jwtseng
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2013
- Location
- Walnut Creek, CA
Cowgirl was talking about smoked butter around here the other day, and I've seen a couple other threads recently about folks smoking cheese and the like. It got me thinking about the first time I attempted to smoke cheese myself. The idea sounded better than it ultimately turned out...way better. But now that the mess has long been cleaned up, it's one of those bbq experiences I can laugh about today. In fact, today's cook is dedicated to good intentions and gooey messes...
The kids wanted nachos, so I gave them some "grated-cheese" nachos...or "nacho cheese drip"...
We start out with an everyday cast iron skillet full of tortilla chips...yawn:bored::
And right beside it we build a little mountain of cheese...smoked gouda, fontina, pepper jack, and chipotle gouda...top it off with fresh jalepenos, fresno chiles, and green onions:
Get some maple sausage links smoking on the horizontal cook chamber...mini nekkid fatties!:
And on the vertical, here's how we're gonna play it (notice all the horizontal exhaust dampers are closed, forcing all drafting heat up through the vertical):
Cheese over Chips (never attempt in the reverse order):
And this is how it starts:
Ooey, gooey:
Mess:
And Voila! "Grated-cheese" nachos!
In a lot of ways, this captures the whole spirit of smoking cheese for me. I mean, ultimately the smoked cheese that I have made has by and large ended up on some amazing comfort food, like pizza or nachos. This was everything in one go. The nachos today ended up with such depth of flavor with the smoke and the crisped up tortillas and the lightly smoked cheese. Lest anyone be fooled, the cleanup definitely brought back many of the memories of my original cheese smoking mishap. The kids say that I should do this again in the near future. Me, I'm a bit less enthusiastic about it. But conceptually, it worked just about as well as I imagined. Next time, I would skip the smoked gouda and replace it with a gooier melting cheese. That is, assuming that there is a next time...
Kid-approved:
Thanks for checking this out! :thumb:
The kids wanted nachos, so I gave them some "grated-cheese" nachos...or "nacho cheese drip"...
We start out with an everyday cast iron skillet full of tortilla chips...yawn:bored::
And right beside it we build a little mountain of cheese...smoked gouda, fontina, pepper jack, and chipotle gouda...top it off with fresh jalepenos, fresno chiles, and green onions:
Get some maple sausage links smoking on the horizontal cook chamber...mini nekkid fatties!:
And on the vertical, here's how we're gonna play it (notice all the horizontal exhaust dampers are closed, forcing all drafting heat up through the vertical):
Cheese over Chips (never attempt in the reverse order):
And this is how it starts:
Ooey, gooey:
Mess:
And Voila! "Grated-cheese" nachos!
In a lot of ways, this captures the whole spirit of smoking cheese for me. I mean, ultimately the smoked cheese that I have made has by and large ended up on some amazing comfort food, like pizza or nachos. This was everything in one go. The nachos today ended up with such depth of flavor with the smoke and the crisped up tortillas and the lightly smoked cheese. Lest anyone be fooled, the cleanup definitely brought back many of the memories of my original cheese smoking mishap. The kids say that I should do this again in the near future. Me, I'm a bit less enthusiastic about it. But conceptually, it worked just about as well as I imagined. Next time, I would skip the smoked gouda and replace it with a gooier melting cheese. That is, assuming that there is a next time...
Kid-approved:
Thanks for checking this out! :thumb:
