Hey folks, I have a quick question. I've hot smoked tons of back and belly bacon, but at Christmas I found a cold smoke adapter under the tree, and so my troubles began. My question, if I were to prepare my back bacon as normal (MTQ, sugar, spices and cure for about 7 days) as per recipe. Would it be acceptable to cold smoke for 3-4 hours on day 1 let it rest in the fridge then re-peat for day 2 then on day 3 smoke with a cabinet tempeture of 200* until internal temperature of about 145*-150*.
There doesn't seem to be too much information on this.... unless I'm looking in all the wrong places. Thanks for everyone's dedication on this forum.
I've triple smoked pork belly, but not back bacon (cured loins). The process that I use would be the same for other cuts of meat, but with pork loin being so lean you may end up with a very dry product. The purpose of the Triple Smoke process is to reduce the moisture in the meat, so you have more concentrated flavor. Although there is air dried pork loin; such as lonzino, and lonza; they are processed in a different manner. Right now pork loin seems to be at a reasonable price; at least in my area. It might be something you would want to experiment with. If you have extra space in your cabinet, while applying the smoke, you may want to think of other things you can cold smoke; such as salt, pepper corns, smoke peppers before moving them to a dehydrator etc.
If your humidity inside your house is around 60%, you may want to store it on your kitchen counter overnight between smokes. For a loin, maybe less smoke will be needed. I no longer take my pork past 142°F, and will generally pull them out of the cabinet at 140°F. The USDA recommends you bring pork up to 145°F, with a three minute rest.
Triple Smoked Bacon (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5630.msg52947#msg52947)
Thanks for all your help and insight Habs (if I may call you that). I didn't really want a pork jerky, Lol. Next time I cure some loins for back bacon, I'll put aside a few pieces and try a 2 day cold smoke and report back. I have smoked salt and pepper, put them in little glass jars then in a Christmas basket among other smoked consumables, 3 types of cheese, 2 types of beef jerky, hot and not, back and belly bacon, some crackers and a bottle of wine. It seemed like a lot of work at the time, but it was all well received.
Most refer to me as Habs. When you do try this please let us know how it turns out. It just may turn out perfectly fine.
Well as promised I did another batch of Canadian back bacon but this time I saved 4 pieces for a 2 day extended brine. I then soaked them for about 8 hours in water, dried them in the fridge overnight then started the first of a 3 hour a day 3 day smoke. After each smoke I let them rest in the cabinet for about an hour or two, then put them in the fridge for overnight. On the last day, today, I put the heat on and brought the I.T up to 145*. All in all, maybe a little early to tell but the flavour was great and the meat texture was surprisingly still moist, similar to a ham. Maybe sometime in the fall I'll try and make something like lonzino, air dried pork loin or go further and put together a prosciutto.
The Canadian bacon sounds good. I've never tried triple smoked with Canadian bacon because I thought it would dry out. I wish that you had posted this on Saturday :). I started a batch of Canadian bacon and removed it from the cure yesterday, but this batch I used a dry cure. Next time I'll give your method a go.
Hey Habs, sorry. I also used a dry cure but as we know it most always produces its own moisture, I mistakenly called that moisture a brine. I also found that an extended soak in fresh water (8 or so hours) important due to the concentration of salts and flavours from extended smokes. If you don't mind let us know how your batch turns out.... I was hoping for a little more of a drier concentrated result, and something not too hamie. I've had it air drying in the fridge over night, that may be all it needs.
You are correct in calling it a brine, it can either be a dry or wet brine. I just wrongly concluded that it was a wet brine.
The weather in the Northeast is not cooperating this week. So I'm going to have to try to smoke them for a couple of hours, in-between showers and thunderstorms, and finish it in the kitchen oven. I also have to get my pastrami smoked, and doing a batch of almonds.
Here goes.... just starting a second batch of triple cold smoked back bacon. The first batch I made a few months ago turned out pretty good. Any other new suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. There's not much information about double/triple smoked back bacon.
If the meat seems too dry, and/or has a tough surface. It may be too late, but I was thinking that maybe a combination cure method would yield a better result. That would be injecting the loin with a curing brine, and coating the outside with a dry cure. Or just wet cure it. Either one will give you back bacon that should be moister.
Or maybe cut back on the air dry time, but wrapping in plastic wrap, during the non-smoke time.