Bacon smoking

If the cooking chamber of your offset is large, square inches wise, the tube with pellets should work fine. You could experiment with placing it in the firebox, or in the cooking chamber to see which option gives you the best draft. You want the vents set to allow the smoke to flow-thru, rather than bottle-necking in the cooking chamber. Monitor the smoke exiting the vent by sight and by nose.

chilidog said:

So open the vents wide open? I’m going to try to smoke it Sunday and it is going to be cold Sunday morning. Will put a small snake of charcoal to get it above freezing.

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Not knowing your cooker I can't say wide open (which might make the pellets burn too fast) but you want a balanced flow... so basically you don't want a restriction on the flow of smoke which might impart a bitter flavor on your bacon. A little experimentation during the first hour or two should get you dialed in.

chilidog said:

I am going to cold smoke bacon in my offset smoker with an amazin smoker. Am I better off to use the tube and pellets or the maze and sawdust? I have been using a tube and wondered if it would work better with the maze. The tube seems to give out a lot of smoke but maybe that is better for bacon?

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They will both give out a lot of smoke. I use pellets in the maze for long overnight cold smoking.

thirdeye said:

Not knowing your cooker I can't say wide open (which might make the pellets burn too fast) but you want a balanced flow... so basically you don't want a restriction on the flow of smoke which might impart a bitter flavor on your bacon. A little experimentation during the first hour or two should get you dialed in.

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Best advice ....

I have always used charcoal with wood chunks to smoke bacon in an offset— which provides pretty clean smoke.

Not having used a passive pellet device to smoke with, I have a question:

Because the pellets in these devices do not use a fan to facilitate combustion ( as in a pellet smoker), don't the pellets smolder and produce nasty white smoke? In their advertisements it certainly looks so.

Porcine Aviator said:

I have always used charcoal with wood chunks to smoke bacon in an offset— which provides pretty clean smoke.

Not having used a passive pellet device to smoke with, I have a question:

Because the pellets in these devices do not use a fan to facilitate combustion ( as in a pellet smoker), don't the pellets smolder and produce nasty white smoke? In their advertisements it certainly looks so.

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That's why you have to take advantage of your smokers natural draft, and tweak it as needed. Granted heat plays an important role in draft during a normal cook, so when you use a cold smoke generator in your pit you might need more draft (or draw) than the vents will provide, meaning you might have to prop open a door, or in my case with my Little Chief, I use spacers on the lid and prop the lower flap fully open.



Here is my mini-WSM with cheese, using the sawdust smoke generator from A-Maze-N. You have to look really close to see the whiffs of smoke on the left side in this photo. I'll have both vents fully open, and sometimes I'll crack the lid slightly. But... the gentle delivery of smoke lets me flavor cheese for 6 or more hours which is a big window for dialing in the exact flavor I want.

chilidog said:

Using a tube and pellets would I want the vents wide open so it wouldn’t smolder?
Would I choke the inlet so it couldn’t burn too fast and have the exhaust open all the way so the smoke could move out?

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I would light the tube, let it burn for 10 minutes like the instruction say, then set it in the pit with the vents open. Monitor the situation for 1 hour and see how the smoke behaves.... making vent adjustments before putting the bellies on.

Depending on your particular draft, even spinning the tube 90° might have an effect.

Porcine Aviator said:

I have always used charcoal with wood chunks to smoke bacon in an offset— which provides pretty clean smoke.

Not having used a passive pellet device to smoke with, I have a question:

Because the pellets in these devices do not use a fan to facilitate combustion ( as in a pellet smoker), don't the pellets smolder and produce nasty white smoke? In their advertisements it certainly looks so.

Click to expand...

Yes, it will produce white smoke, but because there is no heat in the smoker from combustion, there is no condensate to form microscopic tar or creosote particles to make the food bitter. It is simple cold smoke that wisps over the food, imparting flavor. That is why it is recommended to let cold smoked food sit wrapped in the refrigerator and allow the flavor to migrate throughout the food.