First attempt at cold smoked Bacon

SoCal_Griller

Question for the cold smoke gurus out there.  I have 5 pounds of bacon cold smoking right now.  I am using the Amazin smoker and using the oak pellets that came with it.  How long should I let the bacon smoke?  I was originally thinking of letting the amazin run it course (10+ hours?), but now I am wondering if that is to long since I am using oak as opposed to apple.  Any thoughtts?  Am I over thinking this?

Thanks,

Kevin

nolaegghead

Oak isn't a very common smoke to use for bacon, but it's used....I usually cold smoke 4-6 hours.  Make sure there's nitrite in the cure if you're cold smoking.  Really depends on how much smoke you like.  Not uncommon for bacon to sit in smokehouses for days.  The amount of smoke is another factor.  Longer with less smoke is better than shorter with heavy smoke.  Heavy smoke leaves more bitter ash and combustion products on the surface relative to what gets absorbed in the meat.

SoCal_Griller

Thanks Nolaegghead,

Yeah the bacon was cured, i have done hot smoked bacon a few times.  Oak was all i had and thought I would give it a try, but oak is kind of strong.  Maybe I will cut a test piece after 4 hours to see how its doing.

nolaegghead

Good idea.  Funny how often people don't test what they're doing.... Taste and taste often!

SoCal_Griller

Lol!  Well I just pulled it after a test taste.  I did half savory and half sweet.   The savory was good, but the sweet?  well Im hoping it was just the piece that I tested.  But I went ahead and pulled after about 4 hours, not only due to the taste, but the ambient temp went over 90 :(.

So its in the fridge, then into the freezer then the slicer.

Thanks Nola!

nolaegghead

my pleasure.  Takes a day for the flavor to develop after a cold smoke.  You should be fine, it'll mellow out.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I let it roll. 10-12 hrs. I usually just do it overnight when it cooler and take it off the next day.

SoCal_Griller

Great point CT.  Next time I'll do it overnight, but with a lighter smoke.  I wanted to keep an eye on the Amazin since I have only done short cold smokes before (almonds).  Iwas very pleased with they way it kept on putting out the smoke.