Cold smoked beef, lamb and duck bacon - Part 1

smokingal

In celebration of National Bacon Day, I made 3 different types of non-porcine bacon: beef, lamb and duck. Beef and lamb bacon is nothing new to me, but this was my first attempt with duck bacon.  As such, I wanted to use what I thought were interesting flavor profiles.  I also took a chance with a new sugar cure crafted by The Great American Spice Company which claimed to be the exact replacement for Morton's Sugar Cure, a product taken off the market some time ago.

 

 

The Moulard duck breasts received the base sugar cure along with char siu and hibiscus honey
chai rubs.

 

 

Two of the lamb bellies received herbs de provence, pepper, garlic and onion, with the remaining two receiving char siu and a standard pastrami rub (pickling spice blend, garlic and onion).

 

 

Twenty pounds of beef navel received char siu; herbs de provence, pepper, garlic and onion;
and pine smoked black tea, pepper, garlic and onion.  A 4 pound slab was also cured for pastrami.

 

 

After 19 days, all the meat was thoroughly rinsed, soaked for desalination, pressed dry and
left to air dry in the fridge.  The cured duck breast was wrapped in paper towels and placed
in a ziplock bag to dry.

 

 

Since the duck bacon had to be cold smoked, I used this as an opportunity to also try cold smoking beef and lamb bacon.  This is where the real fun began.  I purchased an A-Maze-N smoker since I remembered having issues with my old Pro-Q cold smoke generator staying lit.  Unfortunately, I ran into the same issue with the A-Maze-N smoker.  After struggling with it for hours, and even trying to add the Pro-Q into the mix with the same results, I gave up and went back to the drawing board.

 

 

 

For my second attempt, I dried out the wood pellets by baking them in the oven at the lowest
temperature (170F) for several hours.  I also did this for a blend of hickory/cherry wood dust in
an effort to use the Pro-Q as a backup.  The next day I saw the same results with the Pro-Q but the A-Maze-N smoker performed just a tad bit better.  I found that it still required re-lighting every hour or so, but the meat did manage to pick up a bit more smoke and color.

One thing I noticed towards the end of my second attempt was that the airflow seemed off.  The smoke seemed to pool in the chamber and come out the bottom vent, while only whispers of smoke managed to make their way out the top (SmokeWare cap).  This behavior continued despite what I felt were multiple and adequate adjustments to the vent settings.

 

Results from the second day of cold smoking:

 

 

My plan for the next day of cold smoking was to open both top and bottom vents wide open,
verify that the desired airflow had been achieved, and then make adjustments to the vents as
necessary.  The weather patterns here had other ideas and I had to put this off for the following day.  When the skies finally cleared, I made my final go at it.  This last effort was very successful. Leaving both vents wide open at the start allowed me to dial them in without starving the fire.

 

Results from the last day of cold smoking:

 

 

The cold smoking stats on the bacon are as follows:

Wood pellets/dust used: hickory, maple, cherry
duck smoked for 17 hrs
lamb smoked for 36 hrs
beef smoked for 36 hrs, except herbs de provence which received 29 hrs
average ambient temp of BGE - 70F

My inspiration for an extended cold smoke came from an article written by the Food/Animal Science extension from my alma mater.  I remembered students raving about the bacon (pork) that they cured and smoked in-house and sold from their meat locker on campus.  I figured I'd follow their advice for home curing bacon and so far I'm not disappointed.

The bacon smelled smokier than anything I had made before and I was happy with the nice
mahogany color the slabs had taken on.  The beef and lamb were placed on racks in the fridge
and air dried for 24 hours before being vacuum sealed in Foodsaver bags and allowed to mellow.

 

I removed a small piece of fatty meat from the hibiscus honey chai duck bacon and a large bit
of fat from one of the herbs de provence, pepper, onion garlic beef bacon slabs and fried them
up in a cast iron skillet.  The way the smell of the duck bacon permeated the air....and the herbal richness of the beef bacon.....the taste of both.....

