Cold Smoking Cheese on the Mini-Joe Gold


 

Robert McGee

TVWBB Gold Member
Well, the weather temporarily let up a bit and I jumped on the opportunity to try out my newly acquired A-MAZ-EN Tube Smoke Generator. It snowed a bit last night but the temps were up into the forties today. Near perfect for my task at hand.

In anticipation of this, my wife and I had made a trip to Jungle Jims (a legendary, locally owned Mega Super Market) that carries upwards of 1500 different varieties of cheese. I had to restrain my self as there are only two of us at home (the kids are grown and out of the house). It is easy to buy too much, then have it eventually go bad before it is eaten.

Jungle Jims has an advantage over Costco in this respect, they offer a number of cheeses in relatively small packages. For this test, it was practical to use small packages.

I ended up getting several varieties of cheddar including our favorite, "Kerry Gold, Dubliner" white cheddar, along with Gouda, and Brie, etc..

My wife suggested cutting a slice from each, and labeling them on a plate for the refrigerator to use after the smoked cheese aged for a direct comparison. Cut from the same chunk of cheese it would be a valid test.



She also came up with the idea of drawing a rough diagram so that we wouldn't make a mistake as to which cheese was which after it was smoked. I thought both were excellent suggestions.



I had ordered a pound bag of Apple pellets for the initial smoke. If we like the Apple pellets we'll see what might be available locally (or re-order). The smoke generator is just a simple, stainless steel tube with LOTS of holes and a cap on each end. One cap has a large hole in it to fill the tube and light the pellets. I filled the generator within and inch of the top (as per the instructions). That was supposed to give me two hours of smoke. It did. I arbitrarily picked a two hour time frame as a first time. You can put fewer pellets in to reduce the time, or fill it again and run some more smoke. I bought the smallest size (6") and am glad I did. It seems perfect for the Mini-Joe and I believe will work well with the 18.5 should I need more cheese capacity.

I lit the generator, let it burn for ten minutes, by the clock, then blew it out. While burning, it hardly generated any smoke at all. That kind of bothered me, but when I blew it out, the smoke was PLENTY (the flame was pretty much consuming the smoke). It takes ten minutes for things to get started well, as per instructions.



Here is the cheese just before going on the smoker. You will note that I filled the grate and just carried it through the house on the grate.

 
Last edited:
Smoking cheese, part II:

Here is the smoker full of smoke just before I put the cheese on:



Here is the cheese, two hours later - it shows just a slight bit of difference in coloring (as I anticipated) but it DOES carry a bit of smoke with it.



We let it sit on the counter for an hour or so. It "sweated" a bit (as anticipated) so it was allowed to dissipate. My wife put each piece in a Food Saver bag (vacuum sealed) without touching the cheese with her hands. We didn't want to introduce mold or disturb the smoke.

The hardest thing to do is to wait for the next two weeks waiting for the cheese to mature. You do NOT want to try to eat the cheese fresh from the smoker (acrid tastes are predicted).

I will keep the Forum informed of the "Taste Tests" in a couple of weeks.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
P.S. I put a boiled egg on the food grate to try that with smoke also. rdm
 
Please keep me up to date on your cheese experiment as I am going to do the same thing here shortly along with a Turkey breast. I got the A-maze-n tray pellet smoker yesterday in the mail and will wait until the temp drops into the thirties! :cool:
 
Clint;
I won't be aging the egg as long but will let it sit in the refrigerator (in a zip lock bag) for three days before tasting (rotten eggs are NOT on my "to do" list:rolleyes:"...)

Good question, tho'.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
UPDATE!

We split the smoked egg (one half for each of us) and did a serious taste test.

Score:
I liked it. I believe that it added a nice degree of additional flavor.

My wife did NOT like it. She complained of an aftertaste that she didn't care for.

