# Will be ready to smoke my bacon on Monday...



## SherryT (Mar 24, 2018)

Took it out of the brine last night, rinsed, patted dry, put on a rack over a cookie sheet and into the fridge for a couple of days.

I deliberately (heh heh heh) left the skin on one of the pieces, so do I (cold) smoke this skin up or down?


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## SherryT (Mar 26, 2018)

Just took my bacon out of the smoker...let's just say it looks like I won't have to buy seasoning bacon for a while and leave it at that.


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## myownidaho (Mar 26, 2018)

Pics or it didn’t happen!!!


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

I'll expand my "let's just say" and "leave it at that" to this for now...let's just say as I was washing dishes, I began to smell the aroma of sizzling fat on a grill, so I looked out the window and saw flames.

I caught it in time (read as "the bacon is still fry-able"), but WHAT A MESS IN MY SMOKER!

Will post pics later in the day when I do a fry test.


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

Pics...




























It got too warm in my smoker and some of the fat DID render out before I caught it (yes, there were flames).

I fried up a few pieces...it fried like bacon, it looked like bacon, it felt like bacon, and it tasted like bacon (actually, it tasted WONDERFUL...not too salty OR too smokey!), so it's not a loss.

What I did wrong...I did not monitor the smoker temp, I did not monitor the IT, and I "think" I let it smoke too long for "my" smoker.

I had "cold smoke" on the brain and just assumed it wouldn't get too hot with a pellet tray (DIY tray...worked flawlessly, but it is slightly larger than the retail tray, so there's that).

Going forward, I'll MONITOR THE TEMPS and, perhaps, smoke for a couple of hours on Day1 and then repeat on Day2.

ETA...I also am going to try to find another local source for belly...most of what I got was, IMO, a bit thin.


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## tropics (Mar 27, 2018)

Sherry T I had some bellies were to thin and decided to make ground formed Bacon,it came out great.I have to give you a point for trying and sharing Points
Richie
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/ground-formed-bacon-money-shot.265803/


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

tropics said:


> Sherry T I had some bellies were to thin and decided to make ground formed Bacon,it came out great.I have to give you a point for trying and sharing Points
> Richie
> https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/ground-formed-bacon-money-shot.265803/



Out what I have left, there are two not-so-thin pieces (about 3 lbs each IIRC), so I plan on making bacon out of those, but the rest will be used as sausage fat.

Gonna put a butterflied butt in the brine bucket this evening for BB bacon and give that a go...if it turns out good and I cannot find better looking belly locally, that'll be my bacon going forward.


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

Hmmm Richie...I went and had a look at your formed bacon...intriguing!

I'm betting you could do the same for "chopped ham" lunchmeat as well...grind up a loin and proceed as you did for the bacon, just pack into a round mold (empty soup cans?), weight it down, and have at it!


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

Looks good..  You only used pellets and the smoker got to hot? That's odd..:D


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## myownidaho (Mar 27, 2018)

Lesson learned!...and tasty bacon!


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

Rings Я Us said:


> Looks good..  You only used pellets and the smoker got to hot? That's odd..:D



I didn't monitor the smoker temp, so I can't know just HOW warm it got, but it was enough to render the fat.

I had another thought, though...it was VERY windy, so I guess a couple of good gusts into the vents could have caused the pellets to flame up and THAT'S what caused it to get too hot...maybe???

Anyway, the heat from the grease/flames weakened/damaged my DIY tray (grill toppers from WM, lightweight metal mesh), so I'll be ordering the Amazen tray this Friday.


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

You could have put the pellets in the  bushel basket on a rack suspended just below the smoker .  No water pan and the bacon on top rack . That would give a good foot of clearance or so. The pellets shouldn't be able to flame even if they sit out on the cement.  Should just smolder .. at least my tray never lit up after I blew it out. It had open air under it.


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

Like so..


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

You were just cold smoking with pellets right?


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

Rings Я Us said:


> You could have put the pellets in the  bushel basket on a rack suspended just below the smoker .  No water pan and the bacon on top rack . That would give a good foot of clearance or so. The pellets shouldn't be able to flame even if they sit out on the cement.  Should just smolder .. at least my tray never lit up after I blew it out. It had open air under it.



I put the tray inside my empty coal pan (which sits inside the bucket), removed the lower rack (hence, no water pan), made hooks to hang the bacon out of metal skewers, and hung the slabs below the top rack...they had more than ample clearance (the "slabs" were only about 12" long)



Rings Я Us said:


> You were just cold smoking with pellets right?



