www.sausagemaking.org

After so many weeks of inclement "storm about to break" weather with crazy levels of humidity looks like we are in for more, but temperatures are on the way up, therefore time to locate, clean off & utilise your cold blocks that you tipped out to make room for all that winter smoked salmon.

Outdoor temp in my neck of the woods was 16 C at 7.15 am this morning with 56% humidity when I loaded the smoker, now risen to 20 C & stormy, light breeze of pending storm keeping it there but wouldn't take much to raise it.

Eyes open (on deals for decent quality well encased refrigerated cooling blocks please)
I need to locate some to stick in my cooler to keep them from straying.

How many large blocks do serious summer cold smokers keep prepped on ice incidentally!? whilst pretty temperature stable it's good to be able to counter a decent temperature swing.

Plenty of good "app" convertors ..for those who get easily confused by temp conversion (should you need to, or be informed in Farhenheit when you use degrees C)

My go to freebie on the kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Valeriya-Bozhkova-Converter-Free/dp/B00B3LDQ6K/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1435312852&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=kindle+convertor+app

Temp has tipped 21.5 C now, bacon resting back in the fridge & will have a full burn overnight (total of 16 hours smoke) ..shame, I'll have to eat it by myself

Why am I doing it under the weber outdoors!? ..cos my neighbour has expressed an interest in learning the process, so as I'll be lending him my small unit (athough we'll have the temp monitored & excess temp alarm set to his phone via my Igrill 2) he'll be the semi-automated master of his own bacon destiny with a bit of hand holding from myself, so I want to anticipate any weather curves he'll experience with my kit.
(at least it may stop him snaffling my bacon).

Probably mentioned this elsewhere, but for those using the inevitably small "beer fridge" to store & cure, then dry your bacon afterwards, an adjustable chicken / roast "x" frame rack will fit your meat nicely & minimise contact for smoking / drying stages, they are chromed metal, so stick some greaseproof paper down to ensure it doesn't come into contact & react ..about £4 from lakeland or less if you are lucky.

Nice because it keeps food clear of that grubby bbq grille you've been meaning to scrub & transfers easily back into the fridge, well worth a punt in my book.
(ok to fling in a dishwasher too)
sits happily above / closely around the stack of ice packs in my weber

Apparently it could be in the mid thirties next week

Too, Damn, hot!

4 pieces curing, 2ready to go, looks like it's going to be an extended period of drying In the fridge, can't push the nitrite for too many extra days I guess!?

Having your bacon as "green", unsmoked bacon is not the end of the world nor is the option of making hot smoked bacon (though I prefer cold smoked and hope my supply holds until Fall).

Just be lucky you have more than about 3 days with temps in the cold smoking range per year. We use a temp controlled room to house our cold smoker, with the heat source for smoke is external to that. Next best thing to a complete evnironmental controlled chamber which is very expensive. You just have to be careful about condensation, unless you want to produce liquid smoke!

GUS wrote:Too, Damn, hot!

4 pieces curing, 2ready to go, looks like it's going to be an extended period of drying In the fridge, can't push the nitrite for too many extra days I guess!?

Apparently, once it's in there the nitrite will still protect the meat, even after it's all been used.

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/14.pdf

Phil

Yup,

I'll simply start them drying in the fridge set to 1c (ish) the weather will break & i'll be ready to smoke em briefly, ...all will be fine & zen like in end

Anyone seen any deals lately for pork loin back production? I'm due some more "guilt pork"

Have half (by eye) loaded the tracks of the Mac's Pro Q artisan.

Temp dropped nicely last night so thought i'd better get in there.
A couple more nights smoked like that & we'll be happy.

Got the Barrel BBQ smoker out to give that a test run for a big side of back* & to whip up a kilo of delicious (to me) Marmite*

Piling it up to make the turns a bit more but a deep track 1/2 side fill in the remainder (so it's all packed in 1 side of the track with 1/2 the track floor still visible).
Set the burn at 10.30pm last night it still had a good amount of track left to run this afternoon at 12.30 in the shade.
Aging & smoking for mid-week when I'll be getting around 8kg prepped for next week, tempted to do a Bri-Can brine for a half of it.

Feel free to commit my mortal soul to the brine Bri-Can (nb you simply been waving the shop meat outside lately to catch a snifter of forest fire smoke) Eh!?







*Guilt pork
*Tarmite