What Does Cold Smoked Mean? (Sausage, Bacon, Cheese Yum!)

The meaning of cold smoked has really changed in our modern commercial times, with a focus on flavor – hey that’s a good thing I think.

Cold smoking is an ancient form of preservation and nowadays a way of flavoring instead of preservation – since we now have modern refrigeration to take care of our foods.

Cold Smoked experimentation seems to be happening everywhere using lots of different vegetables and dairy foods. The first time I cold smoked cream, it was quite the revelation. 

But the topic has developed and expanded across so many different cultures. Traditionally the European cold smoking in Central and Eastern Europe is very strong and has been around for thousands of years.

The actual equipment you need is pretty minimalist, the environment is something that most can cater for quite easily at home too. Cold smoked meat has got a bit more of a process. Vegetables and dairy are super straightforward and can be done in a box (cardboard), old fridge or just on a BBQ gas grill.

What Does Cold Smoking Mean? Cold Smoking is preserving and flavoring food. Achieved through air flow, and a temperature below 30° C/86°F. Humidity is also important for cold smoking meat. If meat is being cold smoked it needs to be fully salt cured prior to cold smoking.

You can really experiment with different foods and meats both farmed and wild like I have at home. The amazing world of cold smoking has led me to try things like wild duck, turkey, venison, wild boar, chicken, and many different vegetables. I also had a crack at dairy, cold smoking cream for a potato gratin (came out fantastic!).

Cold Smoking – Equipment & Environment Needed

My favorite setup is a pellet tube smoker, you just get one end going and it can burn for 4-5 hours. It smolders away consistently with airflow coming through the perforated metal tube.

Another method is smoke generators, which give you some control over the smoke with a variable pump.

If you interested in learning more about cold smoking, check out a beginners guide I wrote here, with some easy starter projects.

Equipment for Cold Smoking

I did a lot of ‘fast’ hot smoking (cooking and smoking at the same time), especially for fish I caught in the river or ocean. Then I got into cold smoking and dry cured meats.

It’s really simple what equipment you can use for cold smoking. When I first learned about cold smoking from a traditional Dutch butcher a few decades ago, he just had a large metal double doors tank, when the conditions suited at night or in winter. He would start the smoldering pile of untreated furniture wood offcuts and have the smallgoods & salumi hanging at the top of the large metal smoking chamber.

The first smoker I got was a smoke generator, which basically burns a little bit in a vertical metal tube, it has a variable control pump which pushes/draws the smoke, I think it’s called the ‘venturi’ effect. I just attached this to a basic charcoal kettle grill, gas grill or any other enclosed area I want.

A simple pellet tube can be used also – but you don’t have control over the amount of smokd with the variable air pump.

With a pellet tube, you fill the perforated tube, then use a butane torch or creme brulee torch to get it going (I even used a camp cooker or gas burner on the BBQ to get it lit). Once lit, you just leave it for 6-8 minutes generally and blow it out. It will provide 4+ hrs with a 12-inch tube.

You can also put the pellet tube on your hooded gas grill BBQ or kettle grill to add or boost the smoke levels. The options really are endless, I know a friend, who used a large cardboard box to do some cold smoking with a pellet tube.

Some low and slow smokers (hot smoking), also can have cold smoke generators attached – these generally just burn a small amount on the side of the main device – if you want an electric based consistent cold smoke. Masterbuilt Electric/Gas smokers and a few others have these attachments.

Environment for Cold Smoking

You have to remember cold smoking is really just a form of drying with cold smoke that is being drawn through at less than 30°C/86°F. So 3 things are needed:

• air flow
• temperature
• humidity

Airflow is something you want generally push through the cold smoking area, since this is going to help the drying out, getting too much cold smoke can also make the food bitter.

TIP Less is more when it comes to cold smoking

15-25°C/59-77°F is what I generally target for most cold smoking projects, my preference is to just wait for cool nights and let it burn out.

Humidity is something which you can get roughly right, most advise and books I have read lean toward 60-80% humidity, so dewy nights – if you get them can suit. I sometimes add a bowl of ice inside the cold smoking chamber to increase the humidity level, if the humidity is a bit high.

Raining isn’t ideal since humidity is 100%, but if just doing cheese or vegetable it can work fine (for dairy or vegetables – you are just flavoring not really drying) – 30-60 mins is always enough I find. Beetroot and eggplant can produce some really interesting smoke flavors (apple wood is nice a light/sweet).

Easy Cold Smoking Starter Projects

The first go to, and dead easy thing is cheese. You can get a whole other complexity and nothing like that orange smoked cheese that is commerical produced.

I find generally lighter woods and under an hour cold smoking is plenty. As mentioned go for cheese, dairy (needs to be a bit cooler <15°C/59°F I prefer) or vegetables if you are just putting your cold smoking training wheels on.

Cold smoked goods benefit from a resting period in the fridge, it seems to intensify the flavor- bear that in mind to put it in the fridge overnight.

Cold Smoked bacon is a popular option, there are many different ways of making bacon. I have experimented with quite a few. Here is a post I wrote, its rather long and comprehensive – hopefully useful.