Tasty Cheese Ashtray


 
R

Rich

New member
Fellow smokers...
I'm attempting some cold smoking of cheese as an appetizer for Thanksgiving. I have the technical process down (proper temperature, smoke production) in my WB, but the end product is horrible, because the smell and taste is of ashtray. I used Cherry for the first batch, Apple for the second. Smoked both small mozz balls (around 1" diameter) and a chunk of Provolone. The first batch may have been in too long, so I then did a 15 min and 30 min timed smoke for the second. The problem is that the end product just smells and tastes bad... like ashtray.

My question is the following... is the key to good tasting cold smoked cheese the mellowing period after the smoking? Should you wait a week or two before eating and smelling the cheese (no pun intended)? The mellowing/waiting period after smoking isn't mentioned that often, so your advice would be welcome. The last thing I want to bring to Thanksgiving din-dins is Lucky Strike flavored Cheddar.

Thanks
 
Welcome Rich. Since the smoking of cheese is at such a low temp, I would suggest letting the wood, to really get burning, before adding the cheese. Remeber you don't need to see smoke to get smoke flavor.
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If you light your charcoal in a chimney, put one chunk of smoke wood in with the few coals you are lighting to smoke the cheese. How much wood are you using? I would only use one small piece to smoke cheese or nuts. HTH
 
I have used four or five pieces of charc briqs and one 3" cubed piece of wood, placed on top of the coals. I learned to use a torch to light the charcs (instead of chimney), then place the wood on top, and then hit the wood with some torch flame until it has caught.

In my second batch, I have added the cheese pretty much right after I got the smoke rolling from the charc/wood.

So, perhaps I should wait awhile after getting the smoke source going? Do you recommend to wait until the smoke subsides or gets much lighter?
 
Rich,

I hate sending members to other websites but there's a lot of info here that just came up in the last week. Old Dave is a master at this on several different types of smokers. This link is in their recent archives so you can't ask any further questions on it but you can start a new thread if you like.



Bill
 
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