Maple-Expresso Bacon finished!

[Oakgrovebacon]

​ I started with 2 11lb fr
esh pork bellies. Trimmed And dry cure mix of Mortons Tender Quick. Pure maple sugar, expresso powder, fresh ground black pepper, thyme, and Greek seasoning. Vacuum sealed bellies to seal air out for 9 day cure in fridge. Then rinse cure off and smoke for 4hours in smoke chamber of the reverse flow smoker that I built from a 250 gal propane tank. The temperature at start was15 degrees, a chimney full of Kingsford charcoal in the firebox brought temp up to 35 degrees . I added Apple wood chunks and smoked for 4hours. Max temp of 40 degrees. Then remove smokey bacon and wrap in freezer paper to freeze for a day to firm up to slice. Slice and layout quantity of slices, then package in vac bags for storage. I always fry up a sample of the short pcs from ends of slabs. Turned out wonderful! Sweet and smokey.
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[MBMorgan]

Nice!!

[Oakgrovebacon]

Thanks! Some of this batch is for Christmas gifts for fellow employees, I will also give them a package of sausage made from pork butt and the trimmings from bellies.

[tbob4]

Good looking cook and nice looking rig!

[Oakgrovebacon]

Thanks! I had wanted to build a smoker for a long time, finally got motivated and bought a wire welder, watched u tube to learn to weld and spent a summer constructing. Cooks well - it will hold 225 deg. for about 7hours with the firebox jammed full.

[tbob4]

Very impressive!

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[Nate]

Well that looks delicious

[David Parrish]

This particular cook seems OK since the meat was never taken above 40 F while cold smoking, but please remember our thoughts when it comes to this method: http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_tech...d_smoking.html

[RonB]

A great job on both the smoker and the cook.

[Oakgrovebacon]

I only cold smoke in winter, and turns out delicious. In warm weather I do smoke @ 225 to IT of 150. Hot smoked looks nicer in the slab but I like the cold version best. More tender when fried up. I try to get my freezer stocked for summer BLTs in late winter.

[David Parrish]

I only cold smoke in winter, and turns out delicious. In warm weather I do smoke @ 225 to IT of 150. Hot smoked looks nicer in the slab but I like the cold version best. More tender when fried up. I try to get my freezer stocked for summer BLTs in late winter.

Sounds like you know what you're doing! Not all of our members fully understand the dangers of cold smoking, though, which is why we link to our article every time the topic comes up, and we don't allow cold smoking discussions when meat is in the danger zone of 40 F to 140 F. I think this might be the first time cold smoking under 40 F meat temp has come up!

[Oakgrovebacon]

It is a winter project for sure. The big capacity of my smoker makes it pretty easy to keep cool when outdoor temps are well below freezing.