Cold Smoking Meat

[BIGNASTY]

We have started to Cold smoke our own bacon, ham, cheese, sausage, Was looking for some advice on not so much of types but Cuts of wood for this.

Cold smoking is not cooking the meat so heat is an undesirable thing, temps around 100* are best for this. I was wondering about the type or cut of smoking wood. What would be the best to give the most smoking and less heat? Chips, sawdust or actual split wood, pellets

Have been playing with this on Bacon (pork belly) and some of the Wives Cheeses. Producing Bacon that is cut to the thickness that I like & the taste is GREAT!! So much better than the butcher shop that process the meat.

Any help would be appreciated


BIG

 

[BarryG]

In my younger days I used to cut meat for living. The store I worked at had a smokehouse as they smoked their own stuff. The smokehouse guy used it for both regular smoke and cold smoked products. I would frequently ask questions about the processes he used and why. One question I had for him was why sawdust. His answer was ease of use and control. He went on to talk about the use of the smoke generator and the control the sawdust afforded him in that style smoke generator.

 

[Blu-meanie]

I mostly use hickory or mesquite because I like heavy smoke. I know you probably have a "real" smoker and I just have a Bradley electric type. If I did build a smokehouse, the smoke generator would be away from the unit to help keep it cool. Hickory and mesquite burn a bit hotter than fruitwoods I think. There are smoking forums for all kinds of information. A couple that I use are: http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/ and http://www.susanminor.org/forums/
I keep the temperatures below 70° and smoke cheese and meat for 2 hours. The cheese gets wrapped for three weeks before using, and the meat vacuum sealed and frozen.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Blu

I was going to make one that was permanent, after thinking about it with the bears that come around that would be considered " Baiting " so I decided to go with a smaller portable wood smoke house and actually need a portable fire box, or like BarryG suggested use sawdust. After looking at this more on the web, people are using a electric hot plate of a 1000 Watt or more and using chips, pellets or mostly sawdust of the different fruit wood and other woods, some sit the hot plate inside the smoker. I think it would be better outside even if I did have to build an additional box to surround the hot plate so it wouldn't loose the heat needed to make the wood fuel smoke and run a stack to bring in the smoke.

 

[Blu-meanie]

I thought you would be doing this on a larger scale. I'll send you a picture via email tomorrow of the set up I use. Most of the smokers are for cooking/smoking at the same time. I use the crap out of my Bradley, we smoke everything except ice cream. If you ever look at any of the website recipes your stomach will growl and start gnawing on your backbone. You might slobber a bit too.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I thought you would be doing this on a larger scale. I'll send you a picture via email tomorrow of the set up I use. Most of the smokers are for cooking/smoking at the same time. I use the crap out of my Bradley, we smoke everything except ice cream. If you ever look at any of the website recipes your stomach will growl and start gnawing on your backbone. You might slobber a bit too.

Blu

I would like to see your ideas. We are only doing this for the family, so size is not all that important (bet I hear some jokes on that one) I like the Bacon, the others not so much. Some of them have issues with diet that limits them from such delicious things. The cheese that Penny makes need smoking but again we don't eat them everyday all the time.

FIL is the one in the Family that takes care of ALL the traditional smoking ( using heat and smoke) he does very well, sometimes a little heavy on the smoke for me but im not the only one eating it.

 

[Axtell3]

Mmmm smoked ice cream sounds good! or at least smoked bacon bits on top!
I haven't done any real cold smoking. but i do love smoked trout.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Mmmm smoked ice cream sounds good! or at least smoked bacon bits on top!
I haven't done any real cold smoking. but i do love smoked trout.

I had to think when you said smoked trout, there is a man & his wife that live in the next town Condon MT. they have a sign out in front of their home that says they smoke trout. I personally have never seen their operation, but BIL said that they have at least 15 old refrigerators that are converted into smokers. They smoke other foods I have been told, but during the fishing season there is a traffic slow down on the main hwy because of all the cars going in or out of their place.

BIG

 

[Alan Reagan]

Bignasty,

Before you go "whole hog" into this, so to speak, here is a little reading for you. http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_fs.html

I have a Lang 84 Smoker that I have used to cold smoke. I prefer blackjack oak, water oak and live oak with a little hickory added. With mine, I use splits and just keep the temps low. You have to be very careful with cold smoking because you hold the meat in what is called the "danger zone" for a long period. When I'm smoking butts or turkeys, I really watch the temps to ensure they don't stall in the danger zone which is around 85 to 100 degrees. At that temperature, the bacteria in uncured meat increases exponentially and can be very dangerous. That's why meat that is going to be cold smoked needs to be cured or brined. On the smoke, I find that less is better. Especially with wood like hickory, you can get a bitter sharp taste. Even when I'm hot smoking large amounts of meat, I use the hickory sparingly.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Alan

Thanks for the read,

Penny has been doing this for a long time with the cure & brine that she uses is one that has been proven to work well. Her cheese's and my bacon & sausages are relatively low chance of health issues the cheese is mostly done when its put in the smoker to add the smoke taste to it.

