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[LowSlowJoe]

I noticed that the Last/first cook discussion got a bit side tracked... 

  Cold smoke...  IMHO should be done between about 33F and 55F , ideally I'd like to figure out how to do it right around 40 or 45F, with nice clean smoke...  I also personally don't think burning pellets, or even wood chips in a smoke tube, or maze type of thing will do what I want.  would really only do this with cured meats, because it's so hard to keep the temperature at or bellow 40F and not bellow freezing.   

  'Warm smoke'  -   This is what I call what I do...  and I can do it pretty well on my PG500, but not totally fool proof either.    Ideally, I'd like to have a constant, clean smoke, that doesn't get my pellet grill much above 150F, 160F is more or less my target..   I only do this type of thing with cured meats, because i am a little concerned ( not overly concerned though ) , about smoking things at or near the higher end of the 'Danger zone'...  I do sometimes make jerky that's not been cured at these temperatures... but lately , I tend to add cure into my jerky too.


  Ok, what got me started, was bacon...  You can make a good bacon product in a pellet grill at 180F, or maybe even a little higher...  but I think it's not quite ideal, it cooks the outside of the bacon a bit too much.  Even so, home made bacon smoked at 180F to 200F is still probably at least twice as good as most store bought bacon... 

   Anyone got words of wisdom about warm/cold smoking?     

   Anyone got questions about it?     ( I don't consider myself a true expert at any of it, but I think I know more than many do on the topic , I'd be more then happy to share what I've think I know. )

[Clonesmoker]

I did the cold smoking with the pellet tube and just wasn't real satisfied with the smoke on bacon. It seemed a bit much for me.  I do use the warm smoke method with pork loin when doing Canadian Bacon. 

[bregent]

I go back and forth between cold and warm smoking bacon. For warm smoke, I'll either use my Memphis -  which only goes as low as 180 -  or my GOSM vertical gas smoker. For cold smoke, I'll use either a tray with pellet dust, or a MES cold smoke attachment, run through a 8 foot corrugated steel dryer vent to my GOSM - that really cleans up the smoke.

[dk117]

I need to jump in here with a reminder that a 2009 Traeger Texas with an Ortech or similar controller and a cool (not freezing, but say 40 degrees ambient) morning can sit at 120 to 130 for hours without flameout.  I wouldn't recommend leaving the house, certainly keep an eye on it.   I have not heard of any other pit that will do this. 

I would classify that as warm smoking. 

Come on old Traeger guys, back me up here please 

DK

[LowSlowJoe]

One of the things that I intend to try, but haven't ever managed to find the time to do, is to run my little Davy Crockett by itself, at like 150F, or maybe 160F, whatever produced the best smoke... and then pipe the exhaust from that into another chamber ( maybe just a cardboard box, or wooden box )...     Since I live in Michigan, and it's generally somewhere close to freezing outside this time of year, I figure I can probably get the temperature in the second chamber down to maybe 60F or so ( would depend on exactly how cold it is outside ).   But right now, my little Davy Crockett isn't working... 

I've thought about pumping the output from my PG500 into such a external box too, but that's likely to be a bit trickier to do.

[dk117]

I've thought about pumping the output from my PG500 into such a external box too, but that's likely to be a bit trickier to do.

Isn't that what our old PH friend Shelly did for his amazing weekly lox?  This is one of those regrettable moments.  He had the entire setup and process in pictures.

DK

[sleebus.jones]

You can make a good bacon product in a pellet grill at 180F, or maybe even a little higher

Mmmmm, I wouldn't go that high.  From reading Stanley M's book, he says to go no higher than 170°F as you will start to render the fat and produce an inferior product.  I've stuck to that and the results I have have turned out really well.  With the cure on/in the bacon, there is no need to worry about your temps, that's what the cure is there for.  You are also laying down more nitric oxide on the surface, which performs the same task as the cure.  I would say that if you want good results, aim for 160° and avoid exceeding 170°.

Now that I've got the PG1000, I really need to do another slab of bacon.  The cold smoke drawer makes that easy!

[smokin soon]

I need to jump in here with a reminder that a 2009 Traeger Texas with an Ortech or similar controller and a cool (not freezing, but say 40 degrees ambient) morning can sit at 120 to 130 for hours without flameout.  I wouldn't recommend leaving the house, certainly keep an eye on it.   I have not heard of any other pit that will do this. 

I would classify that as warm smoking. 

Come on old Traeger guys, back me up here please 

DK

I agree. the Ortech is quite happy to cruise along at 140 -160. Never had any flameouts either.

