Cold smoking...

[Whisky Fish]

whats the difference between prague #1 from #2...pls enlighten me...and where to use it....

Thanks....

prague #1 is sodium nitrite and a small amount of salt. #2 is sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate(CA straightened me out on this one) and again a small amout of salt. The nitrite is the main curing componant. Nitrate converts to nitrite over time. #2 is used as a time release curing agent. For the things you'll be doing as a beginner, stick with #1. If you get into making dry cure products like salami, you can branch out to #2.
Some say you can use #2 for everything but for safety sake #1 is your best bet to start with.

[curious aardvark]

You know my position on this CA- if you want to talk microbiology with Danger Dan, BBally, King- or any other number of EXPERIENCED meat curing folk... have at it. But FM Dan here is a beginner. Beginners must start at the beginning. Advanced curing techniques are cool and all that... but they are for ADVANCED meat curers.




Why not let him know "it's all perfectly safe" and follow accepted main-line curing methods?

And that was barely half a fit.

lol because information is information. People should have access to it all and then be able to make their own decisions.
The safety is down to the temperature of the meat and the times it's at certain temps and how it's been treated before and after smoking.
Take it from the fridge, cold smoke for 3 hours and back to the fridge most things are going to be perfectly safe.
Take it from the freezer cold smoke for 3 hours and into fridge and I can't think of anything that won't be safe.
You do have to take into account the antibacterial effect of the smoke as well you know.

But the point is - the difference between a process that's perfectly safe, and one that's perfectly safe if your temps spike a bit or you forget about it and it goes a bit too long.

So no there wouldn't be any problems cold smoking un-nitritited foods, but add nitrite and there still won't be any problems and you have a degree of leeway in your procedures.


As for having to smoke something for 16 hours to get smoke flavour.
sure you can, but I've never cold smoked anything for more than 5-6 hours. I find that anything more just makes it taste like creosote.
Yes even at barely visible TBS

It's all down to size of smoker and volume and of smoke produced and even the type of wood.
Anything I cold smoked for 16 hours would be completely inedible using my current setup.

So for a beginner, start at 4-5 hours, and work your way up if necessary.

And use a nitrite cure - not because you have to or necessarily need to - but because it cost's nothing and does make things significantly safer.

Which I believe I said initially :-)

[MrZip66]

Dug this out of the basement. Great thread, answered a ton of questions. Got one more....

Seen some info about really long smokes on cured pork bellies. Using an AMNPS, is it possible to oversmoke em? I'd imagine a cold piece of pork can absorb a lot of smoke.

[curious aardvark]

actually because it's dry, a protein pellicle forms that block excessive smoke uptake.
You often see people quote the pellical as aiding smoke uptake - which is compleely wrong.
The pellicle stops the food getting too smokey, but allows it to slowly dry.

So with the long cold smokes you get a much mellower, deeper flavour. And the drying action concentrates the flavour of the food.
Plus cold smoking uses very thin blue smoke.

So nope - can't think of any long cold smoke drawbacks.

Longest I've done is 16 hours. But I think becky did one for well over 24 hours.


ps. well I've learnt a lot in the last 3 years

As for having to smoke something for 16 hours to get smoke flavour.
sure you can, but I've never cold smoked anything for more than 5-6 hours. I find that anything more just makes it taste like creosote.
Yes even at barely visible TBS

It's all down to size of smoker and volume and of smoke produced and even the type of wood.
Anything I cold smoked for 16 hours would be completely inedible using my current setup.

So for a beginner, start at 4-5 hours, and work your way up if necessary.

And use a nitrite cure - not because you have to or necessarily need to - but because it cost's nothing and does make things significantly safer.

These days the bradley is junk - and that's why I couldn't smoke anything for long periods of time back then - bradley smoke is evil stuff, anything beyond 5 hours and you're just eating creosote.
Always cure stuff you're going to leave outside for long periods of time. Safe is safe and if you do forget about it - it doesn't matter as much.

And make yourself a decent sawdust cold smoker :-)

[Bearcarver]

Zip,
As far as I'm concerned, the only way you can "oversmoke" is to use too heavy a smoke, and you can do that in one hour.
If you like smoke flavor, light smoke can go for a long time (days) without causing an offensive product.
More Bear Opinions:
In my experience, if you want good smoky tasting Bacon, and don't want to smoke it for longer than 12 hours, you better put heat on it (110 to 140). The bellies I cold smoked for less than 12 hours were very bland compared to the ones I warm smoked for 11 hours or less. (See Bacon (Extra Smoky) in my signature. When cold smoking it takes a long time for that cold damp clammy piece of meat to get dry enough to accept smoke. Warming it up will help a lot!!
About your other question of oversmoking with an AMNPS:
If you light both ends on an AMNPS, I guess it's possible---depends on the size of the smoker. Now the AMNPTS (Tube smoker) is a different story. I have one, and it puts out too much smoke for my MES 40. I'm sure the Tube smoker is awesome for a bigger smoker, or one that doesn't seal very good.


Bear