The bacon & sausage are hard cooked before eating so unless its ate raw or near raw the threat of health problems are no more than store bought products. We have used commercial grade digital scales and thermometers in our food storage for years, this is not all that we preserve for our consumption. Anything that we grow in the garden to the animals grown on our place or harvested in the field hunting goes thru a process that most people say is OVER THE TOP but we have never been sick by eating any of these things so I would have to say that OVER THE TOP is a bad description, We take our health very seriously and we are even more concerned about what we put on our table to eat.

Lots of problems come from handling and storage. Field Game is again said to be handled in ways that surprise most with regards to cleanliness our hunting clients ask about bringing game bags for the transport of game. We have so many game bags that its a problem with their storage space during off season. NEVER do any of the bags get used more than once without going thru a washing using hospital grade soaps & disinfectants.

For long term storage we use vacuumed sealers, both at home or when game is processed at the butcher they vacuum seal meats. Hunting clients don't have to its their choice but we push the use not only for safety but for taste. Meat lasts a long time using the vacuum sealers, its a shame to see someone enjoy their hunt and then get it home and see that its not what it could be, just to save a few dollars on wrapping the vacuum is far better.

 

[Alan Reagan]

Just making sure that you had a good understanding of this. The smokehouse we had on the farm where I grew up was just that. A house with hanging racks. The firepit was outside and was underground connected to the smokehouse by buried clay pipe. By having a fire or coal pit a short distance away, a good bit of the heat was lost and therefore the "ideal" temperature smoke would reach the house coming in from the bottom. We would smoke hams, pork belly and sausage. Our primary wood was oak with some hickory mixed in. We would usually sugar cure the hams with some being salt cured (country ham). That was some good eatin'.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Just making sure that you had a good understanding of this. The smokehouse we had on the farm where I grew up was just that. A house with hanging racks. The firepit was outside and was underground connected to the smokehouse by buried clay pipe. By having a fire or coal pit a short distance away, a good bit of the heat was lost and therefore the "ideal" temperature smoke would reach the house coming in from the bottom. We would smoke hams, pork belly and sausage. Our primary wood was oak with some hickory mixed in. We would usually sugar cure the hams with some being salt cured (country ham). That was some good eatin'.

The smoker you described is what my intent was, I had sent for some plans and ideas from different sources and then the person in the family that really thinks most things thru (Penny) asked would a permantly made smoker be all that wise? With the amount of guests roaming freely thru the property (ie Bears, Coyotes, Cats of all sizes) the smell of it would draw even more of them. So with that sound wisdom I had to reconsider the plan of attack. The size was way more than we needed but gives an idea of the intent.

 

[Alan Reagan]

That's what our smoke house was built like. You could build one like that and use 2 two by lumber for siding. That is probably a bigger house than you need. My Lang is a reverse flow smoker made of 1/4 inch rolled steel. I can cook up to 40, 8-10 pound butts at a time on it so it will hold quite a bit of meat. I can cold or hot smoke on it.
http://langbbqsmokers.com/lang84/

With reverse flow smokers, you can really regulate the heat well and it keeps the meat moist.

 

[Alan Reagan]

It looks like this when I'm "hot" smoking. Notice......not a lot of smoke.

 

[BIGNASTY]

AR

Looks Good Pard!!! My FIL is really into his smoker cooking, your pictures have made him want to have some reason to celebrate so he can do some smoking.:-laf

We noticed that you have access to the smoker from BOTH sides, something that he has thought about for a future build. It looks as if it would be nice to have so two people can tend to the meat at the same time, Lots of meat on that rack.

He wanted to Thank You for the pictures, he likes to see other folks enjoying his hobby as he does, and sharing ideas.

 

[Blu-meanie]

When do we eat? I'm ready.

 

[Alan Reagan]

Thanks, Bignasty. I grew up cooking and smoking, hot and cold, with my Grandaddy. I was the reserve grand champion last year in the South Georgia North Florida competition. Lost by 3 points to a restaurant out of Florida. I cooked all night by myself and they precooked and showed up. Not sure how they got by with that. I still cook for big gatherings and do a lot for military change of commands.

My smoker does have access from both sides. The top rack even slides out making it nice for doing lots of chicken and sausage. Heck, I may fire that baby up today and cook some chicken and ribs.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Thanks, Bignasty. I may fire that baby up today and cook some chicken and ribs.

Pop (AKA FIL) wants to do the same thing for tonight's dinner.

I think he has BBQ sauce for blood :-laf

 

[Terry Jay]

Thinking back to college days, a couple guys built a seasonal smoker on a hillside, firepit down low and covered enough to direct the smoke up thru a pipe to the enclosure. They used a few pieces of plywood, but nothing permanent. For what you want a big cardboard box would suffice, and clean up would be taking it to the fire pit. Boxes from washers, dryers, gun safes, and so on would work.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor.