Thanks guys, I read a lot about hot and cold smoking bacon. I'll try cold next time. I read a couple places saying that cold is unsafe to do at home. I went with hot first
If you have added the proper amount of ingredients... salt, sugar and cure #1, (sodium nitrite)... and it has been allowed to infuse into the meat the adequate amount of time, there is no reason to think cold smoking is unsafe.... I have cold smoked bacon for 6 days below 70 deg. F... others have cold smoked meats for longer periods.... At colder temps, nitrite stays viable in controlling or killing food borne pathogens.... Smoke does it's part in controlling or killing food borne pathogens, and the salt does the same....
Cold smoking meats using nitrite, salt etc. is one of the oldest forms of preserving food...
Cold Smoking
Cold smoking at 52-71° F (12-22° C), from 1-14 days, applying thin smoke with occasional breaks in between, is one of the oldest preservation methods. We cannot produce cold smoke if the outside temperature is 90° F (32° C), unless we can cool it down, which is what some industrial smokers do. Cold smoking is a drying process whose purpose is to remove moisture thus preserving a product.
You will find that different sources provide different temperatures for cold smoking. In European countries where most of the cold smoking is done, the upper temperature is accepted as 86° F (30° C). The majority of Russian, Polish and German meat technology books call for 71° F (22° C), some books ask for 77° F (25° C). Fish starts to cook at 85° F (29.4° C) and if you want to make delicious cold smoked salmon that is smoked for a long time, obviously you can not exceed 86° F (30° C). Cold smoking assures us of total smoke penetration inside of the meat. The loss of moisture also is uniform in all areas and the total weight loss falls within 5-20% depending largely on the smoking time. Cold smoking is not a continuous process, it is stopped (no smoke) a few times to allow fresh air into the smoker.