From novices to BBQ experts, you may have heard at one point or another someone mention a little bit about smoking meats and other foods. What some of them don’t tell is that there are 2 types of smoking. Cold Smoking is the process of adding wood smoke flavor to food without exposing it to heat, while maintaining temperatures below 100º F. Hot Smoking is a method of enhancing your food with wood smoke flavor, while cooking it to a safe internal temperature.

For cold smoking, it is ideal to do this when the temperatures outside are cooler. There are a wide variety of foods to cold smoke: salt, peppercorns, spices, garlic, paprika, nuts, cheese, vegetables, fish and even fruit. Cold smoking items such as fish will require a brine. (Brining is a solution of salt and water used to preserve food). If cold smoking bacon or ham, these will require a cure. (Cure is a process of preserving meat and fish by using nitrates and salt). I will provide you with both the brine and cure recipes below.

Typical cold smoke times range from 2 to 12 hours (this goes the same for hot smoking as well). The amount of time you can cold smoke depends on the food that is being smoked. Foods like cheese, spices and vegetables typically require less smoke time. Your meats like bacon and ham, will be smoked for a longer period of time.

Another use for cold smoking is adding wood smoke flavor to your steaks, hamburgers or chicken before cooking them on your grill. Place whatever meat or vegetable you are going to smoke in your grill or caja china (YES YOU CAN SMOKE IN YOUR CAJA CHINA TOO), light your pellet smoker and cold smoke the meat for an hour or two before firing up your grill for cooking.

Hot smoking is smoking low and slow. This means that you are smoking at a lower cooking temperature for a longer period of time, usually between 175 degrees to 275 degrees. The meat tenderizes this way and reduces any shrinkage that typically tends to happen when you are cooking.

With all this information at hand, you are probably asking yourself how and what I need to do to get this started. Here is your solution, pellet smokers! A-Maze-N Products, offers not only countless of flavored pellets, they also offer a variety of smokers as well. From tube smokers to tray smokers, they have everything you need.

BRINE

Ingredients

2 Gallons of Cold Water

1 cup Kosher Salt

1 cup Brown Sugar

Directions

Pour Cold Water into a plastic or stainless container. Mix ¾ cup of the Kosher Salt and 1 cup Sugar thoroughly in the water. Place a raw egg into the brine. Add remaining salt until raw egg floats to the surface. Brine overnight.

Optional:

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 Tbsp Cajun spice (Louisiana Cajun seasoning) Sliced lemons or oranges

BACON CURE

Ingredients

12 lbs. pork shoulder or pork bellies (skin removed)

4 oz Country Brown Cure

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp allspice (optional ginger)

2 Tbsp cracked black pepper (CBP)

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp Kosher or sea salt (optional 2–3 Tbsp salt)

Directions

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl. If brown sugar has clumps, break them up. Spread dry cure mix liberally on all exposed meat. Place in Ziploc bag and in fridge for 7–10 days and turn daily.

The meat will “sweat” as moisture is drawn out. This will mix with the dry cure and spices to form a brine solution. If the meat does not sweat, add 1–2 oz. of water to each bag. We add 1–2 oz. of water up front.

Remove from the fridge after 7–10 days and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Test fry. If salt is too strong, soak for an hour in cold water.

Towel dry and place in fridge overnight, to form pellicle. You can speed up this process by placing slabs in front of a fan, or hang inside smoker for approximately 1 hour without smoke.

You can cold smoke Buckboard Bacon for 12 hours at temps below 100°, using Apple pellets. You can also smoke bacon at 140°–160°, to an internal temp of 120°. Again, 8–12 hours of good clean smoke is necessary. The color should be almost mahogany red as it nears completion.

Ends and pieces will have a stronger smoke flavor, and can be used for beans or other foods where bacon is used.

Optional:

Before the pellicle is formed, sprinkle cracked black pepper (CBP) liberally on one side. Spread honey or maple syrup on one side, with or without CBP. Inject slabs with a diluted mixture of maple syrup and water.

Brine and recipe courtesy of our friend Todd Johnson and the folks at A-Maze-N Products.