# Minimum Temp and Maximum Humidity



## jazzy (Jan 15, 2012)

About to cold smoke some salmon.  It's 35F out and rainy so humidity is high.  I read somewhere that the cold smoking process doesn't work with high humidity and low ambient temps.  I read a discussion also where people found that it produced a bitter smoke. I was going to just try using my MES with AMZN pellet box without the element on and hope the AMZN gets the temp up in the box a bit.  But its so cold, wet and damp, I'm skeptical that I know what the hell I'm doing.

I got this info ->

 It is difficult to cold smoke in areas of high 

humidity. When relative humidity cannot be 

reduced below 75 percent at air temperatures 

below 85°F, then cold smoking is not possible. 

From here -> http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00325.pdf


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## jazzy (Jan 16, 2012)

And of course this web page has contradictory info saying high humidity is important to cold smoking!

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/smokehouse-plans/smokehouse-humidity


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## alblancher (Jan 16, 2012)

I don't know about all that  I live in SE Louisiana and if I didn't cold smoke when the humidity was over 75% I'd never get a chance to cold smoke.   I would think extremal humidity would have such a minor effect.  Remember burning wood produces moisture.  I would think the amount of moisture inside the meat or cheese you want to cold smoke would have more of an impact.  

Keep the smoke moving over the meat, give it a quick easy way out of the smoker and I believe things will be just fine.


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## jazzy (Jan 16, 2012)

Well I've started the smoke.  It's 32F out and we just got a few inches of snow.  Got the vent all the way open and chip loader pullout out in my MES for good air circulation.  AMZN with pellets is chugging along nicely and the MES is reading 65F.  Seems perfect to me. Even though summers around hear are only up to about mid 70's on most days, I would think I might only be able to cold smoke 3 seasons as the AMZN would probably take the internal temp over 90 if ambient is at 70+.

Now I've got to figure out how long to smoke.  When I hot smoke Salmon I only have the smoke on for 2-3 hours and it comes out with a perfect light smokey taste.  I can't imagine cold smoking for over 18 or 24 hours as that is a ton of smoke going on/into the fish!  But I guess that's how a lot of people do it.


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## alblancher (Jan 16, 2012)

If you are going to smoke that long I hope you put some cure on it.


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## izmirlig (Oct 26, 2020)

jazzy said:


> About to cold smoke some salmon.  It's 35F out and rainy so humidity is high.  I read somewhere that the cold smoking process doesn't work with high humidity and low ambient temps.  I read a discussion also where people found that it produced a bitter smoke. I was going to just try using my MES with AMZN pellet box without the element on and hope the AMZN gets the temp up in the box a bit.  But its so cold, wet and damp, I'm skeptical that I know what the hell I'm doing.
> 
> I got this info ->
> 
> ...


I've cold smoked cured salmon 3 times. The first two times were during the end of summer and the temp went below 80 at 9p so I decided I was good to go. I'm doing it in my weber kettle with the small screen mesh maze thing. I've ben using mesquite pellets which I soon realized before the first attempt, needed to be pulverized into dust. I cant find mesquite sawdust at the same price btw, (25 for 25lbs free shipping). The result the first time was delicious, but the fat started rendering and  it fell all apart. Second time a little better as I had slightly cooler temps. Third time it was raining, and I got lazy on smashing pellets and had a lot of uneven gravelly stuff in there. So either due to the texture or the high humidity, the smoker went out at like 30% completion during the night. My lox tasted just a little bit smokey. I read a week or so ago a post recommending soaking the pellets, stirring then drying to convert to sawdust. (The things one does to save a couple of bucks ) so...it works. Now im ready to go with salmon which is curing until tomorrow night and sawdust that is nearly dry enough. Its not actually raining outside but the humidity is up past 80%. I'm wondering if my smoker will go out. I guess I'll make sure my sawdust is extra dry? Thoughts?


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