Realy cold smoked bacon.

[Charlie2]

I don't my due diligence and may be barking up the wrong tree. I'm in Northern Michigan and currently the temperature is 28 degrees F. Been up here since the pandemic and ended up buying a gas grill and a smoking tube. I smoke ribs on it by covering the grill with heavy towels to keep in the smoke and it works great, temperature is very controllable. I'm looking at my first run of cold smoked bacon but from what I'm not seeing is anyone smoking at these temperatures. Saw one post about placing a 60 w bulb inside. Is it possible to do this at these low temperatures? Several days with 5-6 hours of smoke per day? Can it even be done.

 

[Brokenhandle]

It can be done. But you need to keep temp inside grill above freezing. Also you want temps inside grill to be above ambient temp (outside temp). I recently smoked cheese with ambient temps about 31, heated smoker up a bit then shut heat off, smoked the cheese at about 41 degrees with amnps. Have some bricks or something you can use as a heat sink? Warm up with grill to help hold some heat for longer time periods.

Ryan

 

[Winterrider]

Do a dry run. Put trouble light or light source in your grill and monitor the temp for couple hrs. May need 2 lights but certainly will work.
That is what's nice about the Auber PID in the MES 40. Has been -10° and just set the temp at About 35- 40° and smoked cheese or sausage before.

 

[DanMcG]

you can also try a few pieces of charcoal under your wood chips / pellets. The last one I did I kept my electric at 100 ish, (lowest it will go) and it worked out fine.

 

[olaf]

It was in the low 20's where I am and I made some buckboard bacon today I just plugged in a heating element once in a while to keep the temp up a little. I didn't get my new temp controllers installed yet so I had no heat control but you just don't need much heat. The charcoal idea is a good one, 5 to 6 days of smoke is a lot 8 hours is good for me.

 

[Murray]

Any heat source will do, you monitor grill temperatures and turn your heat source on and off as needed. Insulation of some sort will help big time. Heat source could be a light bulb, small electric heater a hot plate anything that will fit under the grates. Depending how cold it is and how well you can insulate your grill you might even get away with the heat from the smoke tube. Good luck and post back what you end up doing.

 

[smokeybo]

It's 31 outside now,
Been smoking mine 3 days nowi have a 16 inch deep (two cmu) fire pit that I put my amns in
I built a lil smoke cabin that is 4 feet tall to sit on top of the hole
It's made from old stuff I found around my land including a trailer my uncle buried 30 years ago that's what I used for the siding
It's really drafty but the smoke just rises and passes the bellies easily

High today might be low 50s
This is average February weather