# How to cold smoke...



## dernektambura (Oct 23, 2019)

I am no expert by any means and my smoke properties chemistry knowledge is limited to very basic but I have been "trailing" my grandpas old school smoking technique since my childhod and continued to learn through my adulthood... In short, this is what I learned about smoke duration and smoke density...

After initial meat curing, meat surface becomes porous becouse salt is more concentrated on surface and creates air pockets. .. it's like a web of microscopic air pockets created by salt osmosis... In the begining, this air web are more dense close to surface and less dense in a meat interior due to time needed for salt to penetrate, withdraw water and create air pockets... as time goes by, meat is drying, shrinks, meat becomes more dense and microscopic air pockets slowly disappear....

Now back to smoke time and smoke density...

At the beginning of meat smoking, meat surface air pockets are filled with smoke, smoke is loaded with chemicals compounds which starts to deposit inside microscopic air pockets... once these air pockets are filled with after burn chemical compounds further smoking is waste of time becouse chemical compounds, deposited inside air pockets, will close meat surface...

"smoky flavour inside air pockets need time to penetrate and populate next layer of meat air pockets. . it's like time delay chain reaction... that's why smoking on/off time is very important...Off smoke time is important to allow time delay chain reaction to happen....

once smoking is done and over the period of drying time, chemical compounds will work its way deeper and populate rest of the interior air pocket made by salt reverse osmosis and drying process...

White, thick dense smoke means uncompleted burn and it is loaded with carbon, carbon deposits itself in air pockets and over period of time work its way deeper resulting in harsh, bitter meat taste...

The best (cleanest) smoke is see trough bluish smoke.... you should be able to see clearly surface of meat trough smoke...

To avoid confusion, I am talking about smoking at very low temperatures in DIY situation.... Cold smoking is done  at temp between 10 to 16 deg. C ( 50-60F)

Again, I am no expert by any means, just sharing my limited knowledge....

I hope all this make sense written in my limited english as a second language..

.


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## tx smoker (Oct 23, 2019)

You are 100% correct about smoke density. you want the blue smoke, what we refer to as TBS (thin blue smoke). Lots and lots of folks, me included use the A-Maze-N products for both hot and cold smoking. Me only for cold smoking however. I have the 12" AMNTS (tube smoker) and the 5x8 AMNPS (pellet smoker) and only use pellets sold by A Maze N. they are a sponsor of the forum and take good care of the folks here. The AMNPS is really cool because you can regulate the volume of smoke by how deep you load the pellets in the channel. you can also regulate time of smoke by how much of the channel you fill. It is a really good device, very effective, easy to use, and won't break the bank.

Robert


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## dernektambura (Oct 23, 2019)

tx smoker said:


> You are 100% correct about smoke density. you want the blue smoke, what we refer to as TBS (thin blue smoke). Lots and lots of folks, me included use the A-Maze-N products for both hot and cold smoking. Me only for cold smoking however. I have the 12" AMNTS (tube smoker) and the 5x8 AMNPS (pellet smoker) and only use pellets sold by A Maze N. they are a sponsor of the forum and take good care of the folks here. The AMNPS is really cool because you can regulate the volume of smoke by how deep you load the pellets in the channel. you can also regulate time of smoke by how much of the channel you fill. It is a really good device, very effective, easy to use, and won't break the bank.
> 
> Robert


not sure why would you turn this post in to A_MAZ_E advertising but hey, why not... it is probably good product...
Anyhow... one of the common mistakes folks make is smoking at higher temp (20 deg C) @ low humidity.... what happens to meat?
Hight temp + smoke dehydrate surface of the meat and meat surface pores close to fast..... meat surface dryes to fast and smoke can't penetrate... at the same time, moisture is trapped inside and drying process is slowed down resulting bad product....
when smoking meat RH should be @55-60% RH...


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