Cold Smoking
- Thread starter Jamie
- Start date
doing my first cold smoked bacon today. been planning this for over a week and today seems like a perfect day for it. I'm using my Bradley smoker cabinet with the remote cold smoking attachment, but instead of the digital bisquette burner, I'm using the a-maz-n 5x8 maze. planning on 8-10 hours of smoke with a combination of hickory and apple pellets. I've done cheese, brisket, pork ribs and beef ribs in the last four weeks with the pellet smoke, and I think I'm done buying bisquettes from Bradley. pellets produce better smoke, imo and are about half the price and just as easy to use. I might have to invest in a pellet grill now, lol.
dry cure (becomes a wet cure after a day) in vacuum bag for 6 days. I usually only do four or five days, but a little longer is going to be better.
rinsed, patted dry and in front of a fan for a half hour or so
then outside to chill off again and dry a bit more for another half hour or so. It is 29 degrees here with light ene breeze around 5-10mph.
time to light the pellets now and load the cabinet
dry cure (becomes a wet cure after a day) in vacuum bag for 6 days. I usually only do four or five days, but a little longer is going to be better.
rinsed, patted dry and in front of a fan for a half hour or so
then outside to chill off again and dry a bit more for another half hour or so. It is 29 degrees here with light ene breeze around 5-10mph.
time to light the pellets now and load the cabinet
my cold smoking rig
butane burner is perfect for lighting the pellets and melting ice off the platform of your tree stand before climbing on. and crystallizing sugar on your crème brulee, too, I guess.
ready to go. I'm sure I could cram another side in there, but this is 35lbs worth. 34 degrees inside the smoker cabinet with a heavy smudge going. I doubt that it will get over 40 degrees in there with this set up and ambient temperature today.
I got these pork bellies through a local butcher, and these are indeed "fresh sides" from local hog farmer, not frozen or vac-packed, but I did order them with the skin off as the machine does a better job of skinning than I could. same price per pound as industrial bellies from Costco. cannot tell much about the meat/fat ratios by looking at the outside of these, but if they are good, I'll be getting fresh sides from butcher from now on. ribs, too. I managed to get him to cut me some beef plate ribs, too.
butane burner is perfect for lighting the pellets and melting ice off the platform of your tree stand before climbing on. and crystallizing sugar on your crème brulee, too, I guess.
ready to go. I'm sure I could cram another side in there, but this is 35lbs worth. 34 degrees inside the smoker cabinet with a heavy smudge going. I doubt that it will get over 40 degrees in there with this set up and ambient temperature today.
I got these pork bellies through a local butcher, and these are indeed "fresh sides" from local hog farmer, not frozen or vac-packed, but I did order them with the skin off as the machine does a better job of skinning than I could. same price per pound as industrial bellies from Costco. cannot tell much about the meat/fat ratios by looking at the outside of these, but if they are good, I'll be getting fresh sides from butcher from now on. ribs, too. I managed to get him to cut me some beef plate ribs, too.
twireman
Senior Member
four hours into it and the temp in cabinet is only up to 39 degrees. this is going pretty well so far and the smoke billowing out the top does smell nice.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
short answer is not what I was expecting. it's good bacon, but not as good as what I've made in the past. Everything went well with the curing and smoke application, i.e., I didn't fuck anything up that I'm aware of. the flavor lacks the intensity that the last few batches have had. I have been "warm" smoking my bacon up until now. I used the exact same cure, but actually let it cure one day more than I usually do. I'm not sure what it is(yet), but something important is going on while applying smoke at 130ish degrees that is not happening when apply smoke at 30ish degrees. this cold smoked bacon is less salty even though it should be more. I'm not sure I'm digging the flavor of the pellet smoke on bacon. I really like the pellet smoke on the other stuff I've smoked with it, but the best bacon I've made was warm smoked with Bradley hickory and apple wood bisquettes supplying the 8 hours of smoke while taking the temp of the bacon to about 128 degrees. I've never had any issue with fat rendering doing it this way, and after the smoke is done, I'm running the cabinet as close to 145* as I can keep it until the bacon reaches 126-128*. I used a new source for the pork bellies this time, but I don't see how that would have this dramatic of an effect on the finished product. Sides looked and smelled exactly like they always do after I rinse the cure off and dry them. Still, it looks good, tastes pretty good, but it's just not my best results. Slicing this cold smoked bacon requires that it be about half frozen to use my slicer. Warm smoked bacon firms up plenty for slicing by merely being refrigerated over night. I may give this one more try and do a couple things different.
these sides were pretty wide, so I had to cut them in half lengthwise to get slices into quart size vac bags. no big deal to me as I don't need bacon that is a foot long or more. fits on a burger, blt, or grilled cheese or breakfast sammich better this way, anyway. it just doesn't look as nice in the package as longer slices.