Yes...pellets only. I lit the tray at the opening, allowed a good coal to form, blew it out, made sure it was ONLY smoldering/smoking, and placed it in the coal pan.

Could I have got my smoker sealed up TOO tight when I did the mods? The first couple of times I fired it up, there was just a little smoke escaping around the lid, but, since then, the ONLY place smoke escapes (that I can see anyway) is at the top vent.


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

Sounds good. As long as you have that top vent and most of the smoke goes out there.. sounds right.. people do the top vent as opposed to just letting smoke escape from around the lid because around the lid doesn't let smoke pass over meat as much as a top vent..  yeah. The bacon should not have ever been hot enough to drip. And not sure why your pellets started flaming up.. they shouldn't do that in cold smoking mode. . Usually they flame up because of excessive heat.


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 27, 2018)

You really don't need much of any bottom damper open with pellets.  Just enough air to keep them alive. Maybe next time cut back bottom air dampers.. top open is good.. I would venture to say it will work next try.  Lol good stuff!


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## SherryT (Mar 27, 2018)

I'll try limiting the bottom vents somewhat next time...AND I'll use my probes! :D


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## Bearcarver (Mar 28, 2018)

SherryT said:


> I didn't monitor the smoker temp, so I can't know just HOW warm it got, but it was enough to render the fat.
> 
> *I had another thought, though...it was VERY windy, so I guess a couple of good gusts into the vents could have caused the pellets to flame up and THAT'S what caused it to get too hot...maybe???*
> 
> Anyway, the heat from the grease/flames weakened/damaged my DIY tray (grill toppers from WM, lightweight metal mesh), so I'll be ordering the Amazen tray this Friday.




Absolutely---A couple of drafts can easily flare up pellets. It's no different than being able to blow on an AMNPS to get a flame to rise up from the smoldering pellet cherry.

Hope your Smoker is OK. The Bacon looks fine.

Bear


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## daveomak (Mar 28, 2018)

Sherry, morning.....   Try smoldering dust in your pellet tray....  Dust burns MUCH cooler.... 
How to make dust from pellets...  the easy way....   well, easier than other methods....

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/making-dust-from-pellets.271863/


..


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## SherryT (Mar 28, 2018)

bearcarver said:


> Absolutely---A couple of drafts can easily flare up pellets. It's no different than being able to blow on an AMNPS to get a flame to rise up from the smoldering pellet cherry.
> 
> Hope your Smoker is OK. The Bacon looks fine.
> 
> Bear



Thanks Bear.

The smoker itself is fine, but there seems to be a lot of build-up that wasn't in there before this smoke. Do I need to do some sort of a burn out to get rid of it (I brushed it out using a wire brush, but still...).


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## SherryT (Mar 28, 2018)

daveomak said:


> Sherry, morning.....   Try smoldering dust in your pellet tray....  Dust burns MUCH cooler....
> How to make dust from pellets...  the easy way....   well, easier than other methods....
> 
> https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/making-dust-from-pellets.271863/
> ...



I might try that! I can go ahead and break them down now and they can be drying out while I wait for the soon-to-be-ordered tray to arrive.

Thanks!


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 28, 2018)

I use a wire brush in mine if it's flaking off like in the lid..


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## SherryT (Mar 28, 2018)

Rings Я Us said:


> I use a wire brush in mine if it's flaking off like in the lid..



I got it cleaned out well enough I think...except for the lid. The wire brush I have has the standard rectangular-shaped "grill" brush with a long handle and 1/2" bristles...need something shorter and with longer bristles so I can get to the entire inner surface of the lid.

Will pick one up when I go to town tomorrow.

Thanks!


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 28, 2018)

It does sometimes drip on food if it's moist in there and not real hot inside. Nasty black drips.


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## daveomak (Mar 28, 2018)

Sherry......   CHECK to be POSITIVE none of the wire bristles have fallen out...   They are a bitch on the digestive system..  and the throat...   and the gums and teeth... 
May I suggest you build a very hot fire inside to burn it out...  briquettes and lump might work...   I'm really not sure what your smoker is....


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## SherryT (Mar 28, 2018)

daveomak said:


> Sherry......   CHECK to be POSITIVE none of the wire bristles have fallen out...   They are a bitch on the digestive system..  and the throat...   and the gums and teeth...
> May I suggest you build a very hot fire inside to burn it out...  briquettes and lump might work...   I'm really not sure what your smoker is....



Thanks Dave.


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