Makin Bacon in warmer months ?

[Mofatguy]

Hey all,
It's starting to warm up here in MO. got me to thinking as I'm new to cold smoking bacon about outside ambient temps.

When it starts to warm up, is it safe to cold smoke bacon that has been cured with insta cure when the temps get up past 70* outside temp?

I smoke my bacon with no heat and an pellet tube from amazin products for 2 hours.

What outside temp should I quit smoking bacon at?

Thanks. Just want to stay safe.

 

[Bearcarver]

As far as safety goes, it doesn't matter what the Ambient temp is.
People Cold, Warm, or Hot smoke as a personal preference.
Some cold smoke for their reasons, some Hot Smoke for their reasons, and I Warm Smoke (Between 100° and 130°) for my reasons. My main reason is I can get the same or better color & flavor in half the time by "Warm" smoking. IMHO

Bacon (Extra Smoky)

As long as your Meat is cured properly, you don't have to worry about the ambient temp.

Bear

 

[Mofatguy]

As far as safety goes, it doesn't matter what the Ambient temp is.
People Cold, Warm, or Hot smoke as a personal preference.
Some cold smoke for their reasons, some Hot Smoke for their reasons, and I Warm Smoke (Between 100° and 130°) for my reasons. My main reason is I can get the same or better color & flavor in half the time by "Warm" smoking. IMHO

Bacon (Extra Smoky)

As long as your Meat is cured properly, you don't have to worry about the ambient temp.

Bear

Thanks Bear! That's what I thought but wanted to make sure I would stay safe.

 

[daveomak]

Convert your pellets to dust... It smoke a lot colder than pellets... Smoke at night when the ambient temp drops... That's what I do... Here in the desert, the nighttime temps drop to around 40-50F....

 

[indaswamp]

Temp. should not matter if you are only smoking for 2 hours. When cold smoking,you have to smoke about 3 times as long as you would warm smoking to get the same amount of smoke, but the smoke will penetrate all the way through the meat. And Like Dave mentioned, cold smoke at night. You want the humidity high to keep the surface of the meat from drying too fast, and as the air cools at night, the humidity goes up. If you use dust like Dave recommends, you will get the perfect TBS for sold smoking and your smoke chamber temp. will not rise much at all; maybe 2~5* which is enough to get a good draft going. Big key here is to allow the meat to warm for 2~3 hours @ room temperature. Ideally, you want the meat temp. slightly warmer than the chamber temp. when you put it in the smokehouse to keep condensation from forming on the meat.
My personal preference is 36~40 hours of cold smoke <70* with about 50~85% humidity.
With the maple bacon, I like Maple, Cherry, Apple blend made into dust.
For molasses bacon, I like hickory and apple...80/20 or 60/40
Applewood smoked bacon is awesome too... I use the lumberjack 100% apple pellets made into dust and sometimes add about 20% hickory for a little stronger smoke flavor.

You'll have to experiment to see what you like.

 

[JZ_Focus]

I keep a couple of frozen bottles of water around in the freezer for when I cold smoke my bacon in warmed weather. I burn my pellets in an Amazn tray using the mailbox mod, and I'll put a frozen water bottle in the bottom of my MES30 if the temp starts to rise too much. This has worked well for me in the past. Also, keeping your smoker out of direct sunlight if possible helps a bit as well.

 

[Bearcarver]

I keep a couple of frozen bottles of water around in the freezer for when I cold smoke my bacon in warmed weather. I burn my pellets in an Amazn tray using the mailbox mod, and I'll put a frozen water bottle in the bottom of my MES30 if the temp starts to rise too much. This has worked well for me in the past. Also, keeping your smoker out of direct sunlight if possible helps a bit as well.

That's what I do when I Cold Smoke Cheese, but I don't cold smoke my Bacon.
Like Below:

Bear

 

[JZ_Focus]

What type of pellets are you using (apple, maple, etc...)? I cold smoke my bacon with apple pellets and let it go for 10-12 hours. You mentioned on 2 hours of smoke on yours. I was just curious if you were using a stronger flavored wood. My buddies dad smoke our bacon the other year, and it was so strong, every time we cooked it, it would smell like the house was on fire the smoke was so strong, and he would only smoke it for 3-4 hours. I still don't know what he did to ruin the bacon the way he did that time, but no one could eat it.

 

[Mofatguy]

Using pitboss applewood pellets in 6" amazen tube in big chief smoker.
Yesterday I did my 1st 10lb batch in the smoker. Had them in 4 slabs and one small chunk. I think I over killed the amount of meat to put in the big cheif to smoke. Didn't get good smoke adhesion at all. Usually the slabs when done this way with just 1 2-3lb slab comes out nicely colored. These smells Smokey but very little color. Don't think the smoke was able to flow right in the tight confined smoker. Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

[JZ_Focus]

Using pitboss applewood pellets in 6" amazen tube in big chief smoker.
Yesterday I did my 1st 10lb batch in the smoker. Had them in 4 slabs and one small chunk. I think I over killed the amount of meat to put in the big cheif to smoke. Didn't get good smoke adhesion at all. Usually the slabs when done this way with just 1 2-3lb slab comes out nicely colored. These smells Smokey but very little color. Don't think the smoke was able to flow right in the tight confined smoker. Oh well. Lesson learned.

