Your Assistance please......

[old poi dog]

Aloha All,

I will admit that I am about to start my 2nd bacon smoke. I need the benefit of more experienced Baconeers here.

I've cured my slabs of bacon per Rytek's basic cure.  The slabs have been turned daily for 10 days as they sat in the refrigerator.

I want to smoke these bacon slabs at a smoker temp of no higher than 130.  I plan to do 1 hour in the smoker with no smoke at all to dry the bacon.  Then apply smoke to the slabs for 6-7 hours. These bacon will be cooked before eaten.  Do I need to be concerned with smoking the bacon until its internal temperature is at 155 or so? 

Do  I need to worry about getting the bacon internal temps out of the danger zone within 4 hours?

I'm thinking that since the bacon has been cured, and that I will be frying the bacon before consumption, I can safely smoke at lower temp.

Thanks All

 

[pineywoods]

Since the meat is cured you don't have to worry about the temps. I try to smoke as cool as I can you are not cooking the bacon you are just adding the smoke flavor. If you can keep the smoker under 100 you will have less chance of the fat rendering during the smoke. I never even put a temp probe into my bacon when smoking it all I care about is the smoker temp.

 

[pineywoods]

If you look at this thread you will find Todd never lit the smoker he just used the a-maze-n-smoker.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/97403/a-maze-n-bacon  

 

[Bearcarver]

Piney's right, since you did a great job curing it, you can keep it in the danger zone as long as you want. Smoke the heck out of it.

I smoked Bacon to 100˚, 128˚, 139˚, and 145˚ internal. The lowest 3 didn't render enough fat to bother me. They all tasted great, but the one with the lowest temp didn't get a very dark color. I the future I will use just the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER, but I will not put jugs of ice in. That will let it get to around 110˚ to maybe 125˚, depending on what time of year it is.

Bear

 

[old poi dog]

Thanks Piney and Bear,

Its very re-assuring hearing people of your experience.  Right now I've got the smoker pegged at 125 and its gonna stay there all afternoon. 

 

[scarbelly]

I hope to get mine in the smoker tomorrow - Let us know how it comes out OPD

 

[old poi dog]

Aloha Scarbelly....

I'm hoping I'll be get the Bacon out of the smoker in an hour or two.  No wind here today and with the needle valve on the smoker, I am able to keep the temp in the smoker at 125...

 

[tjohnson]

Val,

Where's your pics?

I'm CRAZY FOR BACON!

Todd