I package it such that one package is just enough to cover a rack for baking
my sorry little $10 ebay slicer has served me pretty well. I've sliced a ton of cheese, sausages and bacon with this thing. I literally paid $10 for it, brand new. goes a little slow on half frozen bacon, but does pretty good otherwise. I can slice sides clear across their width by freehanding it across the blade, which is how I sliced the bacon in the "pretty" package, but half of the side is a bit easier.
how'd that back bacon turn out for you, Buckmaster?
these sides were pretty wide, so I had to cut them in half lengthwise to get slices into quart size vac bags. no big deal to me as I don't need bacon that is a foot long or more. fits on a burger, blt, or grilled cheese or breakfast sammich better this way, anyway. it just doesn't look as nice in the package as longer slices.
I package it such that one package is just enough to cover a rack for baking
my sorry little $10 ebay slicer has served me pretty well. I've sliced a ton of cheese, sausages and bacon with this thing. I literally paid $10 for it, brand new. goes a little slow on half frozen bacon, but does pretty good otherwise. I can slice sides clear across their width by freehanding it across the blade, which is how I sliced the bacon in the "pretty" package, but half of the side is a bit easier.
how'd that back bacon turn out for you, Buckmaster?
Buckmaster
Senior Member
It was my first attempt at Canadian Bacon. I found a 10# pork loin for $ 1.49/#. I cut it in half, marinated half in cure/maple syrup and the other half in cure/honey on Sunday. Friday night they both got warm water baths and hung in my fridge to dry. Saturday morning, one got painted with maple syrup and the other honey. I proceeded with a 14 hour triple apple smoke. They spend Saturday night back in the fridge then to the meat slicer Sunday morning. I ended up with 14 vacuum sealed bags. I pan fried the bacon scraps with eggs for Sunday breakfast. I gave it 2 thumbs up.
By the way, I keep my smoker temps between 120-160* as it fluctuates. This is weekend #4 of Bacon Make'n and I haven't had any residual fat runoff yet.
By the way, I keep my smoker temps between 120-160* as it fluctuates. This is weekend #4 of Bacon Make'n and I haven't had any residual fat runoff yet.
we want pictures, Buckmaster! show us the back bacon.
since the cold is lingering, I'm seizing the opportunity to do a little more cold smoking today.
and I'm loading up the smoker beyond capacity.
brown sugar for Nancy, fine grain "Real Salt" from ancient sea bed in Utah, whole peppercorns, EVOO, lacey swiss, provolone, jumpin' jack, mozzarella, peppered white American, medium cheddar, extra sharp white cheddar and parmigiano reggiano. this ought to get us by for a while.
since the cold is lingering, I'm seizing the opportunity to do a little more cold smoking today.
and I'm loading up the smoker beyond capacity.
brown sugar for Nancy, fine grain "Real Salt" from ancient sea bed in Utah, whole peppercorns, EVOO, lacey swiss, provolone, jumpin' jack, mozzarella, peppered white American, medium cheddar, extra sharp white cheddar and parmigiano reggiano. this ought to get us by for a while.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
The previous 4 weekends have been Bacon Make'n weekends. I'm done for a while as I've got a lot of eating to do.
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looks great Buckmaster. nice work. I might have to get myself a pork loin. I love Canadian bacon, but have never made it.
since there is no power to the cabinet I removed the heat shield so I can make use of the bottom as another space for food. put the sugar and spice down low so I can stir it up a couple of time during the smoke. on a whim I sliced up some lime wedges to throw in the smoke. I suspect that Ginny might like a little smokey goodness with her citrus and tonic this evening. we'll see.
since there is no power to the cabinet I removed the heat shield so I can make use of the bottom as another space for food. put the sugar and spice down low so I can stir it up a couple of time during the smoke. on a whim I sliced up some lime wedges to throw in the smoke. I suspect that Ginny might like a little smokey goodness with her citrus and tonic this evening. we'll see.