Bacon Smoke Times

[Blue Dog BBQ]

Hi everybody. I have about 6 #s of pork belly cured and ready for the smoker. How long should I smoke it and at what temp? Thanks for the help

[freebee]

There are two schools on smoking bacon.
Cold Smoking and hot smoking.
Do you have a smoker capable of smoking at temps below 100 f? If you do you can cold smoke them. I always cold smoke my bacon. For about 5 hours till I like the color.
I hot smoke at 160 f for about 4 hours till the color is what im looking for.


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[Doug S.]

I cold smoke @ 110 degs for about 8 to 10 hours for extra smoky bacon See the link in Bearcarvers post for extra smoky bacon that's what I follow.

[Bearcarver]

Many Cold Smoke their Bacon, which is Fine.

Some Hot Smoke to 145° IT in case somebody eats it right out of the Fridge.

I find that when I use Temps between 110° and 130°, it only takes about 10 or 11 hours of light Hickory Smoke to get the color & flavor I want, instead of 20 or more hours cold smoking.
Plus as long as I keep the Temp from getting too close to 140° I get NO FAT Rendering at all.

Here's my Routine:
http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19027


Bear

[curious aardvark]

I cold smoke for around 16 hours. you pretty much don't need to worry about smker temps for cold smoking in the uk. There might be 2-3 days a in a good summer when the sun warms the bbq up. But as a general rule, it's never going to be an issue :-)
I will also eat it out of the fridge uncooked
A long slow cold smoke will also dry the bacon out a little, improves the texture.
Once smoked i usually leave it uncovered in the 'meat' fridge for about a week which dries it out further while the smoke penetrates and the whole thing just matures :-)

For me, if you cook it, it's ham. Bacon needs to be uncooked when you fry it for it to be bacon.

Just semantics I know, but it's how i think of bacon.