Ambient temperature for cold smoking

[Bigchaser]

What is the maximum ambient temperature for cold smoking?
I would like to smoke some bacon I cured, but worried the ambient temperature may be too high here.

[grisell]

The maximum temperature for what could be designated as cold smoking is the temperture where the proteins denature and/or the fat separates. This occurs at a lower temperature for fish than meat. A rule of thumb is that cold smoked products aren't cooked in any way, whereas hot smoked products are at least partially cooked.

As for fish, I'd say that 28 C/82 F is an absolute maximum. I'm not sure about bacon, but I assume that it isn't huch higher. Probably someone else on the forum has an exact number.

[Bigchaser]

Thanks for the reply.

Hmm the ambient temperature here sits around 28 - 32 C, so not looking good.....

[tristar]

I lived in Indonesia for 13 years until quite recently, and I would say that if you want to cold smoke you should try to find some way of cooling the environment, a large quantity of ice in your smoking environment should do the trick , that is the way I used to do it anyway living in Jakarta. Of course if you live high in the mountains somewhere and have reasonable night time temperatures you may be ok just smoking at night.

The maximum accepted temperature for fish is around the 26-28 deg C, but for meats up to 38 deg C , but cooler is better in my opinion.

Richard

[Bigchaser]

Now there’s an idea, 205 L oil drum, small gas ring with sawdust in a thick walled steel container and then the outside of the drum cooled with ice.
I’ll have to give it a bit more thought, but it’s looking possible.

Thankfully I’m based in East Kalimantan, not Jakarta but its no cooler here.

[tristar]

Big chaser, I wouldn't go for a gas burner, the heat produced would be unworkable, you would be better trying to make do with something like the ProQ CSG. or one of the Air pumped systems, what you want is self smouldering chips or dust, rather than a significant heat source to produce the smoke.

A ring shaped channel of perforated steel or steel mesh shaped to fit within the circumference of your barrel, filled with dry sawdust, and lit at one point should smoulder for hours and produce very little heat.


Richard

[grisell]

How about converting an old fridge or freezer to a smoking chamber and let it run while smoking? Never tried it, just an idea(?).

[Richierich]

Make 2 cylinders the smaller large enough to use as your chamber the second wider, use chicken wire or mesh, pack the annulus with charcoal and then run water over the charcoal, the energy used to evaporate the water will make the charcoal cool down, you might get it cool enough.

http://www.appropedia.org/Charcoal_Cooler

[smokeandumami]

Worth pointing out human body temperature is 37 degrees C and your proteins don't start denaturing at that temperature, so cold-smoking meat at this temperature should work fine. Even fish shouldn't denature too much at that temperature although I see a poster above recommends a much lower temperature. I have cold smoked salmon at 40 degrees and it's fine.

Personally I am cold smoking around 40 degrees C as my Bradley keeps going up to that despite outside temperature being 5-10 degrees C. I need the cold smoker accessory I think.

Worth bearing in mind that your cold smoker is an excellent incubator for bacteria around this temperature, so you need to be cold-smoking well-cured products and/or subjecting the exterior to a higher temperature afterwards before eating to kill nasties.

[saucisson]

Personally I am cold smoking around 40 degrees C as my Bradley keeps going up to that despite outside temperature being 5-10 degrees C. I need the cold smoker accessory I think.

Try this first

http://www.foodsmoker.co.uk/index.php/c ... ml?start=1

[smokeandumami]

I might ask my father-in-law to try and build it for me - he's a dab hand with stuff like that I am useless at DIY.

[grisell]

[---]
I have cold smoked salmon at 40 degrees and it's fine.
[---]

So have I. Big mistake. The result was very different from smoking at 20 C. Although edible, I wouldn't call it cold-smoked. It tasted rather like an undercooked fish.

[smokeandumami]

Really?

Did you cure it properly beforehand?

That's the "cooking" bit.

[welsh wizard]

The way I cold smoke in hot weather is to pack out the smoker (fridge size) with ice blocks and change them evry 4 hours. This seems to take the temprature down quite well.

Cheers WW

[welsh wizard]

smokeandumami

Sorry for this but as a Bradley user and agent for many years, personally I would opt for the CSG smoker to cold smoke and wouldnt bother with the Bradley cardboard box thinggy, although it does work but it can be a faff.

Cheers WW