# Is the belly flavored all the  way through?



## simple (Jul 29, 2011)

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?


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## fpnmf (Jul 29, 2011)

I use a brine for curing and the flavor does penetrate the meat!!!

  Craig


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## SmokinAl (Jul 29, 2011)

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


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## Bearcarver (Jul 29, 2011)

SmokinAl said:


> 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


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## meateater (Jul 29, 2011)

simple said:


> 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.


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## meateater (Jul 29, 2011)

Bearcarver said:


> What Al said.
> 
> Plus everybody has different opinions about things like that.
> 
> ...


X2


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## DanMcG (Jul 30, 2011)

Bearcarver said:


> What Al said.
> 
> Plus everybody has different opinions about things like that.
> 
> ...


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!


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## jeff 1 (Sep 18, 2011)

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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## Bearcarver (Sep 18, 2011)

Wow good thread!

I agree with everything Dan & Jeff1 just added too.

Bear


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## laszlo (Sep 22, 2011)

DanMcG said:


> 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!


+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.


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## woundedyak (Sep 24, 2011)

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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