I've done up to 14lbs in my MES30 at a time. That works out to be 4 slabs spread across 4 racks. The smoke seams to flow nicely through the cabinet for me as I use the mailbox mod for my amazn tray. Color always turns out very well, and the smokiness has never been too much when I run up to 12 hours.

 

[JZ_Focus]

Here was the last batch I smoked right as I put it in the MES30 to give you the idea of how much space I have between slabs.

 

[Mofatguy]

Lots more space than in the big chief. My smoker is only something like 10"x18"x24" or something like that. I was worried it would not flow right but wanted to try. Like I said. Lesson learned.

 

[JZ_Focus]

Lots more space than in the big chief. My smoker is only something like 10"x18"x24" or something like that. I was worried it would not flow right but wanted to try. Like I said. Lesson learned.

I understand completely. I actually had 2 batches this size to do. I just ended up doing half on saturday and the other half on sunday. THe only issue I had with that was, I don't like to leave the house while I have anything in the smoker. Even when I cold smoke, I like to stick around just in case the pellets go out, which did happen to me on the sunday smoke. That just means I'm stuck at the house all weekend, which isn't always a bad thing.

 

[indaswamp]

I have found that if you are going to use ice in your smokehouse, you need to put your smoke generator above the ice for 2 reasons...
1- Air flow.... Cold air sinks. You want to cool the incoming air down from ambient temp. So put the ice below your smoke generator. The smoke generator does not produce a lot of heat, but you do need a couple degrees difference between top and bottom temp. for the air to draft up and out of the smokehouse. If you put the smoke generator below the ice, you are heating the ambient air, then trying to cool it. If it cools the smokehouse enough, you will not get any draft and will need to use a fan. Flipping the set up avoids this issue-ice under smoke generator.
2- sweating... That ice will condense water and it will drip down. Even if you put a jug in a pan, where the jug contacts the pan, it will condense water and drip. Obviously, you do not want a drip on your smoke generator.

YMMV, and depending on how much space you have inside your smoke chamber, you may not be able to set up this way....but heat source above ice is preferred......

 

[Mofatguy]

Just got done packaging the bacon. Everything looked great except on 1 slab there was a spot of meat about 1/4" thick and 1 1/2" long that was discolored?
Didn't get a picture of it before sticking in freezer. It was kinda carmel colored? I'm assuming it must have because I stacked the individual bags on top of each other when curing? Only thing I can think of that might have caused it? No foul smell or anything just off colored in a spot?
What would've caused that? I'm assuming it's safe since I cured for 10 days and the piece was @1 1/2" at its thickest point. Instacure 1 was weighed out per grams.

 

[indaswamp]

Hard to say what it is without a picture....

 

[Mofatguy]

I'll try and pull it out of the freezer tomorrow night when I get home from work and take a pic.

 

[Bearcarver]

I have found that if you are going to use ice in your smokehouse, you need to put your smoke generator above the ice for 2 reasons...
1- Air flow.... Cold air sinks. You want to cool the incoming air down from ambient temp. So put the ice below your smoke generator. The smoke generator does not produce a lot of heat, but you do need a couple degrees difference between top and bottom temp. for the air to draft up and out of the smokehouse. If you put the smoke generator below the ice, you are heating the ambient air, then trying to cool it. If it cools the smokehouse enough, you will not get any draft and will need to use a fan. Flipping the set up avoids this issue-ice under smoke generator.
2- sweating... That ice will condense water and it will drip down. Even if you put a jug in a pan, where the jug contacts the pan, it will condense water and drip. Obviously, you do not want a drip on your smoke generator.

YMMV, and depending on how much space you have inside your smoke chamber, you may not be able to set up this way....but heat source above ice is preferred......

LOL---Like I said, I only Cold Smoke Cheese, and if I put my AMNPS above my Ice Jug, the cheese would melt.
The Ice Jug is between the AMNPS & the Cheese for a Specific reason!!! To put the AMNPS above the Ice would be defeating the purpose!!

Bear

 

[indaswamp]

LOL---Like I said, I only Cold Smoke Cheese, and if I put my AMNPS above my Ice Jug, the cheese would melt.
The Ice Jug is between the AMNPS & the Cheese for a Specific reason!!! To put the AMNPS above the Ice would be defeating the purpose!!

Bear

My post was not directed at you Bear, per say. I realize there are limitations when smoking in a small commercially build smoker, which was the reason for the disclaimer at the bottom of my post. I smoked on a Gen. 1 MES for a long time. When my old MES finally crapped out on me and rusted holes in the top, I decided to look for a solution to those limitations and this is what prompted me to build my large smokehouse. I grew tired of the limitations and the workarounds to try and make it work for me. I'm posting this information for the OP to share what I have learned. When cold smoking in a small smoker, If you put too much ice above the smoke generator, you can reach a point where the cold air sinking overcomes the hot air rising...been there, done that.

 

[Mofatguy]

Here is the best pic I could get of the dark spots. Don't look as carmel colored after it froze.