Cold smoking is the process of applying smoke flavor to foods without cooking them. Depending on who you ask, cold smoking is said to occur at temperatures in the range of 80-100°F, but certainly no higher than 120°F. In reality, with the use of the SmokePistol or the GrillKicker, you can cold smoke and should cold smoke food at temperatures as low as 40°F. This low cold smoking temperature is very important for food safety purposes and is ideal for cold smoking sausage and fish. It is also a very easy thing to set up using the SmokePistol or GrillKicker and nothing more than a cardboard box.
     Examples of cold-smoked foods include bacon, sausages, country ham, fish, and cheese. Cold smoking doesn’t cook or substantially cure the food or meat that you are smoking and therefore cold smoked meats are usually brined or salted before they are cold smoked. Brining or salting the meat ensures that bacteria will not develop while meat is being cold smoked.
     The brining process also helps with the distinctive flavor of the cold smoked food. Bacon, lox, country ham and beef jerky are all cold smoked foods that are brined in advance. Even though the brining helps prevent bacterial growth and food spoilage, it is still a good idea to keep meat as cold as possible while cold smoking. This makes the use of a cooler or refrigerator a good idea when cold smoking because they are insulated and can keep the meat or other food cold while it is exposed to the flavored wood smoke.
     Cold smoking food is very easy with the right equipment. You just need a container to hold the food in the smoky environment, racks to support the food inside the container and a source of cold wood smoke like the SmokePistol® or the GrillKicker™.

The picture above shows cold smoking cheese with cookie cooling racks and a GrillKicker.