Small fire while cold smoking

[Audiosoldier]

Hi there I had three pieces of
Pork belly that had been cured for 2 weeks with cure 2 to then be cold smoked and hung to dry for tyrolean speck. I got the pellets going and began smoking checked on it a few times and then checked it again 15 min later and there was a small grease fire inside of my smoker. The thermometer had maxed out anyways I put the fire out and 1out of three pieces took on some charring. I took them out and cooled them immediately as it’s winter here now! Anyways my question is are the now garbage? I brought them inside and hung them in my basement until I hear otherwise some advice would be greatly appreciated! One piece out of the 3 obviously got a little charred

 

[SonnyE]

I would NOT toss them, myself.
I would probably carefully trim away, or scrape off, any char or smoke damage (black stuff), and move forward.
It was a grease fire, so may not have been too nasty.
Then begin again with your smoking.
If, after finishing smoking, and slicing, the Bacon is just too off in fragrance or taste, you can then decide what goes and what keeps.
But you have a considerable investment in time and money to just throw it away...yet.

Welcome to the Human Race. ;)
If we don't have a few oopsies, we aren't doing anything. :confused::(

If you've ever seen dry aged meat, it looks pretty awful on the outside. But is pretty danged good on the inside.

 

[Audiosoldier]

haha true enough! Not sure why the fire started! The first three pieces I did yesterday turned out great and went off to hang in the cold room. Although I didn’t pepper the first batch not sure if the peppercorns were the culprit

 

[daveomak]

Sorry to hear about your flare-up... I have read, somewhere, once meat is warmed above (?? CRS temp) it cannot be used for dry aged/cured products because a change has occurred to the meat that it will not handle room temperature storage and it will rot.... I don't think the article had a specifics or I would have remembered them.... Did the meat get above 68F like the method states ?? If not, you are in luck...
If it did, slowly cook it to 140 ish and call it bacon...

Curing
Like prosciutto and other hams and most German Speck, Tyrolean speck is made from the hind leg of the pig. It is deboned before curing.

A leg of pork is deboned and divided into large sections called "baffe", and then cured in salt and one of various spice combinations, which may include garlic, bay leaves, juniper berries, nutmeg, and other spices, and then rested for a period of several weeks. After this, the smoking process begins.[citation needed]

Tyrolean Speck is cold-smoked slowly and intermittently for two or three hours a day for a period of roughly a week using woods such as beech at temperatures that never exceed 20°C (68°F). It is then matured for five months.

 

[SonnyE]

throw it away?

 

[SonnyE]

haha true enough! Not sure why the fire started! The first three pieces I did yesterday turned out great and went off to hang in the cold room. Although I didn’t pepper the first batch not sure if the peppercorns were the culprit

Humm... peppercorns too HOT!