Question about smoking a cured belly...

[parrot-head]

I have made bacon a few times now and have always hot smoked it to a certain IT for what seemed to be 3 or 4 hours.
My question is...will just cold smoking for about the same amount of time have the same effect?
If so, why does anyone even hot smoke at all? I guess I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of even hot smoking is if there is no advantage?
I have been happy with the amount of smoke on say a 4 hour hot smoke, so I guess I wonder
why the heat is even necessary?

 

[Rings Я Us]

Belly bacon your going to fry in a pan later so cold smoke is all you need. People usually do it twice that long or 12 hrs perhaps.

You can hot smoke stuff up to a 150 or so if you want to just slice it and eat it without frying it in the pan afterwards.
Like Canadian bacon you can cold smoke it but then you need to cook it after to eat some. But hot smoked to 145 or 150 , You can just eat it anytime after the smoking. No cooking. Bacon belly has so much fat that it's not easy to control the fat dripping and the texture if you hot smoke.

 

[parrot-head]

Belly bacon your going to fry in a pan later so cold smoke is all you need. People usually do it twice that long or 12 hrs perhaps.

You can hot smoke stuff up to a 150 or so if you want to just slice it and eat it without frying it in the pan afterwards.
Like Canadian bacon you can cold smoke it but then you need to cook it after to eat some. But hot smoked to 145 or 150 , You can just eat it anytime after the smoking. No cooking. Bacon belly has so much fat that it's not easy to control the fat dripping and the texture if you hot smoke.

That's kind of what I was thinking too, but even hot smoking to about 150IT, the bacon still isn't done and the fat is still nasty and needs to be cooked anyway. I don't know why anyone would slice bacon and eat if after just hot smoking it.

 

[daveomak]

I cold smoke belly... from 4 - 36 hours.. depends on how much smoke... I smoke below 70F... Slice and bake at 350 on a wire rack... sometimes coat with maple syrup at the end of the cook cycle , until the syrup is crunchy, then eat bacon candy as a snack.. I do prefer the 4 ish hours of smoke... Hickory right now BUT I just received my corn cob pellets and I've heard it makes the best bacon.. so back to the testing about bacon flavor..

 

[Rings Я Us]

I'm ordering a 5x8 pellet tray for doing my bacon next week. I will try to find some 100% Apple pellets.

 

[SmokinAl]

IMHO, cold smoking bacon produces a much better product.
When I tried to hot smoke bacon & then fry it , it was very tough, not the crispy bacon I was looking for.
I get the fact that if your bacon is smoked to 145 then it's safe to eat right out of the fridge, but who does that.
I always cook my bacon before eating it, so why go to the trouble of having it fully cooked before you even heat it up.
But that's just me & how I think.
Al

 

[troutman]

Bought a belly in a Chinese market that still had the rine on it. Should I remove it to smoke or leave it on and crisp up later?