Last Chance Cheese Smoke

[Smoking Piney]

With the weather quickly warming up, I got a last chance to smoke some cheese before it gets too warm. I pressed the Assassin into use. I smoked Gouda, Havarti, Asiago, Swiss, Colby Jack, white cheddar, and a few weird blends my wife chose.

My Amaze-N pellet maze loaded with alder pellets, grease trap pulled on on the bottom of the cook chamber. The bag for the pellets sat outside since winter and there was a hole in the bag. I microwaved the pellets for about a minute to dry them out:



A small pizza stone over the maze to diffuse the smoke a bit:



Cheese is on. I used colored toothpicks to remember what cheese is what when I vac seal them this evening:



Two hours of smoke and done.....resting in the cool air until I can vac seal them:



They will need 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge to mellow a bit before we dig in. This oughta hold my wife and I for a bit.

[Smoke on Badger Mountain]

I love it! Smoked cheese in amazing

[JU]

Never tried this. Send me some

[ssv3]

You're in for a treat. Looking great!

[Smoking Piney]

Sako,

It's my summer stash. It holds forever vac sealed in the fridge.

[BillN]

Oh yeah!

[cowgirl]

Going to be some good eatin! Looks delicious John!

[Swine Spectator]

I have the Amaz-N tube smoker. I tried smoking cheese last year with pellets, but it came out very poorly. Bitter smoke. Any tips?

[txsmkmstr]

Originally Posted by Swine Spectator

I have the Amaz-N tube smoker. I tried smoking cheese last year with pellets, but it came out very poorly. Bitter smoke. Any tips?

Oh man... does this bring back memories. I almost trashed my Amaz-N Tube earlier this year but here's what I learned.....

1) Use absolutely dry pellets. If you have to, warm them up, nuke them, do anything you can to avoid damp or moisture laden pellets. I buy very small bags that are airtight (Pit Boss???) and avoid the large sacks that have air holes. Even then I vac seal what I don't use. One small pack of pellets gives me at least four rounds of cheese smokes.

2) Get that tube as far away from the food as possible. In doing some research I came across a cold smoking set up that had the smoke source some 20 feet away from the food area. This allows for the nasty bits to settle out before resting on the food. My first attempt had the tube in the food chamber near the cheese and "YUCK" the food was nasty. Now I use the firebox of my offset for the tube and try to make the smoke travel as far as possible. Much improved flavor on all subsequent batches.

3) Leave the firebox door open - let some of the excess smoke go elsewhere. As long as you have some smoke coming out the stack you're good to go. You do not need all the smoke the tube generates to get a smoke flavor. I'll run mine open about 3" or so - looking for light wispy smoke coming out the exhaust.

4) A little smoke goes a long way.... I've cut my smoke time down to one hour. On the harder cheeses you can get away with more but my "preference" seems to land at the one hour mark regardless of cheese type.

I pulled a block of Muenster out let it come up to room temp and sliced away over the weekend. OMG - it was simply heavenly. Had to really show some restraint to avoid eating the entire block. Anyway, hope some of the above items improve your cheese smoking efforts. Good luck.

[Swine Spectator]

Thank you for the reply!

I gave it a second shot tonight. I am using my 22" WSM. Last time I closed it up like I was using it for a full cook. I smoked some cheese for 3-4 hours. It was pretty bad, but I ate it as punishment.

Tonight, I grabbed 3 blocks from the grocery: Sharp Cheddar, Muenster, and Pepper Jack. I left the firebox door open on the WSM and put a block of wood to jack the lid. Outdoor temps were in the mid 40's. I microwaved the pellets like you suggested and was amazed at the steam coming off of them!

The lit immediately, but I let them burn for 10 min as Amazen suggests. I let the cheese smoke for 1 hour, then I vac sealed it and will let it rest for 3-4 weeks.

Standby for updates...

Originally Posted by txsmkmstr

Oh man... does this bring back memories. I almost trashed my Amaz-N Tube earlier this year but here's what I learned.....

1) Use absolutely dry pellets. If you have to, warm them up, nuke them, do anything you can to avoid damp or moisture laden pellets. I buy very small bags that are airtight (Pit Boss???) and avoid the large sacks that have air holes. Even then I vac seal what I don't use. One small pack of pellets gives me at least four rounds of cheese smokes.

2) Get that tube as far away from the food as possible. In doing some research I came across a cold smoking set up that had the smoke source some 20 feet away from the food area. This allows for the nasty bits to settle out before resting on the food. My first attempt had the tube in the food chamber near the cheese and "YUCK" the food was nasty. Now I use the firebox of my offset for the tube and try to make the smoke travel as far as possible. Much improved flavor on all subsequent batches.

3) Leave the firebox door open - let some of the excess smoke go elsewhere. As long as you have some smoke coming out the stack you're good to go. You do not need all the smoke the tube generates to get a smoke flavor. I'll run mine open about 3" or so - looking for light wispy smoke coming out the exhaust.

4) A little smoke goes a long way.... I've cut my smoke time down to one hour. On the harder cheeses you can get away with more but my "preference" seems to land at the one hour mark regardless of cheese type.

I pulled a block of Muenster out let it come up to room temp and sliced away over the weekend. OMG - it was simply heavenly. Had to really show some restraint to avoid eating the entire block. Anyway, hope some of the above items improve your cheese smoking efforts. Good luck.

[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by Swine Spectator

I have the Amaz-N tube smoker. I tried smoking cheese last year with pellets, but it came out very poorly. Bitter smoke. Any tips?

The tube and tray smoke generators that burn pellets can do a good job for flavor smoking meats, but they need a lot of volume and airflow when smoking delicate things like cheese and butter. The sawdust generator on the other hand works like a charm.... you really have to stare at the vent to even see smoke... and sawdust produces almost no heat at all so your cheeses won't sweat and rarely get discolored. If you can imagine two cigarettes burning in an ash tray, that's about the amount of smoke the sawdust generators produce. Smoking times of 4 to 6 hours can be used because the smoke delivery is so light, and the cheese is edible throughout the entire process so you can dial in the exact flavor you want without dealing with any bitterness. I prefer to mellow it 2 or 3 days before giving it away but you won't have to wait weeks before eating it. One of the simplest tests you can do when smoking cheese is what I call the finger test; when you rotate your blocks if your fingers feel oily, your smoker is too hot.... if you can smell smoke on your fingers your smoke is too heavy. These photos are taken during an active smoking session, you really have to look to see smoke. For some reason the wisps of smoke are on the left side of the photos, and the blur on 3 or 4 blocks in the middle picture is smoke, not movement.

PS I sent you a PM.

[isuhunter]

Whenever I've tried to smoke cheese it tastes like ash. I've been using a weber kettle or a weber gas grill and amazing tube or tray and pellets.

[Big George's BBQ]

Nice I love smoked cheese last time I did it I froze it and some came out not very good I use the pro q smoke generator which uses saw dust

[Stingerhook]

Looks great John.

[SmokinAussie]

Looks fantastic.

Planning on doing some cold smoking in the WSM now we are coming into Aussie Winter!