Bacon question????


 
J

John Behrendt

New member
When smoking bacon, are we actually cooking the bacon, or are we smoking the bacon? Would cold smoking be more appropriate? I'm sure the answer has been posted before, but I'm slow on the uptake. :confused:
 
Here in Europe there is a long tradition of cold smoking bacon. If it is more appropriate or better is a matter of what you prefer. It sure tastes a bit different.

For me it is more fun to make hot smoked bacon, as it is nowhere to be found here where I live. It might be the same for you, trying to make cold smoked bacon, since you probably is more used to the hot smoked variety.

Both tecniques still makes something that tastes like bacon :)
 
What would the difference be, in your experience. I have always consumed bacon whenever I could, but I've never made it. I am looking for any help, and as much information as possible.
 
I suppose it depends on what you're looking to do:

1) Starting with a pork belly? You'll have to cure the pork belly, cold smoke it, let it rest, etc

2) Starting with pre-cut bacon from the store? Hot smoke it. If you use the search function on this site, a lot of people rave about "pig candy"
 
I'd have to agree with Tim, in that I'd only hot smoke, or "cook" the bacon if it's already pre-sliced. If you have a pork belly that you've cured and want to smoke for flavor, cold smoke it (no higher than 200 degrees for about 3 hours). Anything hotter than that, and the bacon fat will start to cook off, which you don't want.
 
I agree with Tim, if you are making bacon from raw pork belly then it really is cold smoking, since you are only bringing it up to ~145 degrees. To eat you would then take that and finish it as you would store bought bacon.. But it's going to be 100x better !!! hehe.. Pig candy or Piggy paddles as I call them is the logical next step.. Take your amazing home made bacon, cover it with brown sugar and spices and finish it up right.. Like I said.. the Logical next step ;) hehe..
 
Some time ago, I made a post where I split a pork belly in half, cured it, and cold smoked half of it. i hot smoked the other half. The pictures in the post are gone. I'll try to find the time to find them on my computer and post them here, maybe tomorrow, but there are a few other things to tend to before christmas eve.

Cold smoked bacon tastes a bit more of meat than hot smoked bacon, and have a longer and a bit more complex aftertaste, in my opinion. This can of course vary, depending on the belly as well as the different smokes, choice of wood et ceterea.

I would not call smoking at 145f a cold smoke. For me that is a hot smoke, but that is just a matter of how you define your smokes. The bacon does not really care..
 
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I prefer hot smoking whole bellies (or I sometimes halve or third a belly and flavor each differently. Though 'hot" smoking, the temps start low, and stay fairly low through most of the process. Higher than cold smoking temps but low nevertheless. It's a relatively quick process.

Taking the belly to 145 - or even 150 or 155 - doesn't really cook it; the resulting texture is not like one would think of actually cooked pork. It is like much of the bacon one buys at the markets here in terms of texture (most commercial bacon is hot smoked). But home-smoked bacon is, imo, much more flavorful - even if one doesn't flavor the brine or surface of the bacon prior to smoking.
 
Thanks for the info everyone! That's what I was looking for. The internal temp was what I was looking for. Should have worded my question better!! I am looking at creating what I normally buy and throw in the frying pan, just better.
 
There's definitely confusion over terms here. When we bring the bacon up to 145 we're hot smoking it, period. Cold smoking is a technique where you're bringing in smoke but no heat - if you're raising the temps you're not cold smoking it. People will cold smoke bacon for 30-40 hours to layer in the smoke. It's probably superior but most of us aren't set up for that, so we hot smoke it.
 
If you are wanting to bring bacon to 145 you have no choice but to hot smoke it as that temp is well above cold smoking temps so, of course, one can't reach an internal temp higher than what ambient temps are. Hot smoking, however, is known as hot smoking not because of any internal temp but because the smoking temps used are higher. Cold smoking is generally done between 20 and 30˚C, though many feel that temps to 100˚F fall under the same heading.

I've had bacon smoked for 15-18 hours in cold smoke (I can't imagine that longer would make much of a difference) and bacon cold smoked for 7 or 8 hours. Personally, I do not see an advantage in terms of flavor or texture so I hot smoke. Others MMV.
 
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