Hey John -- can you talk about your preference for hot smoking the BBB vs cold smoking? Do you need the heat for it to take on smoke, or do you just prefer not having to fry it if you don't want to? How would cold smoking change the final result?
I'm still waiting for a slicer before I try this, but I'm absolutely dying to do it and just want to have everything figured out before I do. I am really after bacon... I want a replacement for traditional store-bought bacon to fry up. I'd really like to do it with bellies, but butts are so cheap (they just went on sale a Shop n Save for $1.59/lb), so I think I'm going to go the BBB route and just stock up.
Sure, My main reason for smoking it to 145* is because I don't want to have to worry about getting it to 145* before eating, like by frying, broiling, baking, etc.
Buckboard Bacon and Canadian Bacon are much leaner than Belly Bacon, so they are real easy to burn in the pan.
Smoking them to 145* IT will not burn them, and once it gets to 145* IT, it would be safe to eat cold, or just warm it up a little, which is what I prefer to do just before eating.
IMHO it takes smoke better between 100* & 130* smoker temp than below 100*, but that's beside the point, because even if I thought cold smoking was the only way to smoke I would still take it up & get it to 145* after cold smoking it, for the reasons I mentioned above.
Butts are a lot higher around here----$1.59 would be Great.
BBB is a little more chewy (because of the percentage of lean meat) than Belly Bacon, but in my opinion BBB has more flavor. I'm not crazy about using BBB for BLTs though because of how chewy it is, but it goes Great with a few eggs!!!
Bear