Wade

Bacon is not all the same and it depends on how it is cured. For example the storage time for bacon is very different for immersion / pumped cured bacon as it is for dry cured bacon. Although immersion/pumped cured bacon increases the salt content of the meat and adds the nitrite it also increases water content as well - by up to 10-12%. This gives it a chilled unsliced shelf life of only a week. Dry curing bacon on the other hand will slightly reduce the water content of the bacon giving it a chilled unsliced shelf life of about 6 weeks. The curing process will also have an effect on the safety of the smoking temperature as the higher the moisture content the more likely bacteria will grow. It is a balance though as the salt in the cure (regardless of the curing method) will have an inhibitory effect on bacterial growth. Assuming you are using Nitrite in your cure then it is preferable to smoke your bacon at between 12-20 C. This is often easier to achieve overnight in the summer. It does not have to be done all at once either. If you are smoking for 24 hours or more, split the time down to 3 x 8 hour overnight smokes, returning it to the fridge during the day. This also helps the penetration of the smoke through the bacon. If you do not use Nitrite you should keep the bacon chilled, as you would fresh meat. The only reason I can think of for smoking at higher temperatures is to reduce water content. For example, when producing traditional smoked salmon this is often done at around 24-26 C. When curing salmon this way you are aiming to reduce the weight of the fish by about 18% through water loss.

Welcome to the forum Steve. What did you smoke? Any photos?

Thanks Steve - great advice

Yes, the Weber 57 is a great all rounder as you say. You can do some limited cold smoking in it too but heat dissipation can be a problem even with the coolest running cold smoke generators. There are some innovative external "mail box mods" though that allow the smoke to cool before it enters the smoker. Placing a tray of ice inside the Weber can also help.

I am using my Smoke in another smoker at the moment so I will check later today and let you know. I usually just run the wires between the section joints.

There you go . Please be the first to post in there....

I am in Woodchurch. Where are you. I was beginning to think I was a lone wolf in the wilderness down here . I have eaten at Que's once and it was OK. Quite commercial versions of BBQ as you would expect but tasty. They have part of the restaurant as a wine bar too which is where most of their trade comes from I think

I use an FEC-120 from Cookshack and apart from a few teething problems when they moved to the multi-layer 240 v board it has worked flawlessly. The BBQ restaurant Que's in Ashford near me also run on a couple of them too. Good capacity and very easy to use.

Hi Richard and welcome to the forum. CWS is a great resource for instant news and views. We have started the forum to provide a longer term reference resource - which is often difficult to achieve using the Facebook format. We look forward to your contributions

Hi Stu - Welcome to the forum Hopefully this will be a good companion site to CWS. We have been working with Marcus over the last few months to try to get the balance right

Hi Indaba - welcome to the forum. We cannot guarantee that we will not encourage you to spend more money on what is a very addictive hobby . Hopefully though, members here will be able to help you spend it more wisely and you will also be able to help guide others as well

Hi MadCow and welcome to the forum. Lol - There are a few of us who a little longer in the tooth than we care to admit Great to have you on board. We are wanting to encourage both experienced BBQers and also those just starting out on their adventure to ask questions and provide advice and support. We are looking to help the BBQ / Smoking community in the UK to further expand. Where in the UK are you?

Hi Speedy Yellow. Welcome to the forum. For general chat go to Community - Chewing the Fat Cheers, Wade

Hi Martin - Welcome to the forum. Which smoker did you buy and what are you hoping to smoke first?

It will be the old team back together again

I have booked too - It is over a year to wait though !!!

Another good year for chilies this year - both in the greenhouse and outside Hungarian Hot Wax Ancho (Poblano) Cayenne - some are almost 12" long

Thanks Scott. I am not sure what happened but I have added them back

A great little BBQ Steve. That last photo makes it look like it would belong in Battlestar Galactica

A good article by John Smith on how to use a digital thermometer. http://bestsmokersinfo.com/use-digital-meat-thermometer/

Hi James and welcome . It was great to meet you at the smoking weekend.

Brogdale Apple Festival will be held on the 14th and 15th October this year. In addition to the local produce (including beer and cider) Woodchurch Smokery will be holding BBQ cookery demonstrations throughout the weekend. They will also be giving away BBQ food samples at their stand. Brogdale Festivals 2017