Smoked Cheese using 6" pellet tube


 
Chris Allingham

Chris Allingham

Administrator
Staff member
One of my fellow barbecue judges Todd Yates from Sacramento says he watches all my videos and suggested I make a video on smoked cheese. I haven't made smoked cheese since 2000, so I figured Todd was right and I should take another swing at it.

Per his suggestion, I picked up a 6" smoker tube, stuffed it with applewood pellets, and smoked a variety of cheeses for two hours starting at 5:30 am today. Silly me, I decided to smoke cheese in June...during a California heat wave. What was I thinking? I should be doing this in November! But I caught a break, we had a cooldown between heat events, it was 49°F early this morning, and with that and some ice and rock salt in the water pan I was able to keep the WSM between 50-70° the whole time.

Air-dried in the fridge for a couple of hours until all sides were dry. Now vacuum sealed and resting in the fridge for 30 days so the smoke can mellow. I hope. :D

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What is this now, Day 2?

Ice in the freezer smells like smoke. Mrs. TVWB has been a good sport so far, but we'll have to see how long her patience lasts.

Makes me wish I had a beer fridge in the garage where I could put this stuff.
 
Can you freeze cheese?

I'll have to try and smoke cheese one day although I do not have a vacuum sealer.
 
Rusty James said:
Can you freeze cheese?
Click to expand...

Many cheeses can be frozen successfully. Cook's Illustrated tested freezing extra sharp cheddar, Brie, fresh goat cheese, and Pecorino Romano cheeses. Each was wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and placed into freezer ziploc bags. After 6 weeks in the freezer, they defrosted in the refrigerator. According to Cook's, all samples were basically the same as unfrozen control samples. Avoiding freezer burn is key.

Cook's suggests 2 months in the freezer as a maximum, but I suppose YMMV. And they say vacuum packing is a good alternative to the plastic wrap/ziploc approach.
 
Rusty James said:
Can you freeze cheese?

I'll have to try and smoke cheese one day although I do not have a vacuum sealer.
Click to expand...

Freezing would change the texture, the cheddars would become crumbly (not a bad thing). The only cheese I don't notice changing when frozen is Blue, I like to buy a wheel of blue cheese, portion, & freeze individual wedges.

Smoke some cheese anyway! Some people say you have to age it or leave it sealed for a week or month(s), and I've done that, but I generally leave one in just a ziplock bag and tear into it from the start, working my way through to the sealed ones as time (as much as ~2 months, maybe) progresses.

Smoked cheese makes a great gift, I've been planning on making a lot to give to friends/neighbors, but I haven't given more than ~10 blocks away.

I've even smoked a cheese log! The pic links aren't good but the description is there:
https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?72691-Cold-smoked-cheese-log
 
Don't let not having a foodsaver stop you. You can place the cheese in a ziplock bag in the fridge & have 1-2 paper towels folded up in the bag to absorb the moisture - just change that every 3-5 days with fresh & you won't get the dreaded moisture buildup in the bags.
 
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