I can't wait until this bacon mellows out a bit.  It's gonna be some good eats.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Very nice! I have found the pellets that A-Maze-N Smoker (AMS) sells tend to go out often. I recommend using Traeger or cookingpellets.com (these are 100% of the flavor wood they claim to be, Traeger uses flavored oils or blends of wood to get the flavor profile they are after). I posted an AMS tutorial on here a few years ago. If you use better pellets and follow those instructions, the AMS 5x8 will burn 14 straight hours every time. 

smokingal

@The Cen-Tex Smoker  I saw your tutorial which prompted me to try drying out the pellets in the oven.  I really think my biggest problem was a lack of airflow.  The 3rd attempt went flawlessly.  Thanks for the heads up on cookingpellets.com.

bigguy136

OMG!!!! Amazing. Can't wait to hear how it taste.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

smokingal said:

@The Cen-Tex Smoker  I saw your tutorial which prompted me to try drying out the pellets in the oven.  I really think my biggest problem was a lack of airflow.  The 3rd attempt went flawlessly.  Thanks for the heads up on cookingpellets.com.

I open the draft door wide open and remove the cap just to keep the air flow clean. If it’s raining (which is a really good time to cold smoke- the humidity makes the smoke much “stickier”) I’ll put my smokeware cap on but leave it wide open. I haven’t had one go out in years. 

bgebrent

Awesome man. Great write up. Bacon palooza!

smokingal

@The Cen-Tex Smoker  Do you use a plate setter when you set up the A-Maz-N smoker?  I noticed a 12 degree difference in temp when I did not.

@bgebrent Thanks.  I should have done a better job gauging the amount of freezer space I have left before curing 30 lbs of bacon.

Lit

Amazing cooks. When using the pellet smokers I have always left the vents wide open. When it’s cold outside that all you need to do the egg shouldn’t heat up much. When I cold smoke in the summer I put a pan of ice on the plate setter below the grate to help keep the temp down. It helps a lot when I do cheese.

lousubcap

@smokingal Now that is taking bacon-makin' up several notches.  Great planning, execution and documentation.  Always a home-run when you are here.  Congratulations on the whole process especially the audibles.

Here's wishing you a healthy, safe and prosperous new year!

nolaegghead

Ambitions and impressive operation.col

With the little heat created by the AMS, there isn't much thermal draft in the egg,so you do have to leave the vents open more than you think. 

I have laid down a layer of small lump "gravel" in the AMS and laid pellets on top.  The lump burns hotter and gives, in my opinion, a little less acrid smoke.

Obviously, doing this when it's cold is the best scenario.  Ideally the meat isn't the coldest think in the egg, everything will condense on it, the good and the bad.  It's better if you have a Weber or something metal that doesn't warm up so much.

I used to have a cold smoker with a 5000 BTU AC in it, I could smoke in the 50s even on a hot day.  That eventually fell apart from rain and humidity after a few years but i plan on building another.

nolaegghead

Digging up old threads.  I remember posting here last year.   (CST)

smokingal

lousubcap And a Happy New Year to you!

@nolaegghead Thanks for the tip on the lump "gravel".  I made sure to start cold smoking during the early evening hours so that the outdoor temps were dropping as the "cook" continued on.  I had only used my Weber and the Pro-Q prior to this, but the movers totally trashed it.

JacksDad

Really impressive, thanks for the write up! 

@smokingal do you mind if I ask where you got the beef navel? 

GrateEggspectations

Another amazing post. Please keep them coming. 

smokingal

@JacksDad While I recommend that you first look for local butchers who can provide you with beef navel, that can be very difficult in most places.  If you can't find it locally, I custom ordered it from US Wellness Meats.  I mention that you should try finding it locally because US Wellness Meats sells this stuff by the case (60 lbs).  I managed to get less than this but that may have been a one-off.