOKING:
This process is accomplished at temperatures from 50-170F. There are different procedures and different product produced with this method.
1) Cold Smoking: This process is done in temperature from 50-80F. The purpose of this process is to slightly dry the product by about 10% to increase shelf life and slightly concentrate flavors as well as to add a deep smoke flavor and color. This process can be done for days or up to a couple weeks, even longer for hams. The product is raw and must be cooked before eating.

2) Hot Smoking: This process is done in temperature from 100-170F. Starting low and slowly working up to an internal temperature of between 145-155F depending on the product. In this process we are drying the product slightly up to 5% which concentrates flavor slightly and adding smoke flavor and color. The finished product is ready to eat as is. With bacon this can be helpful when pan frying as a lower temperature can be used so as not to burn sugars. I like to slice thick and flash fry for a nice crispy surface with a soft juicy center.

BBQ:
This process is done in temperature from 180-300F.
The purpose for this method of cooking is to break down collagen for juicy tender meat and render fats as well as add a smoke flavor.

Again this process has a temperature range that produces different products.

1) Take brisket or pork butt for example.
These meats cooked at 180-225 for 20-24 hours is a much different product than the same meats cooked at 275-300 for 10 hours. Both are brisket or pork, but they have much different texture and flavor.

Most of what has been posted about “hot smoking“ at 170 plus degrees is really not smoking at all but is BBQing. That is cooking with smoke and produces a different product than smoking. There is a reason folks go to the trouble of building smokehouse or pits to control low temp smoke.

There is no problem with cooking pork belly at bbq temperature if that’s what you like, but this produces a different product than traditional smoked belly bacon.

Bacon laying on a ham.

Sliced belly

Buckboard bacon.

 

[Bearcarver]

The only Bacon I personally Hot Smoke is Buckboard Bacon & Canadian Bacon. Those I just get past 145° IT.

Bear

 

[rchunter57]

SmokinEdge is right on. Great way to steer the discussion to the science of smoking. The fun part of what we do comes from the variables we each have. I've got 30 years in the commercial side of processing and I can tell you that in almost all commercial applications it's time plus costs ,= profit. The other huge element is consistency. I do this as my crazy hobby because I love to create products my friends say wow. Sitting here in my meat room watching bacon as I type this. Happy new Year