I've been doing a lot of bacon lately. A LOT. So... probably a couple hundred pounds in the last 6 months. I give a lot away and we eat a LOT of bacon. At least when we have it - which, right now, we do! lol
So I've taken to cold smoking as much as I can. I do prefer the texture of cold smoked bacon. I know AR doesn't advocate cold smoking officially, but I've done enough of it now, I'm pretty comfortable with it and it's been a good experience for me.
I recently sent about 20 lbs home with my friends who visited from Trinidad. Now, their batch, I did hot smoke it, up to 150 or so. Purposely, so when they passed through customs in Trinidad & Tobago they could honestly say it was fully cooked and cured meat. I was going to put a label on it listing it as "A fully cured meat product also full cooked to 150ºF." They told me not to worry about it, they wouldn't have any trouble with customs. And they were right. He carried it right through in his carryon bag. It was frozen leaving here, wrapped up and flown to Miami, put back in the freezer, then a couple days later repacked wrapped in a towel and flown a few hours to Trinidad. He said it was still plenty frozen when he got home with it. No muss, no fuss.
But for me, I prefer doing cold smoked lately. Just seems to fry up better for texture. A bit crispier. Of course, some of this depends on how thick I cut it, as well - super thick stuff seems more like a ham steak to me. Hot smoked, I can get pretty crispy if it's really thin.
Another interesting note on how it cooks.... when frying hot smoked (aka fully cooked) bacon, it fries up pretty easily with less sticking to the pan and absolutely no fond or residue sticking to the pan or griddle. Cold smoked, it leaves the 'typical' bacon fond you have to scrape up before adding more. No biggie. Also, the fat coming out of the pan when cooking fully cooked hot smoked bacon is more liquid and clear-like, not surprising as it's already partly rendered during the smoking process.
Another difference I've been experimenting with (besides how long I cold smoke and with what type of smoke) is the drying or resting phase after smoking it. Cold smoking is typically dirty-ish smoke, and if I slice some off right out of the smoker and fry it, it can have a bit of a stronger and less pleasant flavor... not necessarily dirty (although I've done that, too), but much more.... pungent. I don't care for this as much. But if I take that dirty-smoked bacon and put it in the fridge (open to air, on a rack or something) and let it sit for a day or two, it mellows out much more and that pungency and acridness goes away, but still leaves a good smoke flavor.
Additionally, the longer I let it sit in the fridge, the more it dries out. Naturally... you're kind of dehydrating it (gently) in the refrigerator. This batch I sliced up yesterday, I had 2 slabs (about 10 lbs) that had been sitting in the fridge for probably at least 10 days. I did take it out and put another few hours of smoke on it a couple of times - 3 sessions of smoke all together, in the range of 3-6 hours each time. These 2 slabs had a pretty good pellicle developed on them and were pretty firm. Not bad, but definitely a firm outside. The other 2 slabs (another 10-11lbs) I had cold smoked the same 3 times, but hadn't been sitting in the fridge that long - a day or two, another smoke session, then back in the fridge during the day, then smoke again at night, back in the fridge in the day, but overall had maybe 2-3 days in the fridge, compared to the first 2 slabs, which had more than a week, probably 10 days. So, not nearly as firm, not nearly as dried out, less pellicle formation, etc.
Now, when I went to slice - the more dried out slabs definitely were firmer and easier to slice. They seemed more... dense. Like they had shrunk up some (I'm sure they did), but the color was more robust and they just look like they're going to have a more concentrated flavor than the less dried ones. This seems to make sense, like a true dried cured ham or sausage often is quite firm and dense and concentrated flavors, etc. Well, this seems like it's going to be the case with my bacon, as well.
I'm anxious to try these two batches out and evaluate the differences. I actually stuck some labels in the bag, something I've not done with ANY of my bacon thus far - I'm just a lazy bastard. lol But that does make it more difficult to evaluate the differences. But at this point, I've used essentially the same cure throughout, only difference has been hot or cold smoke, now I've introduced the drying/dehydrating phase as well. And the last 2 slabs (the less dehydrated ones) I did add some sprinkled ancho pepper powder on each slab before smoking, when I added black pepper after removing from the bags. I'm interested to see how that affects the end product.
I think I'm ready to start introducing more variables. Don't care about sweet - maple, brown sugar, none of that. We're not a sweet bacon family.
Anyways, a couple-three pics for ya'll of yesterday's sliced up batches.
