Saw a cold smoke set up for a different kind of cooker (BGE) that involved a paint used as a smoking chamber and connected to the egg with a dryer hose. Decided I could do better with my Performer.
Took a metal coffee can to use as my smoke chamber. Used a beer opener (Church Key if you are from the south) to punch as many holes along the side at the very bottom of the can as possible. Then added long self-tapping screws along the side about 1/3 of the way up the can to hold a charcoal screen on the inside of the can. Measuered and cut a piece of stainless expanded metal (it is very thin and works much better) that was left over from my Smokey Joe mini-WSM project that would just fit inside the coffee can as a charcoal grate. Put three medium sized pieces of lump charcoal (felt that I needed the lower ash production of lump for this) on the side burner of my wife's gas grill (don't tell her I did this!) to get them started. Then used tongs to put the charcoal into the coffee can, added 3 chuncks of apple wood and put the whole contraption into the ash catcher on my Performer. Opened all the air vents completely. Put two drip pans on the charcoal grate in the Performer and filled them with ice to keep the internal temp as low as possible. Put the remaining part of the stainless expanded metal on top of the cooking grate in the Performer, added the cheese, and closed the lid. An hour later I removed the lid and took out the cheese (colby and white cheddar). It was AWESOME! So I decided to smoke the other half of the colby and cheddar (I used only half in case this didn't work)and added a good strong blue cheese. When I took off the ash catcher the lump charcoal was still burning and well over half was left. Added more apple chunks and put it all back together for another hour. Took this batch off and it was equally good.
Give this a try and you will NEVER buy smoked cheese from the grocery store again. Can't wait to try some other cheeses and different woods as well.
I will post photos later when I can figure out how to upload them!
Took a metal coffee can to use as my smoke chamber. Used a beer opener (Church Key if you are from the south) to punch as many holes along the side at the very bottom of the can as possible. Then added long self-tapping screws along the side about 1/3 of the way up the can to hold a charcoal screen on the inside of the can. Measuered and cut a piece of stainless expanded metal (it is very thin and works much better) that was left over from my Smokey Joe mini-WSM project that would just fit inside the coffee can as a charcoal grate. Put three medium sized pieces of lump charcoal (felt that I needed the lower ash production of lump for this) on the side burner of my wife's gas grill (don't tell her I did this!) to get them started. Then used tongs to put the charcoal into the coffee can, added 3 chuncks of apple wood and put the whole contraption into the ash catcher on my Performer. Opened all the air vents completely. Put two drip pans on the charcoal grate in the Performer and filled them with ice to keep the internal temp as low as possible. Put the remaining part of the stainless expanded metal on top of the cooking grate in the Performer, added the cheese, and closed the lid. An hour later I removed the lid and took out the cheese (colby and white cheddar). It was AWESOME! So I decided to smoke the other half of the colby and cheddar (I used only half in case this didn't work)and added a good strong blue cheese. When I took off the ash catcher the lump charcoal was still burning and well over half was left. Added more apple chunks and put it all back together for another hour. Took this batch off and it was equally good.
Give this a try and you will NEVER buy smoked cheese from the grocery store again. Can't wait to try some other cheeses and different woods as well.
I will post photos later when I can figure out how to upload them!