# tried my hand at cold smoking for the first time,  I think i have a problem with one of the pork loi



## drtheo (Nov 29, 2013)

HI I tried my hand at cold smoking and just finished up a 40 hour smoke.

The bacon turned out looking great as did most of the pork loin i did.

I used pops brine as my base and added some garlic and onion to the bacon brine and just used the sweet recipe for the loin.

everything went smoothly in my mes 40 with my amnps , was able to keep the temps in the mid 70s to mid 80s only turning on the smoker 2 times to start an air current, and never leaving it on for more then 5 minutes.

Here is the problem, one chunk of loin got this weird black color in the meat, not on it, in it, the others look fine, and the bacon looks great.

Let me know what you think it is.

You can see in the top photo that i tried to wash what ever it is off, but that did not work













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## daveomak (Nov 29, 2013)

To me, that dark spot looks like the pig may have been bruised just prior to slaughter.....  maybe a blood vessel or two broke...   Don't know if a cattle prod will cause bruising.... could be someone kicked the pig.....   
Anywho.... cut it out and save all the rest of the "good looking" meat....
the smoke job sure looks good..... I'd eat it..... 

Dave


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## drtheo (Nov 29, 2013)

Thanks, I cut off a thin section of the end and i am guessing that what it is was something dripped on it at some point, maybe something condensed on the the top of the smoker.  It was down in the teens at night time. 

regardless, i just cut off all the bad looking part, and underneath it was perfect looking.

Well i just could not resist and fried up a little peice of it and it was tasty, but something was missing, not sure what, but we will have to see after i let it rest in the meat fridge for a few days.


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## daveomak (Nov 29, 2013)

If that's the case.....  It's creosote.....    If you had a water pan with water in it....  that's where the drip came from....  All dampers wide open with good air flow will "usually" end that problem.....   or a catch pan and make you own liquid smoke...


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## diggingdogfarm (Nov 29, 2013)

Yes, it looks like drippage from the ceiling of the smoker due to condensation.
Insulate the roof of the smoker by covering it with towels and the like.
Covering a rack above the meat with clean foil will also help keep drippage off.



~Martin


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## allen campbell (Dec 12, 2013)

I have a cold smoker about 4' high, 2' wide and 5' long.  The temperature runs about 60 degrees in 40 outside temp.  At this temperature and if the weather is moist the hanging rod (3/4" pipe) get so much condensation that black, condensed smoke will drip on the meat.  The way to fix this is to wipe down the rod frequently. (and smell like smoke)  I changed out the steel pipe with wood dowels and that is the end of the problem!  So the short answer is to get rid of all the metal screens, shelves and rods and replace them with wood parts.


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