Any one cold smoke?

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rahimlee54

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I have been looking at cold smoking for bacon that I make. I found the smoke generator which can smoke for 8 hours but I figured I'd give a try with a coffee can first. Does anyone have experience with either of these methods or any tips or suggestions. I have been just hot smoking for a couple of hours but wanted to give the cold smoke a couple of tries.

Thanks
 
Rah, I build a cold-smoke chamber off my electric masterbuilt smoker. Basically a alumnium dryer hose connected to the smoker on one end and a foil-lined card board box on the other.

I've had good success with fish, not so good with meats. You don't want the smoke tempature to exceed 100 degrees or so. You won't be able to acheive that in NC unless its Janurary or Feburary.

Also, cold smoking meats takes days, not hours. If you come to Raleigh let me know and I can show you my set-up.
 
Rah, I build a cold-smoke chamber off my electric masterbuilt smoker. Basically a alumnium dryer hose connected to the smoker on one end and a foil-lined card board box on the other.

I've had good success with fish, not so good with meats. You don't want the smoke tempature to exceed 100 degrees or so. You won't be able to acheive that in NC unless its Janurary or Feburary.

Also, cold smoking meats takes days, not hours. If you come to Raleigh let me know and I can show you my set-up.

this sounds marginally similar to the setup that Alton Brown did on Good Eats....nice work MuchoBocho!
 
+1 to doing this only during cold months. During the summer here in SoCal, I do this during the middle of the night.

I don't know what kind of set up you are considering using, but I've done this on my Weber using an offset smoking set up with the smoke source off to one end. I put a steel baking tray that I freeze with water in it so it's basically one big block of ice, or a completely filled with ice cubes over the smoke source to cool the smoke. I don't soak my chips or blocks because it requires too much heat to get them to consistently smolder; instead I use a couple of partially lit coals, a couple of blocks of wood, and just slightly open the bottom vent. It takes a lot of effort because you want to make sure the wood continues to smolder without stopping, but does not flame up. But, the results can be excellent.

Like Mucho, I've only done this for fish because of the time and care it requires. I've made cold smoked wild salmon using this technique that people raved about.
 
I was kicking around the box idea, I had seen it at a couple of places and on youtube. I wanted to cold smoke in phases over a few days, but I am guessing it doesn't work so well unless you are very dedicated to making it work. Based on the feedback here. I'll have to do a little more reading then.
 
Its totally doable and fun, don't let us discourage you. For what its worth, proper cold smoking produces are very desirable smokey flavor. Hot smoking leave a bitter ashy taste if over-done.

I'd say start with a really fresh white fish. Cod but Monk Fish would be very nice too. The card board box works fine with the electric smoker. I'd be a little concerend though smoking unattended using a live fire and card board box.
 
I recall someone on here posted a gizmo for burning smoking pellets in a large smoker. no other heat source, just a tube of slowly smouldering wood pellets. Seemed like a genius solution for this.
 
I have a smoker at my cabin set up a lot like what Mucho was talkin but it uses a wood stove and what looks like an outhouse attached to it. I have only used it for smoking Salmon that we hang in the outhouse looking box but it works great. That being said my cabin is in the islands north of Vancouver Island in BC so its much colder than in NC.
 
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