Christmas came early - need some cold smoking 101 info

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I just told my parents and sister at the end of last week that I wanted a smoking tube (12 inch) and sampler of wood pellets from Owens BBQ.  Suggesedt they do it as a joint gift to save some money on shipping.

It arrived today!  This is the second order I've received from them and they are always smoking fast on getting the package in the mail and to my door!

So now I have some questions

1.  How do I setup my coals to smoke at lower temperature?  This can be for either 22 or 26 kettles as I have both.

2.  What should i try smoking first?  Cheese, fish, something else?  I do have a foods aver and have been told that cheese really needs to be sealed and refrigerated for a few week after smoking to come out right.

3. Preferred wood flavors for cold smoking?  I have pretty much everything you can think of including some pack with multiple flavors combined.




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[MikeRocksTheRed]

I just saw the write up on the main page about how to cold smoke, so that should coversome of my questions....but could still use some advise on coal setup and what to smoke!

[Jon]

I don't have any advice, but that is a cool gift.

[BC]

Curious as to what your average outside temperature is.
Not a big issue here (BC Canada) where the temp is usually around freezing this time of year. Haven't done it on the kettle yet but that'll happen next week. Up to now I've used our ECB. Just a couple coals and wood. When the coals are done I just keep adding wood as needed. That's how I'll be trying it on the kettle and most likely with cheese. I prefer hickory.Plastic wrap overnight and you can eat it but keeping it a week or more (vacuum sealed) makes it more mellow.
Smoked about 2 to 3 hours and I've smoked as low as about 45F and for me, no higher than about 75F

[pbe gummi bear]

Nice gift! I'd try a cold smoke with bacon, salmon, or cheese. There's lot's of recipe's and methods out there but @Troy can give some tips for bacon and @LightningBoldtz can give some tips for cheese.

[austin87]

I've done bacon and cheese. No coals, just use your tube. Depending on ambient temps you may need an ice tray in the kettle to keep temps down (below 80 or 90 degrees, cheese starts melting there).

Yes your cheese will taste (and smell) like an ashtray right off the bat. I did 4 hours with the Pitmaster's Choice (I believe cherry/hickory/maple blend), it needed at least a week and was better in the 2-3 week range. My bacon needed time too, but I did 12 hours with an AMNPS. It really took about a month to have the ashtray taste mellow.

DO NOT cold smoke meat unless it has been properly cured with nitrites or nitrates, or you must cook it immediately after and get it out of the danger zone (40-140 degrees) within 4 hours.

The first thing I did was get a 2lb chunk each of cheddar and pepper jack, cut them into quarters, and smoke them. If you do it now you should be able to give your sister and parents ready to eat smoked cheese by Christmas.

[Troy]

Hey, I have 15 pounds of pork belly in the fridge RIGHT NOW ready to get turned into bacon.

How about I write up each step with pics and everything?

[fedex]

Hey, I have 15 pounds of pork belly in the fridge RIGHT NOW ready to get turned into bacon.

How about I write up each step with pics and everything?

Hey @Troy , 13.5# in the fridge also.  Into the Ranch on Sunday.

[LightningBoldtz]

Smoked Cheese

Go to the store and bye some cheap block cheese, the milder the better in my opinion.

Need to make sure you are in the range of 40 to 60 outside, cheese melts at 90 F.

If you have a 26er, use it to keep the pellets away from the cheese, even though it is a cold smoke it does give off some heat.

RE to woods?  IDK, I have a HUGE bag of apple (buy bulk, 1 lb bags are around $4, $20 bags are about $20)

Smoke for 3 to 4 hours

And yes let it sit in a food saver bag sealed for about min of 3 weeks.  The first time is the hardest for waiting, once you do the first one, you find that you have a cycle of always aged cheeses.  And a wife that always asks "do we need THIS much Cheese?"  The answer to that is " yes just cycling through the inventory.   

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Thanks for everyone's feedback.  I think I am going to start off trying some cheese and maybe some nuts.

@BC - Depends on the time of the day here in AZ.  It gets cold (not by your standards) at night averaging about 47-50 overnight, so that might be the better time for me to do some cold smokes...or early morning.  During the day right now the temps are anywhere between 65-78, so that might make true cold smokes a little difficult.

@pbe gummi bear -  I've hot smoked pork belly before but haven't tried cold smoking so that is definitely on my list as is cheese.  I'm not a big salmon fan, but don't mind smoked (raw) salmon and my gf is the same way, so that is on my list as well.  And thanks for tagging @Troy and @LightningBoldtz.  I'm looking forward to Troy's bacon write up and LightningBoldtz gave me some great info.

@austin87 -  I think you are right about using the tube on its own without coals...I can always add a few hot coals if needed, but with temps here the heat from the tube might be enough.  I was thinking about getting some cheese done to send as a thank you, so I think I'll take that advice!

@Troy - I look forward to a write up about making bacon from pork belly.  I've done a belly before then sliced it and cooked it up for bacon and it was awesome, but I am sure cold smoking it will take it to another level!

@fedex - Let me know how your belly goes!

@LightningBoldtz -  Great info.  I will definitely use my 26er to get the cheese as far away from the heat as I can.  Will try to do some early morning smokes when the temp are lower.  I should be able to stack up cheeses behind some things in the fridge so the GF doesn't go nuts about a bunch of sealed up blocks that can't be touched for weeks!


One last question.  Does anyone use your tube for regular smokes?  I'm thinking that using the tube instead of chunks will help prevent temperature spikes when my snake hits a new chunk of wood.  I don't really have too much of a problem with that, but would be interested to see if I can get even more constant temps using the tube.

[LightningBoldtz]

I have a maze smoker but according to the web site for the tube smoker, yes a lot of people use the tube for lower end smokes where you want smoke but don't' want the temp to get too high.  Fish is a good example of this, not a complete cold smoke but still want enough heat to cook the fish 170/180.

[fedex]

@MikeRocksTheRed   someone here not long ago posted something along the lines of using the Ash catcher bucket on an OTG for the charcoal and wood. I just can't find that thread cuz I'd like to try it for cheese..

[Troy]

@MikeRocksTheRed   someone here not long ago posted something along the lines of using the Ash catcher bucket on an OTG for the charcoal and wood. I just can't find that thread cuz I'd like to try it for cheese..

Please don't.
It's tacky, inefficient,  and messy

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[pbe gummi bear]

$20 bags are about $20

I know what you meant but this still made me lol.

[bigmikey]

One last question.  Does anyone use your tube for regular smokes?  I'm thinking that using the tube instead of chunks will help prevent temperature spikes when my snake hits a new chunk of wood.  I don't really have too much of a problem with that, but would be interested to see if I can get even more constant temps using the tube.

I use the tube sometimes in my pellet smoker to add more smoke, but definitely prefer the chunks on the kettle.