How cold is too cold for cold smoking

[brodieb666]

I'm having my second go at cold smoking bacon (first time went well a few months ago, but 6 hours seemed a little light).  Temps around me at night are currently ~34-45 at night when I smoke and, with my smoke daddy style smoke maker, the temp inside my smoke chamber (very fancy name for a cardboard box) is maybe one to two degrees above ambient.  

As long as the ambient temp is above freezing is there any benefit to having a higher temperature within the smoke chamber?

I don't know about smoke daddy users, but I have seen AMNPS+mailbox with long cooling smoke ducts and smokehouses with long underground connections to the fire, and even with the thicker walls used with those smoke chambers I would think people would have the same experience as me.

 

[SmokyMose]

From what I've read, you're OK over 34 degrees. You just don't want your stuff to freeze in the smoker....

 

[pc farmer]

As long as it doesn't freeze your good.  

 

[atomicsmoke]

Meat won't freeze at 32F...has some salt in it. Plus the smoke itself will bump the temp up a few deg. I smoke below 0C (32F) all the time.

 

[wurkenman]

I just did a batch at -20 in Minnesota. I used my electric Little Chief.

Sent from my SM-N910T3 using Tapatalk

 

[daveomak]

You want the meat and the smoker above ambient by several degrees...  maybe +10-15 deg. F so you do NOT get any condensate, from the smoking wood, on the meat...   That conensate tastes like acid rain...   bad stuff...

 

[wade]

I usually smoke my bacon at around 45-50 F at this time of year and I smoke it for about 24-36 hours. This does not have to be all in one go though. If the smoke generator does not give you sufficient warmth to raise the temperature in the smoke chamber you can simply use a 60-100 watt light bulb inside.

There is nothing wrong with using a cardboard box. I often show students how to make an inexpensive box smoker using a kitchen sieve smoke generator when I give courses.

5 Seive Starting.jpg

• wade
• Nov 1, 2016

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• wade
• Nov 1, 2016

 

[mr t 59874]

The Smoke Daddy’s will work fine using a remote firebox without forming condensation on the product at or even below ambient temperatures. If using it in the product camber you well may have to deal with condensation if the product is cold and your smoke is warm.

It has been my experience that a product will take on smoke at any temperature, if not, maybe I should give up smoking ice cubes. 

T