Cold smoking temps - what's best? Under 100 or COLD?

[realdocBBQ]

As some of you know, I've recently gotten into making my own bacon, and my own sausage. As such, I've also begun cold smoking.

I know AR and Meathead don't condone cold smoking, I get that they can't lend any specific endorsement to it. But I've done it several times and have had good results - I did throw away one slab of bacon, about 1.4-1.5kg or so - when I started cutting into it, I didn't like the color and that was one piece I had felt didn't get the cure applied as evenly as I'd hoped, then when I did the smoking, the first 'session' the pit temps got up to about 110ºF, so between possibly being not fully cured and then staying in the danger zone, I didn't like the color of the meat. It didn't look 'fully cured' and there was a little bit of a 'sheen' to the slices in some spots that reminded me of a brisket I had wet aged and it turned out poorly. Yes, it sounds like I'm pushing the envelope all the time, doesn't it? lol

Anyways, one bad brisket out of... oh, I dunno, a dozen or so I've wet aged, and one slab of bacon out of maybe 20-30, and it was one I was suspicious about from the get-go. I've since adjusted my process a little bit to ensure better cure application on the bacon. I don't like doing wet cures, as it's messier and I'm more concerned about leaking in my fridge, that sort of thing has happened before, and it's just a PITA.

Anyways, I'm working on my process. I'm pretty comfortable with the cold smoking, I've done it a number of times now and I think I'm in good shape as far as safety goes. Again - I know AR can't/doesn't endorse cold smoking. I'm just asking for opinions from members and their experiences (if any) with cold smoking and their thoughts. All risk is assumed to be my own. I get that.

Anyways, the real crux of the question relates to what do you think generates the BEST smoke adhesion/absorption into the meat? The conventional logic is that smoke adheres best to cold, damp or wet meat. But with sausages, you want your casings to dry before cooking for sure, as this helps with the snappiness of the casing, as well as adherence to the sausage. And you don't want to cook sausages very hot, you don't want to render out much of the fat, as this causes more pooling inside and loosens the casing further, etc. So I want to dry and cold smoke as much as possible before cooking up to food safe temp - I'll probably try some raw sausages in time, there are a few out there that look interesting. And these are CURED sausages (and bacon), so they've sat in the fridge at least overnight, or for a day or two, to allow the cure to do its work and make it safe.

But I'm wondering, there seem to be 2 ways I see people cold smoking sausages (and bacon) - one way is to put it in the smoker, like a pellet or cabinet or even offset, and built as small a fire or keep settings as low as possible, to keep temps under 100ºF. Or under 90ºF. Well, another way I've found that works well is running a pair of smoke tubes with pellets in them in the firebox of my offset with no wood, no fire, no nothing, just enough airflow to keep the pellet tubes smoking/smoldering. This generates a LOT of smoke and essentially ZERO heat into the cook chamber. So I can keep the meat at 'ambient' temps - this time of year, could be 40s during the day, could be 30s or 20s at night. I don't truly want the meat frozen, I don't think that would help, but essentially keeping it so cold, it is like smoking it while actually refrigerated. In fact - I'm considering a refrigerated smoker specifically for this purpose for use during the spring and summer months. More on that another day...

But my question is, have any of you tried this in these different ways? Actual COLD smoking in the 30s and 40s, vs just trying to keep temps below 100 or so, so you're not 'cooking' the sausage (again, or bacon)? If so, what were your experiences, and what do you think?

I've done the sausage before under 100ºF, but I did my last batch of bacon actually in the COLD, around 40ºF or so for the 2nd smoke. First smoke it got warmer, so I pulled it, refrigerated again and then the next day cold smoked for a couple of hours and it stayed quite cold. I think this is the method I'm leaning towards in the future - unless someone can specifically tell me smoking at 90ºF definitely yields a better product than smoking below 50ºF?

Maybe there's no difference. Even though the stuff is cured, it just seems better to me, safer, to keep it as cold as possible and do a long smoke on it, then I pull it, refrigerate it, let it sit a day or two to absorb, and THEN smoke it up to 145-150ºF internal.

I'm open to thoughts on the matter. While I understand AR doesn't officially support this, I don't think it's a taboo subject for members to discuss on their own, right? I hope not. Not trying to cause problems or generate controversy, and certainly don't want to open anyone up for legal concerns. Certainly delete this if it's not a good idea to discuss, I just don't think there's a problem with it, as long as everyone understands, I'm doing this for my own experimentation purposes.

What do you think? Smoke around 90ºF, or smoke as cold as reasonable without being below freezing temps?

