Is the belly flavored all the way through?

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simple

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Jun 27, 2011
97
11
This is probably a real basic question, but it has me stumped.  

I assume the the smoke "flavors" the meat by leaving a residue on the surface.  Is that accurate or not?

If that is so, then does the smoking process flavor the inside of the meat too?  If the inside of the belly is flavored by the smoke, how does it happen?
 
I use a brine for curing and the flavor does penetrate the meat!!!

  Craig
 
The cure flavors the meat all the way through. The smoke will not penetrate to the middle of a thick piece of meat.
 
The cure flavors the meat all the way through. The smoke will not penetrate to the middle of a thick piece of meat.
What Al said.

Plus everybody has different opinions about things like that.

I figure the more light smoke you put on it, the more chance of it penetrating farther in.

Also, many disagree, but it is MY OPINION !!!!----I repeat--- "MY OPINION" that you can get more smoke flavor in your Bacon by removing the skin. Many say the skin doesn't block smoke. That is their opinion.

Everyone should be allowed their opinion.

I get my opinion by figuring if the skin tastes smoky, which it does, that tells me that some of the smoke did not get in to the part I want to eat, because it stopped along the way to flavor the skin.

I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.

If I was going to eat the skin, I would definitely leave it on.

Bear
 
This is probably a real basic question, but it has me stumped.  

I assume the the smoke "flavors" the meat by leaving a residue on the surface.  Is that accurate or not? Yes on the surface and absorption to the center. 

If that is so, then does the smoking process flavor the inside of the meat too? Yes  If the inside of the belly is flavored by the smoke, how does it happen? By absorption. 
Hope this helps. 
icon14.gif

 
 
What Al said.

Plus everybody has different opinions about things like that.

I figure the more light smoke you put on it, the more chance of it penetrating farther in.

Also, many disagree, but it is MY OPINION !!!!----I repeat--- "MY OPINION" that you can get more smoke flavor in your Bacon by removing the skin. Many say the skin doesn't block smoke. That is their opinion.

Everyone should be allowed their opinion.

I get my opinion by figuring if the skin tastes smoky, which it does, that tells me that some of the smoke did not get in to the part I want to eat, because it stopped along the way to flavor the skin.

I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.

If I was going to eat the skin, I would definitely leave it on.

Bear
X2 
icon14.gif

 
 
What Al said.

Plus everybody has different opinions about things like that.

I figure the more light smoke you put on it, the more chance of it penetrating farther in.

Also, many disagree, but it is MY OPINION !!!!----I repeat--- "MY OPINION" that you can get more smoke flavor in your Bacon by removing the skin. Many say the skin doesn't block smoke. That is their opinion.

Everyone should be allowed their opinion.

I get my opinion by figuring if the skin tastes smoky, which it does, that tells me that some of the smoke did not get in to the part I want to eat, because it stopped along the way to flavor the skin.

I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.

If I was going to eat the skin, I would definitely leave it on.

Bear
My opinion too.

I think the longer you cold smoke something the deeper the smoke will penitrate the meat. Some sausage and hams are smoked for days or weeks. I don't think the smoke gets all the way into a slab in hours. and thats my opinion!
smile.gif
 
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I seem to have good smoke penetration in my cold smoked bacon,  at least it smells and taste like it.  I smoke it for along time and give it plenty of time to rest in the fridge afterwords before it gets sliced.  From what I understand the key factor is to not let the outside of the meat get cooked with any heat causeing it to form a hard barrier.

I have also done it with and without the skin with same results,  only thing different I do is give the one with skin a little more time in the wet cure and more time in the smoke and I cant tell any difference in the end product.
 
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I think the longer you cold smoke something the deeper the smoke will penitrate the meat. Some sausage and hams are smoked for days or weeks. I don't think the smoke gets all the way into a slab in hours. and thats my opinion!
smile.gif
+1. I think that key phrase here is "cold smoke". Once surface of bacon will dry out due to exposure to higher temperature smoke it will form a barrier and smoke will penetrate the inside of meat slab at very, very slow rate. I'd imagine the smoke will be "bouncing off' the dryer surface crust. The bacon will get the deeper colour more it stays in the smoke, but inside is effectively sealed off.

BTW that is an observation I made myself on several occasions, but the main source is wedlinydomowe page re. cold smoking. There's also this fancy drawing comparing effect of hot vs cold smoke.
 
IMO, The longer you "cold smoke" deeper the penetration. Once meat hits around 90-100 degrees, The connective tissue starts to "cure" (by heat not chemical) in it's own sense and smoke can't get threw it like heat can. Alton Brown actually did a show on this a long time ago and that's theory he came up with. I think you all need to sack up and test this theory by doing a two week study/smoke. Four 10lbs belly's! Cold smoke one at 24hr, another at 72,another at one week then the last at 2 weeks.  Send them all to me with all your notes and I will bite the bullet and give you my Analise's(sp) followed by my Thesis!
 
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