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When hot smoking, I remove the skin after smoking while it is hot (easier to remove). I never cold smoked but I would be tempted to remove it before to keep as much smoke as possible. The only possible benefit I can see of removing the skin after curing is that *maybe* it could be a little less salty.
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I cold smoked a belly with skin on and removed after the smoke and saved skin to flavor other cooks down the road and the bacon was the best I have eaten
2 Large Eggs and a Mini 2 Pit Bulls and a Pork shoulder or butt nearby and 100% SICILIAN
Have your butcher remove it . He will do it faster cause he is used to working on them. How ever you can also do it. I always remove before a cold xmoke
How long on the cold smoke? I am breaking down a pork belly tomorrow and will be smoking it in 2 weeks. Planning to do a hot smoke, but maybe set a piece aside and cold smoke.
I cold smoked two pieces each about 5.5 lbs with skin on for 7.5 hours using hickory pellets in an amaze-n-smoker and feel I got just the right amount of smoke. Temps outside were just below freezing and the internal temp of my Large egg never broke above 50°
Load that amaze to the gills and let her smoke away. Usually get about 10 hours of smoke out of it depending on the pellets you use. I'm curing some vanilla Bourbon (makers mark) bacon right know and will be cold smoking 5 pounds next Sunday
I cold smoked a belly with skin on and removed after the smoke and saved skin to flavor other cooks down the road and the bacon was the best I have eaten
How hard was it to remove the skin after the cold smoke?
Remove it before you smoke them. That way the smoke gets all sides. Remember the smoke only gets in about a 1/16 of and inch so you want to get all sides
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North Texas
XL and Small BGE
A northern Colorado Egghead since 2012!
XL and a Small BGE.