Smoking bacon - cold smoked vs "hot" smoked

I prefer a warm smoke. Run at 160-190 until it hits 145. Then cool it and slice.

I have never heard a good argument for partially cooking the bacon when I smoke it, so I don't.

I'll be interested to follow this thread.

I have never applied smoke and cooked a belly. I have used a 5hr pellet tube and let things roll. This is good bacon!

That said and with my new appreciation for stick burners it will be a tiny fire to keep temps low. I am trying to smoke without the white smoke of pellets for a cleaner burn. I have done some kilbasa and it turned out great low and slow on the stick burner running thin blue smoke.

sudsandswine said:

... I'm curious to see what not "cooking" it at all does, since it's cured and stable without cooking.

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I cold smoke for 12 hours in a tin box (Camp Chef smoke vault) with an A-Maze-N maze that will usually run for about 10 hours unattended. Temp runs 90F max in the summer, IIRC maybe 70-80 in cooler weather.

We have a deal with a professional chef: She slices the bacon using her commercial machine in exchange for a tithe. She uses her tithe bacon in her restaurant and is always bugging me "When are you going to make some more?"

Truth be told, 12 hours is a lot of smoke. Our bacon is typically used diced to add flavor to dishes, almost like a seasoning. The smoke flavor is too strong for me in a bacon sandwich. For your cold smoking experiment I'd suggest pulling sample chunks at maybe 4, 8, and 12 hours to see what you like.

You basically have 4 choices:

1. Cold smoke: Great color and flavor. You have to have a good smoke generator, meaning equipment that will produce a good quality of smoke. One downside is the product does not firm up as much as with other methods, so the bacon is harder to slice.

2. Hot smoke to 135°/140°: This finish temp produces bacon that is just shy of safe to eat as is and the texture is firm enough to slice easily. Not as smokey as cold smoked.

3. Hot smoked to 145°/150°: At this internal the bacon can be eaten without further cooking, or if it is cooked, it does not splatter as much however it is easily overcooked. The texture is firmer than the first two methods, and it slices wonderfully. This is good if you like your bacon a little less done, like this:



4. Cold/Hot combination: By doing a double smoke you get the ultimate control over flavor, color and texture and is my favorite method. It takes more time because following 3, 4, or 5 hours of cold smoke the slabs should go back into the fridge for at least 4 or 5 hours, or overnight. Some people let the bacon rest longer, and some will hit it again with another round of cold smoke, then a another rest, then a hot finish. And since you can choose how far to take your hot finish you can pick any temp from 135° to 150°, or make some of each.

The next question will be dry curing or immersion curing.... I prefer a dry cure which is slightly lower in salt than your average recipes, but again as long as you stay in line with your curing salt, you can tickle the salt, sugar, pepper or other signature seasonings to your liking.

airedale said:

I cold smoke for 12 hours in a tin box (Camp Chef smoke vault) with an A-Maze-N maze that will usually run for about 10 hours unattended. Temp runs 90F max in the summer, IIRC maybe 70-80 in cooler weather.

We have a deal with a professional chef: She slices the bacon using her commercial machine in exchange for a tithe. She uses her tithe bacon in her restaurant and is always bugging me "When are you going to make some more?"

Truth be told, 12 hours is a lot of smoke. Our bacon is typically used diced to add flavor to dishes, almost like a seasoning. The smoke flavor is too strong for me in a bacon sandwich. For your cold smoking experiment I'd suggest pulling sample chunks at maybe 4, 8, and 12 hours to see what you like.

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Are you burning sawdust or pellets?

thirdeye said:

Are you burning sawdust or pellets?

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Pellets, without paying much attention to the kind of wood, though not mesquite. Fruitwoods, maple, oak, mostly. Whatever is in the pellet pooper hopper.

I admire your intensity and expertise and always like your posts but I don't take the hobby quite as seriously.