I gotta eat up the 20 or 30 pounds in the freezer before I break into these! Or... give it away! lol
So I've taken to cold smoking as much as I can. I do prefer the texture of cold smoked bacon. I know AR doesn't advocate cold smoking officially, but I've done enough of it now, I'm pretty comfortable with it and it's been a good experience for me.
I recently sent about 20 lbs home with my friends who visited from Trinidad. Now, their batch, I did hot smoke it, up to 150 or so. Purposely, so when they passed through customs in Trinidad & Tobago they could honestly say it was fully cooked and cured meat. I was going to put a label on it listing it as "A fully cured meat product also full cooked to 150ºF." They told me not to worry about it, they wouldn't have any trouble with customs. And they were right. He carried it right through in his carryon bag. It was frozen leaving here, wrapped up and flown to Miami, put back in the freezer, then a couple days later repacked wrapped in a towel and flown a few hours to Trinidad. He said it was still plenty frozen when he got home with it. No muss, no fuss.
But for me, I prefer doing cold smoked lately. Just seems to fry up better for texture. A bit crispier. Of course, some of this depends on how thick I cut it, as well - super thick stuff seems more like a ham steak to me. Hot smoked, I can get pretty crispy if it's really thin.
Another interesting note on how it cooks.... when frying hot smoked (aka fully cooked) bacon, it fries up pretty easily with less sticking to the pan and absolutely no fond or residue sticking to the pan or griddle. Cold smoked, it leaves the 'typical' bacon fond you have to scrape up before adding more. No biggie. Also, the fat coming out of the pan when cooking fully cooked hot smoked bacon is more liquid and clear-like, not surprising as it's already partly rendered during the smoking process.
Another difference I've been experimenting with (besides how long I cold smoke and with what type of smoke) is the drying or resting phase after smoking it. Cold smoking is typically dirty-ish smoke, and if I slice some off right out of the smoker and fry it, it can have a bit of a stronger and less pleasant flavor... not necessarily dirty (although I've done that, too), but much more.... pungent. I don't care for this as much. But if I take that dirty-smoked bacon and put it in the fridge (open to air, on a rack or something) and let it sit for a day or two, it mellows out much more and that pungency and acridness goes away, but still leaves a good smoke flavor.
Additionally, the longer I let it sit in the fridge, the more it dries out. Naturally... you're kind of dehydrating it (gently) in the refrigerator. This batch I sliced up yesterday, I had 2 slabs (about 10 lbs) that had been sitting in the fridge for probably at least 10 days. I did take it out and put another few hours of smoke on it a couple of times - 3 sessions of smoke all together, in the range of 3-6 hours each time. These 2 slabs had a pretty good pellicle developed on them and were pretty firm. Not bad, but definitely a firm outside. The other 2 slabs (another 10-11lbs) I had cold smoked the same 3 times, but hadn't been sitting in the fridge that long - a day or two, another smoke session, then back in the fridge during the day, then smoke again at night, back in the fridge in the day, but overall had maybe 2-3 days in the fridge, compared to the first 2 slabs, which had more than a week, probably 10 days. So, not nearly as firm, not nearly as dried out, less pellicle formation, etc.
Now, when I went to slice - the more dried out slabs definitely were firmer and easier to slice. They seemed more... dense. Like they had shrunk up some (I'm sure they did), but the color was more robust and they just look like they're going to have a more concentrated flavor than the less dried ones. This seems to make sense, like a true dried cured ham or sausage often is quite firm and dense and concentrated flavors, etc. Well, this seems like it's going to be the case with my bacon, as well.
I'm anxious to try these two batches out and evaluate the differences. I actually stuck some labels in the bag, something I've not done with ANY of my bacon thus far - I'm just a lazy bastard. lol But that does make it more difficult to evaluate the differences. But at this point, I've used essentially the same cure throughout, only difference has been hot or cold smoke, now I've introduced the drying/dehydrating phase as well. And the last 2 slabs (the less dehydrated ones) I did add some sprinkled ancho pepper powder on each slab before smoking, when I added black pepper after removing from the bags. I'm interested to see how that affects the end product.
I think I'm ready to start introducing more variables. Don't care about sweet - maple, brown sugar, none of that. We're not a sweet bacon family.
Anyways, a couple-three pics for ya'll of yesterday's sliced up batches.
I gotta eat up the 20 or 30 pounds in the freezer before I break into these! Or... give it away! lol
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