Cold Smoking Hamburgers?

[canadiansmoker]

I typically mix up quite a few hamburger patties at once, then throw them in the freezer and use as needed. I plan on doing some cold smoking this weekend for some chicken I currently have sitting in a brine, and I was wondering if I could cold smoke hamburger patties as well, then freeze them afterwards, or if they would need to be cooked immediately. if I need to cook them immediately then I probably will forget about the cold smoke for now on the burgers.

My main issue is that I am not sure if it would get too warm in the smoker and get the hamburger into the "danger zone". Does anyone know what the max temp I could have in the smoker before it gets too risky? I don't have a cold smoke setup, but the temps are supposed to be pretty cold around here this weekend.

Stephen

[Habanero Smoker]

I don't take chances with ground meat. If I were to cold smoke uncured ground meat, it would be straight from the refrigerator, into a smoker 70°F or less, smoke no longer then 1:40 hours then fully cook immediately after. Also because it is ground meat, and you will also have chicken in the smoker, I would place the ground meat above the chicken.

[canadiansmoker]

Thanks for the response Habs. I think to be on the safe side I will just freeze the hamburger patties and maybe throw them in the smoker just before I finish them off on the grill on the day I will actually cook them. I was doing a little more reading on the internet and it just doesn't appear to be a very good idea. I'd like to be around to use my smoker more!

I might try smoking a couple of patties and then barbecue them immediately afterwards on the weekend just to try them out for the flavour after I finish cold smoking the chicken.

Stephen

[Wildcat]

What works best for me is to grill the burgers over a mixture of charcoal and hard wood.  Same for lean steaks.