I always cold/warm smoke and finish uncooked ****EXCEPT**** sometimes I warm smoke and finish a smaller piece barely pre-cooked for one reason only; that is for when I want to add diced bacon to a hamburger patty that's going to only get cooked to rare/medium rare. I don't want uncooked bacon in the middle of my burger patty.

sudsandswine said:

What's everyone's preference for smoking bacon? Now that it's cold outside here it'll be easier for me to "cold" smoke bacon using a smoking tube or something like that. I've been using my Mak on "smoke" setting ~180* until the belly hits 140*, so obviously "hot" smoking is cooking the bacon and I imagine that changes the texture a bit when later pan frying sliced bacon. I have about 20lbs of belly that I just finished curing that I'm gonna handout for Christmas goodies but am on the fence about which smoking method to try.

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I hang whole cured belly in my FEC-100 along with a hotel pan full of ice to keep the temps down. Light a 12" tube of Applewood pellets in the bottom which will give about six hours of cold smoke. Remove hotel pan and crank up my FEC-100 to about 180 degrees until the bacon takes on the color I like.

I use a combination of both cold and hot smoke to achieve the results I desire.


I use an A-Maze-N maze smoker for 4 hours of cold smoke. Then I add a small amount of charcoal and wood chunks to gradually raise smoker to a temperature of about 130°, this is still part of my cold smoking process. I prefer chunks of apple, plum, cherry, or a mixture of wood chunks for greater smoke flavors. Add additional small amounts of charcoal as needed to maintain the 130° for 3 hours.

After 3 hours at 130°, then increased the smoker temperature to 170° until the internal temperature of the bacon reaches 130°.I don't raise the temperature to kill bacteria or to cook the meat; 130° is a far stretch to accomplish any of those goals.



The reason for adding mild heat in the final smoking stage is to melt away some small amounts of the saturated fats; these will melt at very-very low temperatures (130°). This will help to firm the bacon and the heat also helps to evaporate a small amount of water content, which helps to concentrate the flavor of the bacon itself.

As the water evaporates from the surface, the surface of the meat reacts with the smoke which helps to bond a bolder smoke flavor.


The end result is a firmer bacon which is easy to slice, with a smokey flavor, and much less grease in the frying pan.

I've always done hot smoke to 145F, at first using my Traeger on the smoke setting, now using the Yoder at it's lowest setting (150F ?).

Thanks for the post thirdeye, I've been thinking about doing cold and hot smoke, I'll be trying that for my next batch.

Like most of the posts, I start out around 100f and slowly ease up the temp to 180f and this usually takes about 4-5 hours and I’m looking for 145 internal temp. So far, The end result is worth the effort!

I cold smoke, pit temp no higher than 80°. 6 hrs of smoke with the tube, rest overnight in the fridge, repeat 3 times.
Slice and fry or bake.

Cold smoke here, with the proQ smoke generator.
I like birch saw dust.
Let it firm up in the fridge afterwards, wrapped in a tea towel.
Sometimes I smoke multiple times. Smoke for 6-10 hrs at night, in fridge at daytime, smoke at night....

Badjak said:

Cold smoke here, with the proQ smoke generator.
I like birch saw dust.
Let it firm up in the fridge afterwards, wrapped in a tea towel.
Sometimes I smoke multiple times. Smoke for 6-10 hrs at night, in fridge at daytime, smoke at night....

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After a cold smoke, when you put it back in the fridge, it's in a ziplock bag?

I almost always double smoke; living in Minnesota allows me to do this safely most of the time. I also double smoke my canadian bacon and jerky. Here is my last batch of bacon I finished a couple of weeks ago.

LordRiffenstein said:

After a cold smoke, when you put it back in the fridge, it's in a ziplock bag?

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Nah, sometimes in a tupperware without lid, sometimes just wrapped in a (clean) tea towel.
I like to dry out the bacon before using.
My fridge is one of those old ones that still needs defrosting.

Not sure if you could do this in the modern ones. They seem a bit more humid to me.