Paul C

I choose to dry my slabs in a fridge prior to smoking but occasionally these remain wet, sometimes becoming wetter than when I put them in there post-curing (I pat them dry after lightly rinsing off as the liquid generated can feel a little slimy). I assume this is due to the sealed environment, it's almost certainly worse the more slabs I load up. I've considered suspending them in food grade buckets but I can't really see this being a whole lot better due to similar lack of circulation. Use of a chiller would allow me to continue making bacon through the warmer months and make a better use of my space, I'm thinking of a modified pantry fridge with a PC fan and couple of outflows. I could cover those up when using it for curing and open them for drying, modulating the temperature as required. Am I overcomplicating this?

Well I wasn't exactly swamped with replies, was I? Maybe nobody comes here any more.

I agree with JamesF, I'm sure it will be fine.

The microwaving of the dust tip is excellent, just don't overdo it. Allegedly it melts the Tupperware and ignites. Ask me how I know. 🙄

I've never seen that stuff before, thanks for that. You're right, even after only three uses the inside of the smoker is gumming up so maybe I should just peel the rope off and let nature do the rest.

Hi there Can you tell me which tape you used? I put 3mm fire rope on mine but it's really too thick so I'd like to use something else. Thanks

I think you mean https://botanicalheaven.co.uk/ Using the link with 'www' returns a 404 error message.

Don't do it!! I was cold smoking some bacon yesterday and ran late, ended up leaving it out overnight to finish. It rained this morning and when I got to it the matrix in the bottom was sitting in 1 1/2" of water. Looking at the design I think the rain runs down each section to the join where capillary action draws it inside. Won't not be a problem if you've a full-blown fire in the basket as the rain will turn to steam but I won't be leaving mine out to cold smoke again.

Whoop! Whoop! Thread resurrection alert! I'm using a (new) M4Y electric slicer which I suspect is sold under many other names on the usual websites, I paid just under £100. The problem I'm having seems to be a common one, it doesn't cut all the way through and stays joined at the tail. The block of uncut meat also sticks to the face of the blade and is either flipped out onto the worktop or loops 180 degrees and comes back at me. I've tried cutting at 3, 3 1/2 and 4. I've left the meat in the freezer until very firm too. I wondered if the blade was sharp* but proved it was after cleaning by slicing my thumb open. Where am I going wrong? * How do you sharpen a circular blade?

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I cleaned it out and reloaded. Also ran a strip of foil around the vertical mesh to stop it bridging and an hour or so in it seems to have worked, it's following the coil properly and therefore burning slower. I'll pop it in the fridge tomorrow and go looking for different dust for my next batch.

Ahaaaa! The thot plickens. It seems that the smoulder is making its way through the mesh. Either the mesh is too large or the dust too fine (and I lied by the way, I don't have a ProQ maze, no idea why I thought I do). Looks like I need different dust, a different maze or both. Thanks for the help markie.

I was really careful about that, made sure the metal was showing all the way round but I might have jogged it afterward I suppose. I'll also check the matrix for holes. Well, holes other than those in the mesh, and see if it might have burned through another way. Temperature has just dropped to 14 C here, I may as well put a flitch in with the smoke and see if I can get something out of it. No point wasting smoke!

Thanks Markie, it's a ProQ. Should I be tamping the dust down to make it more dense? Not sure that would slow it down by six hours though? I'm just about to try another burn, will see if my efforts thus far make any difference. Stand by...........................

Moved to 'Bacon' section.

I've a ProQ Frontier that I plan to use for cold smoking. I ran a trial burn of oak dust and it was gone in less than two hours, all vents and doors and doors were closed so clearly too much air is getting in. I have put 3mm fire door rope on the doors and in the joins between the base, two cylindrical sections and lid. I've not run it a second time yet but I also want to seal around the three inlets and the outlet. That'll be tricky I know but if successful it would give me full control over the airflow, I'll also have to drill out the rivets that hold these on and substitute nuts and bolts. Am I overthinking this? Has anyone else had a similar problem and if so what materials did you use (the 3mm rope is more like 5mm and too thick really).

Thanks smash, I'll take a look.

For convenience I've decided to replace my old faithful gas barbecue that I shipped back from Australia 12 years ago with another gas unit (I've just acquired a ProQ Frontier for hot and cold smoking) and have my eye on the 4-burner Genesis II. Being as tight as a Tel Aviv housewife on a budget I thought I'd wait for the autumn sales but here we are at the end of September and no sign of such a thing happening. Has the boom in barbecue and garden related stuff put an end to such things? Question 2 in the pub quiz, should I be looking at any other (gas) units other than Weber?