[Bobitis]

It appears that I'm WAY out in left field on this...

I just smoked some egg rolls (from take out) on my Traeger Jr elite.

Ambient temp is 50ish deg. I let the Jr start up in smoke mode for 10 minutes, and put on the rolls. I never took it off of smoke mode.
At about the 15 minute mark, it hit 134 deg. The low was 99.

After settling in at 30 minutes, the swing was a low of 99, and a high of 120. The temps went back and forth slowly until I turned it off.

Cheaper is better?

[pmillen]

I've thought about pumping the output from my PG500 into such a external box too, but that's likely to be a bit trickier to do.

Isn't that what our old PH friend Shelly did for his amazing weekly lox?  This is one of those regrettable moments.  He had the entire setup and process in pictures.

DK

As I recall, Shelly ran his PG00 as low as he could, put a lot of ice in the pit and put the lox in the warming drawer (zone 5?).

Prior to acquiring the PG500, he piped smoke.

[Bar-B-Lew]

If I set my MAK on smoke temp setting, I can get the side chamber at 50-90 degrees depending on outside temp and not putting any ice in the chamber.

Question for you scientists.  Should I place ice on the top rack or bottom rack where the smoke comes in the chamber to get the most impact of cooling down the chamber?  I see two sides to this.  Top rack - cold drops.  Bottom rack - smoke gets cooled before it rises to the rest of the chamber.  I have not experimented with testing both on the same day with same relative outside temps.

[LowSlowJoe]

I would think that ice on the bottom where the smoke comes in would work best.

I can get my PG500 to run at 150F or so, if I really want in the winter... I do this, by forcing the controller to run at a single speed.  I set LHT and HHT both to 15..    The only problem with this... is that I'm at the will of the weather...  If it's really cold out, I might not even get up to 150F, it might barely reach 140F, or even lower if it was super cold out.  Also... depending on the pellets.  If I can't get up to 165F, then my bacon won't ever reach my desired internal temperature of 135F... ( which isn't really the end of the world, I mean I will cook the bacon later ).  I've never actually tried to use the warming drawer area on my PG500, I'm usually trying to smoke more food than would easily fit down there... so, it's never made much sense for me to monkey around in that area...

[pmillen]

I confused the PG500 LHt and HHt functions for a cook last August.  See.

For those not familiar with the Cookshack Fast Eddy PG500 and PG1000 controllers, the user-controlled LHt and HHt settings adjust the auger timing.  The LHt timing is the duration of pellets dropping into the fire pot when the pit is at or above the set temperature.  It’s the pilot light that keeps the fire burning.  The HHt setting controls the duration of pellet drop when the pit is below the set temperature.  Both settings reflect the number of seconds the auger cycles during each 15-second interval.  A setting of 20 means that the auger will deliver pellets to the fire for 2 seconds, wait 13 seconds, deliver for 2 seconds, wait 13 seconds…  A 110 setting results in an 11-second delivery and a four second wait before cycling again.

During the above referenced cook, I was mistakenly adjusting the wrong variable.  I was trying to raise the pit temperature by increasing the amount of pilot light pellets (LHt) rather than raising the amount dropped into the fire pot to increase the temperature (HHt).  Slaga diagnosed my mistake and made an interesting observation, if the LHt and HHt are the same, the auger will cycle the same no matter if the pit is above or below the set temperature.  In this situation, the pit’s set temperature doesn’t matter—the auger will run at the same pellet delivery and rest periods.

MysticRhythms suggested that manipulating the pellet delivery in this backward manner may provide a way to maintain low pit temperatures.  Great idea!

Based on those observations, there may be a way to cold smoke jerky and pork belly in zone four.

• Damp strips of fabric may simulate jerky and a folded damp towel may simulate pork belly
• Test various duplicate LHt/HHt settings and record the resulting pit temperatures
• 80/80 will probably result in a flame-out
• 150/150 will result in a constant pellet delivery and be a temperature that's extremely high
• 100/100 might be a good low starting point

 

[LowSlowJoe]

I think you got numbers wrong.

[LowSlowJoe]

15 is a low HHT setting,  my PG500 will typically run at 180F in the  summer...  I frequently run with LHT and HHT both dệt at 15 in winter and I can usually run at about 155 to 165F when it's around 40F outside.  If it gets down near 0F ambient,  I can't maintain 150F  at HHT = 15...  If I set hht to 20, it typically gets above 180F  even on days when it's 15F out.