Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Saw some pork sausage and pork belly just hanging out today. Temps about 74 degrees. Hung high enough off the ground where the dogs couldn't reach it. Not too many flies this time of year. Should be ready in time for the big Chinese New Years celebration.

I think I am getting the cold part of this cold smoking down.

This is after 45 minutes with the eggs.

Originally Posted by 32t

I think I am getting the cold part of this cold smoking down.

This is after 45 minutes with the eggs.

So are the eggs put in in shell, OR cooked, peeled and then smoked. I've read about doing it both ways.

These were boiled and peeled and then smoked.

1 hour to 1hr15min . I have been tending to smoke things to long so I am giving a shorter time a try.

When in the shell it worked but the smoke stayed in the shell and I don't care to eat egg shells!

The next time I cold smoke some cheese, I'll give the eggs a go just for shites and giggles.

Benz cures his own pork belly's and has someone smoke them for him. His bacon is so much better than store bought. #1 he dry brines it so there not any extra water. It's also so much more 'smokey' tasting.

While what I've found locally wouldn't be cost effective, I did decide to play a bit. I bought a chunk of fresh belly that was almost 2#'s and used the cure I use for salmon. I applied a heavy coat then let it cure for a week, turn it every day. After the seven days, I rinsed it well and soaked it in water for 1/2 an hour, then patted it dry and put it on a rack in a container over night in my frost free frig. Note: my FF frig really sucks the moisture out, in fact I try not to store anything very long in it.

Anyway, I used my new 'Smoke Tube' and cold smoked the belly for about 8 hours, then used my regular method and used one small pan of chips and then slowly brought it up to 155 degs internal temp.

I'm going to have Breakfast for Supper and see how it tastes.

I tried a different rub for making bacon. This one uses the weight of the belly then percentages to establish how much salt, sugar and sodium nitrite.

Supposedly unlike just heaping the mixture on, it's only enough and it won't get too salty.

I used the smoke tube to cold smoke it. I ended up with about 8 hours of smoke, of course it warmed up but I was able to keep the internal temp of my smoker at 85 degs F and below.

I fried a couple of slices up and I liked it. I'll be giving some to my kids and my buddy Ski to try for their evaluation.





I bought a slicer from Cabelas and the jury is still out on how I like it. I did find it sliced the slab much better after putting it in the freezer to firm up a bit, I also found that running the slab with the meat side up, then flipping to and run with the fat side up and back and forth worked pretty well.

With that said, it's pretty much a Toy and definitely Not a Work Horse

Pinked up very nicely, or nitrately there Roy!
Looks delicious.

I gave my oldest daughter enough slices for them to have breakfast. Here's what I got in my email this morning--

All 4 of us really enjoyed this bacon. Great Smokey taste and not so salty!! We have it a 9.5 out of 10.

I'm pleased that they liked it.

I bought a pork belly today that was frozen.

Certainly not instant gratification.

But I got some olive oil to play with. Put it back into the jar after about 2.5 hours and will let it sit a few days to see if it was worth it............