I suggest for the rest of you, that you might want to try it. Keep in mind, that eggs won't last forever and smoking does little to change that. When smoking eggs, you'll have to think ahead a bit as they need a bit of time after smoking, too (we let this one rest three days) before eating. It'll be most practical to do eggs when you do something else as they will have to be consumed within a reasonable time frame (just like regular boiled eggs)...

Keep safe, folks.

Dale53
 
I couldn't wait any longer. It has been nine days since I smoked the cheese. We only opened two packages - the Hennings Two Toned Cheddar and the Saint Rocco Brie.

Hennings: You wouldn't believe the improvement over the "as issued". This is an excellent cheddar as is but it reaches a MUCH higher level of flavor after smoking. Really excellent by epicurean standards, no less.

Brie: This was definitely improved but I will probably elect to bake the next brie (maybe on a plank).

My wife was really impressed with the smoked cheese. She was as enthusiastic as I was after a bite (or two or three, or-r-r...).

I can recommend the A-MAZ-EN tube smoker without reservation. It is extremely easy to use, produces great smoke, and has almost no clean up involved. After burning, there is hardly anything left to clean up. This is a really good piece of gear. I bought the 6" since I'll be doing all of my cold smoking on the Mini-Joe. The advantage of the longer ones or the tray type is that they burn longer if you need more smoke without refilling and starting it over. The disadvantage of the bigger ones is that they are bigger:rolleyes:

Measure your smoker, see the A-MAZ-EN web site and make your own decision.

Me? I'll be doing lots of cold smokin' cheese in the weeks and months to come. If my experience mirrors others, after my vacuum packed cheese spends a couple of weeks in a refrigerator, I'll freeze the bulk of it. That way I can use the cold weather and do most of my cold smoking in, wait for it, THE WINTER;)..
I just hope that the freezer doesn't damage the texture, etc. Using the Food Saver, I'm hoping that the admonitions against freezing cheese won't apply.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Last edited:
Sheila;
Not only is the end product tasty, doing it this way is, without a doubt, the easiest smoking I have done. It's, frankly, "A Piece of Cake"...

Be sure and let us know (with pictures, of course:rolleyes:) how it works for you!

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Well, we broke open the Kerry Gold Dubliner cheese. This is a white, aged cheddar that is our favorite cheese right out of the box. Smoking added a wonderful dimension (and my wife agreed, too:)).

I picked up a 20 lb. bag of pure Applewood pellets at the local Traeger dealer for a fraction of the cost of the original pellets. I should be good for the foreseeable future. In fact, I'll be sharing it with my son (he hasn't tasted the cheese yet, but he WILL like it, I am sure. We'll see them in the spring.

Let's hear it from others who are smoking cheese...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Looks awesome, when I did mine i just vac sealed it right away, didnt think about the sweating, but thought more on retaining any oils. You are right, very hard not to open it.
 
Great post Robert. Thanks for the step by step. I'm going to give this a try over the winter.
 
Thanks for the depth of detail, Robert. Can you comment on the quality and texture of cheeses that were frozen and vacuum sealed? Thanks.
 
BFletcher;
We noticed no loss of quality after vacuum packing and freezing. Smoking cheese is a VERY good process.

However, keep in mind that each of us is different. I would suggest that doing a modest amount, at first, to see if it appeals to you. We like it and will be doing more. Now, is a good time of the year for smoking cheese. When the weather is hot is NOT the time to do it. After all, you do NOT want to melt the cheese.

FWIW,
Keep on smokin’,
Dale53:wsm:
 
Robert - thanks for the update. FYI, did you & your wife see that the Jungle is having a cheese fest this weekend?
 
A couple months ago I smoked some medium cheddar, some Gouda, and some Swiss. I used apple wood sitting on top of three or four lit briquettes. Everyone who has tasted it has commented on how good it is. Even my nephew who's an incredibly picky eater likes the smoked cheddar. Personally, I think the Gouda picks up more character than the others since it's so mild to begin with and the smoke is much more prominent. Not that I'm letting everyone else eat all the cheddar and Swiss.

I'm curious what other cheeses people find work well with smoke.
 

 

Back
Top