cold or cool smoke bacon?

[Daum]

Reading over a bunch of the recipes on here I've seen a bunch stating to cold vs cool smoke. What do you do and prefer and why?

I did a cool smoke last week with applewood and it went fine except I didn't think it got smokey enough, so just am trying to decide for my next batch this coming week.

Thanks,
Daum

 

[Geir Widar]

The problem with cold smoked bacon, at least with the traditon here where I live, is that it takes a week.
You need something else than let's say a WSM, a real smokehouse, and plenty of time to feed the fire and oversee the whole process. The taste is quite different from hot smoked bacon. All in all itbecomes so expensive because of the time spent, that it is not possible to sell it and make money from such a product.

I've made a "sortalike"- product several times, but it does not have the same very rich, subtle flavor. I use a homemade cold smoker attachment to the WSM. 12- 14 hours is enough to give the meat a quite strong smoke flavor.

 

[Daum]

So you are saying you do cold smoke it, just for 12-14 hours? I was thinking of possibly trying to do 3-4 hours with the soldering iron+can of chips then cool smoke it at ~190 or so up to 150 degrees.

 

[Geir Widar]

I've tried the "soldering iron"- smoking. Several times.

If you ask my taste buds, the result of the process is ashy, bland and not worth eating. Others might have different opinions. My taste buds scream "Just stay away from the soldering iron".

Cold smoking is a process that takes time. If you want to give it a try at you will need some sort of chamber to hang your meats/food, and a cold smoke generator of some sorts. There are thousands of ways to do this. Look into the venturi method, which is quite new in terms of cold smoking.
I use a cold smoke generator and a WSM as a chamber to make cold smoked food during late fall and early spring. The temps here at the time of year is about 45 degrees, which is quite ideal.

As I've said, with very thick and heavy smoke, you can make something worth eating during the time span of 6-12 hours, as long as you give the food a week or so to "mellow out". It's OK to freeze the food, it does not matter.

It would be easier to answer if you used temperatures rather than "cool" and "cold". "cold smoking" can be in a different temperature range where you live.

 

[tjkoko]

Reading over a bunch of the recipes on here I've seen a bunch stating to cold vs cool smoke. What do you do and prefer and why?

I did a cool smoke last week with applewood and it went fine except I didn't think it got smokey enough, so just am trying to decide for my next batch this coming week.

Thanks,
Daum

Use lots more wood chunks and light the unlit charcoal using fewer lit coals. That'll prolong the low temperatures and duration of the smoke itself.

 

[Daum]

Sounds good - what temps do you use when you are cold smoking? I tried to stay around 180-190. Will be doing another round this upcoming weekend, have some bacon and canadian bacon to do.

Daum

 

[tjkoko]

Sounds good - what temps do you use when you are cold smoking? I tried to stay around 180-190. Will be doing another round this upcoming weekend, have some bacon and canadian bacon to do.

Daum

I try to keep the temperature <<145F for as long as I can but utlimately the temperature will rise. Some time hovers around 4-5 hours at most, however.

 

[Russ Sylvester]

I've only used cold smoking for stuff like salt, pepper, garlic, onions, cheese, etc. I use the mini-WSM with a Pro Q cold smoke generator.

My bacon goes into the WSM with very minimal charcoal and extra smoke wood. I try to hold the temps around 180-200 until the bacon internal gets to 150. I do the same thing with Jerky.

Russ

 

[Dave from Denver]

I have a venturi style smoke generator I made. I cold smoke bacon in the WSM over 3 nights, 8-10 hours of smoke (a full generator run) each time, resting covered in the fridge between sessions. It's mindblowingly good. YMMV

 

[Geir Widar]

Would it be possible to post a couple of pictures of the venturi smoke generator?
I've searched a bit, and there are several consepts out there. The one I have works on pressure only, it's too small and a bit cumbersome to use.

 

[tjkoko]

I have a venturi style smoke generator I made. I cold smoke bacon in the WSM over 3 nights, 8-10 hours of smoke (a full generator run) each time, resting covered in the fridge between sessions. It's mindblowingly good. YMMV

I, too, would like to view your 'venturi smoke generator'.

 

[Dave from Denver]

So maybe this isn't really venturi style, and the pictures suck I know sorry. I'll try to get more pictures...

The cold smoker is a copper-plated aluminum tin I got at a thrift store. At the bottom I have a brass T-valve, then a few inches of stainless steel pot scrubber mesh, then some 1/4" wire mesh I cut to size.

On top of that I put a pile of wood chips, then a fully lit charcoal briquette or two. Then I close the lid. The lid has a hole drilled in it. The smoker is run by the aquarium pump in the background. A full load of chips will smoke for about 8 hours if I turn it down a bit once it gets going.

The smoke is not super dense, here's what it looks like inside the full sized WSM

I'll try to get more photos up like i said. More instructions for how to build this can be found here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=3185

I use a charcoal briquette for ignition and not a soldering iron. Usually when a load is finished smoking there is very little wood ash left in the canister.