[realdocBBQ]

No traction on this yet, eh? No one else does true cold smoking? I joined a couple of groups on FB for cold smoking, so I'm looking forward to learning more on there, as well.

[Panhead John]

They’re still reading it…..🤓 JK

[LA Pork Butt]

You are out of my league, so I know I would be of no help.

[texastweeter]

I cold smoke bacon, cheese sausage, and ham. Depends on what I am trying to do as far as temp. Cheese I like around 50-65° ish, bacon is best to me the colder you can smoke it, salmon too, sausage, anything under 100° preferably 90°. All of the above get pulled and rested a day or two before eating. Cheese I vac seal and actually age.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I was never happy with smoke tubes only. Adding the cold smoker box to my MAK lets me generally stay 100F under the set point except in summer and winter when it won't go colder than ambient OR ambient drops it lower than the usual 100 under set point.

While I don't cold smoke any proteins, I do a lot of cheese in the winter and early spring and ideally smoke below 90F or lower depending on the cheese type. I find the smoke from actually running the pellet cooker vs using a smoke tube makes a very big difference with the cheese. I find the colder the cheese stays the better the smoke flavor seems, stronger maybe the wrong word but more present seems like a good explanation. I seem to be able to eat the cheese the week when I've smoked it very cold vs needing a few weeks wrapped to mellow when the temps are warm enough I have to throw ice in to keep the cheese from melting.


I haven't done bacon since I've got the cold smoke attachment, so only previously hot smoked the stuff. I'm interested to see what others have to say on this topic as I'm thinking about snagging a belly for bacon and was considering the cold smoking route. I was going to shoot for a target smoke temp of 50F but I've read anything below 80F is acceptable?

[realdocBBQ]

Excellent information, thank you!

[Smoke em if you got em]

I cold smoke my bacon in cooler weather, but cooler weather here in AZ is in the 60's. I cold smoke it with a very small fire, and keep the chamber below 90°

As for cured sausage, I do the traditional start out cold and build the temperature every hour until they hit an internal temp of 150°-155° the final smoker temp would be about 160° or so. A lot of smoke is key, which is contrary to hot smoking other meats where you want a clean smoke exiting the stack. These are done on my Lang 48". I hope to be doing some jalapeño cheddar soon.
Here's pics of bacon and polish sausage.



The day after, ready to slice.



Blooming after an icewater bath.

[realdocBBQ]

Good stuff here, I'm glad to know I'm not way off. Thus far, I've had good luck with smoking as low as I can go. Obviously during warmer times of the year, this will be more challenging, though I hope to build a cabinet out of a working refrigerator and use a cold smoke attachment like the Bella cold smoke generator, though perhaps something home built.

I've got a lot of reading to do. I don't expect to be doing any long cures anytime soon.

[Oakgrovebacon]

I cold smoke bacon every winter. Colder weather the better. Tiny charcoal fire of about 6-8 briquettes, nestled down in a bed of ashes. 1/2” thick slices of apple wood cut from a 3” dia limb on top of charcoal. All vents closed on firebox Smoke for 4-6 hours keeping cook chamber very cool. ( under 50 deg)
One of your big smokers will stay cool after getting all of that steel cold overnight. Keep it in the shade after the sun comes up. Slabs of cured bacon straight from the fridge.

[barelfly]

The smoker I have has a cold smoke plate to separate the heat from the rest of the chamber but allow for smoke. You use some ice blocks of some sort to get true cold smoking. I’ve tried some semi-cold smoke for salmon a few times, but everything else like bacon and sausage, I am feather the power to try and keep temps down but smoke flowing.

But cold weather is the key for it, as others have mentioned here. Looking forward to seeing what you smoke!

[mrteddyprincess]

I cold smoke cheese and salmon, and in my experience, temp is not the primary issue, but smoke is. I cold smoke when it's under 55 F outside, and I expose the salmon or cheese to smoke. For cheese I do shorter sessions (4-6 hours). For salmon I do 18-24 hrs (after a 24 hr packing in Kosher salt with a rinse). The temp is the ambient temp inside my Lang where I'm only using a cold smoke generator (Traeger pellets turned to sawdust in a blender). If it's 42 F outside, I'm cold smoking at 42 F inside my smoker. The smoke generator does not contribute to a certain temp. It just provides smoke.

I know there's a certain liability from endorsing this method of cold smoking, but people have been preserving salmon with cold smoke for thousands of years. I've been doing it for two years, and so far, no one has gotten sick.

I don't do any heated smoking of salmon because the version I do with cold smoking tastes better than any of the hot smoked I've tasted.

Brian