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Cold Smoke Update:
First let me explain my definition of cold smoking. Cold smoking is applying smoke at a cabinet temperature of 90°F or lower. I personally like to cold smoke at 70°F. Since my area has been getting cooler temperatures in the morning, I’ve done a few cold smoke tests over the past couple of weeks. All these test were done with an empty cabinet. These test consisted of one tests without ice, and three tests with ice (I used hard plastic ice packs that are filled with water). In the test that I conducted, I used three ice packs that are 6 x 7 x 1.5-inches. The best placement was the lowest rack, and the ice placed near the bisquette burner. The damper was removed. My cold smoke trial without ice did not turn out well for cold smoking, but temperatures were good enough for hot smoking. I’ll put that information in another post.
My first trial with ice, I placed the ice on the far right hand side of the rack, farthest from the burner. I got the worst results with that. Second ice trial I placed one of the ice packs directly over the burner, and the other two adjacent to it. I got the best results with that, but the heat from the burner caused a split in the seam of the ice pack directly above it. My third trial is posted below. I place the ice packs in the three corners of the tray, and nothing over the burner. This obtained my second best result.
I started the test at 6:45AM. The first number is the time, second number is the ambient temperature, third number is the Thermoworks Signal reading, and the four number is the Bradley Display Readout. The Thermoworks Signal probes were place on a rack that was positioned on the third rail from the bottom. One probe near the back wall, and one towards the door. I’m only giving the Signal reading from the rear probe, because the front probe was never more than 3 degrees lower at any time; also the rear probe is very close to the Bradley temperature sensor.
6:45AM; 38°F; 36°F; 36°F;
Err6; Bisquette Burner Sensor Failure – Had to reboot smoker.
6:50AM; 38°F; 35°F; 35°F;
7:45AM; 40°F; 65°F; 57°F;
8:15AM; 42°F; 85°F; 73°F;
Opened, 42°F; 80°F; --
8:45AM; 43°F; 90°F; 78°F;
Opened, 43°F; 85°F; 71°F;
9:00AM Test Ended
Within five minutes of adding the ice the P10 shutdown with an Err6 error. That is a Bisquette Burner Temperature Sensor Failure. I figured the closest ice pack was throwing the burner sensor off. A simple reboot fixed the problem, if that didn’t work I would have moved the ice pack further away from the sensor. As you can see by the 6:50AM reading, the ice brought the cabinet temperature lower than the ambient temperature, but that was only for a short time. The incline of temperature was steady, except for a small period of time, when the temperature stabilized at 88° - 89°F.
8:15AM; when the cabinet temperature hit 85°F I opened the door to check the condition of the ice packs. Using an infrared thermometer I took the readings of the three ice packs. The surfaces were all around 35°F; by feel they were still well frozen. At 8:45AM, the cabinet temperature was at 90°F. It had been between staying at 88°F - 89°F from 8:25AM – 8:45AM. At 8:45AM the temperature hit 90°F. At that time I opened the door to check the ice packs. The ice pack in the left front corner measured the highest temperature of 43°F, the other two packs registered at 38°F. The ice packs were still fairly solidly frozened.
These tests are a work in progress, and I have yet to do a test with bisquettes loaded and food. I’m curious on how well the smoke will circulate with the ice inside the cabinet. With my latest test, it seems that you can keep the cabinet within cold smoking temperatures for around two hours, while the ambient temperature is no higher than the low 40’s. Increasing the amount of ice may be helpful. I didn’t have any additional ice packs so I’m not sure if replacing the ice packs halfway through the test would have helped, but since the packs were still fairly solid with ice I don’t feel it would have had any effect. But if I had additional ice packs; adding them may have lowered the temperature. With the P10 you cannot crack the door to help the heat escape. When the door is not fully latched shut, it will shut down. So you can cold smoke at the upper temperature range of cold smoking, with ice and the proper ambient temperatures, and applying smoke for a short period of time.
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