Hello all,
Not a prolific poster here, but a regular lurker.
Wanted to share my experience smoking some cheese a few weeks ago.
I had been reading up on and watching as many different YouTube videos on smoking cheese as I could find.
Knew I was not going to be going to the extent of building up an indirect smoker since this was really just intended to be a fun experiment.
With the plan formulated, I was just waiting on a combination of time and cold weather.
Plenty of cold weather tends to happen here in Utah, so New Year's weekend it was going to be.
I started off with just some ordinary and inexpensive cheese straight from the grocery store.
Here I show it cut into smaller blocks, hoping to get the smoke in a little easier. We have blocks of: 2lb Medium Cheddar, 2lb Colby Jack & 1lb Swiss.
Temps had already climbed out of single digits with the morning sun beginning to hit. Started the morning around 6 degrees, but this shows things warming right up.
The key to this game was going to be keeping the internal temps down while still generating smoke. I started off getting, count em, two coals going using the flames from the gas grill. Wasn't sure two coals would even fire up in the chimney, and this worked great.
Here is the coal snake with the two coals starting the chain burn with pecan chips spread along it's length. The hope was that I could keep the actual heat to a minimum while still keeping consistent smoke being produced.
Next step was to fill the water bowl with ice cubes to act as a buffer between the coals and the grates as well as just sort of act in general as a source of cool inside the smoker.
Things started out pretty cool and stayed that way for a while. (Note, I had not yet set up the two probes for the low temps I intended to monitor.)
Things were moving along nicely with good smoke being produced and internal temps staying down in the range I was looking for.
Here is the closest thing that I got of a shot of the finished product which went into the fridge, patted dry with a paper towel and sealed in a baggie with as much air removed as possible. I had heard it was best to let the smoke settle into the cheese for up to 4 weeks if possible. Wasn't sure how I was going to last that long....
Smoked for 2 hours 40 minutes and never let the internal temp get above 82 degrees. Only about half of the snake was used by that time, so it could have gone much longer with what I had set up.
Some general notes from the experiment:
- 85-87 degrees is probably about as high as you want to let things go or you are going to risk melting or at least deformation.
- Direct sunlight on the smoker really does heat it up, even when it's only ten degrees outside. (I ended up stacking some lawn chairs in front of the smoker to block the sun and that was enough to help.)
- The top grate definitely does get a little higher temp than the lower, especially with a pan of ice sitting right below the lower rack. (This could easily be remedied by adding ice to a casserole dish that would sit on the top rack, then a baking rack on top of the casserole dish with the cheese on top of that. I didn't need to do this, but I would guess this method could be done in the shade right up to 75-80 degree weather.)
- The cheese does in fact improve as it ages and the smoke penetrates in and mellows a bit. (The smoke taste of the cheese was just a little harsh, not all that bad, but not the best. Taste tests at weekly intervals seemed to me that you could probably get away with one week smoke aging and two was just fine, but it did continue to mellow into the 4th and 6th weeks.)
- The softer cheeses, Cheddar and Colby Jack, both seemed to take the smoke better than the Swiss did, even though the swiss really took a darker color. (I'm assuming this lesser penetration of the smoke is due to the Swiss being a harder cheese, but that's just a guess.)
It was a big hit with friends and neighbors that I was able to share with and the remaining pieces left after 6 weeks were still mold free. Those who tasted it were pretty evenly split on their favorite being either the cheddar or colby jack, with the exception of one true swiss lover.
Happy to answer questions on anything I might have glossed over.
Not a prolific poster here, but a regular lurker.
Wanted to share my experience smoking some cheese a few weeks ago.
I had been reading up on and watching as many different YouTube videos on smoking cheese as I could find.
Knew I was not going to be going to the extent of building up an indirect smoker since this was really just intended to be a fun experiment.
With the plan formulated, I was just waiting on a combination of time and cold weather.
Plenty of cold weather tends to happen here in Utah, so New Year's weekend it was going to be.
I started off with just some ordinary and inexpensive cheese straight from the grocery store.
Here I show it cut into smaller blocks, hoping to get the smoke in a little easier. We have blocks of: 2lb Medium Cheddar, 2lb Colby Jack & 1lb Swiss.
Temps had already climbed out of single digits with the morning sun beginning to hit. Started the morning around 6 degrees, but this shows things warming right up.
The key to this game was going to be keeping the internal temps down while still generating smoke. I started off getting, count em, two coals going using the flames from the gas grill. Wasn't sure two coals would even fire up in the chimney, and this worked great.
Here is the coal snake with the two coals starting the chain burn with pecan chips spread along it's length. The hope was that I could keep the actual heat to a minimum while still keeping consistent smoke being produced.
Next step was to fill the water bowl with ice cubes to act as a buffer between the coals and the grates as well as just sort of act in general as a source of cool inside the smoker.
Things started out pretty cool and stayed that way for a while. (Note, I had not yet set up the two probes for the low temps I intended to monitor.)
Things were moving along nicely with good smoke being produced and internal temps staying down in the range I was looking for.
Here is the closest thing that I got of a shot of the finished product which went into the fridge, patted dry with a paper towel and sealed in a baggie with as much air removed as possible. I had heard it was best to let the smoke settle into the cheese for up to 4 weeks if possible. Wasn't sure how I was going to last that long....
Smoked for 2 hours 40 minutes and never let the internal temp get above 82 degrees. Only about half of the snake was used by that time, so it could have gone much longer with what I had set up.
Some general notes from the experiment:
- 85-87 degrees is probably about as high as you want to let things go or you are going to risk melting or at least deformation.
- Direct sunlight on the smoker really does heat it up, even when it's only ten degrees outside. (I ended up stacking some lawn chairs in front of the smoker to block the sun and that was enough to help.)
- The top grate definitely does get a little higher temp than the lower, especially with a pan of ice sitting right below the lower rack. (This could easily be remedied by adding ice to a casserole dish that would sit on the top rack, then a baking rack on top of the casserole dish with the cheese on top of that. I didn't need to do this, but I would guess this method could be done in the shade right up to 75-80 degree weather.)
- The cheese does in fact improve as it ages and the smoke penetrates in and mellows a bit. (The smoke taste of the cheese was just a little harsh, not all that bad, but not the best. Taste tests at weekly intervals seemed to me that you could probably get away with one week smoke aging and two was just fine, but it did continue to mellow into the 4th and 6th weeks.)
- The softer cheeses, Cheddar and Colby Jack, both seemed to take the smoke better than the Swiss did, even though the swiss really took a darker color. (I'm assuming this lesser penetration of the smoke is due to the Swiss being a harder cheese, but that's just a guess.)
It was a big hit with friends and neighbors that I was able to share with and the remaining pieces left after 6 weeks were still mold free. Those who tasted it were pretty evenly split on their favorite being either the cheddar or colby jack, with the exception of one true swiss lover.
Happy to answer questions on anything I might have glossed over.
