I smoked some Cheddar on November 17th. Gave it about 2 hours of apple. What are the chances it would be edible on Thanksgiving day? My gut is telling me to wait until Christmas but I sure want to sample it.
I would wait, too early for the cheese yet. The longer you leave it the better the taste in my opinion.
Ross
I would wait as well. I tried some at 2 weeks and was not so good. At 6 weeks it was awesome.
I agree, I sampled some after 2 weeks on Sunday and it wasn't ready. I resealed it and will wait until 6.
Thanks, all. I knew that's what you would say. I guess I'll just wait. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!
Like all of the above. I smoked mine on Nov 8, tried it out the other day and not so good. Sealed back up and right back into the fridge. At least another 3 weeks for my cheadder
I just opened some I made over a year ago. Its really good. :)
I would say to try it and see if you like it. The min I wait is two weeks but prefer a month.
It wouldn't hurt to open a little bit. I did some cheese a while back and about 2 weeks later, while I was out hunting, my wife opened up a couple of vacuum sealed pouches. Didn't taste like ashes. It was quite good and it was a good thing I tasted it before the kids and the grand kids got there. The hit it like a flock of locus and it was all gone.
Pens, did you freeze it for a year or just vac seal in fridge?
I don't think most cheeses do well when frozen. Vac seal in the frdge should be fine. If you get a little mold (green) just cut it off.
I never freeze cheese. I just put it in a zip bag and tossed in the fridge. No vac pack and no mold. It was like the day I put it in there.
I have found that after you open the vacuum seal package the flavor gets better if you just put it into a Ziploc for a few hours. Slicing right after opening has less smoke flavor that after it aired a bit. Maybe it's just mine. Every place we take this stuff, it disappears fast. Cheese is the fastest, easiest, and most popular thing we have smoked.
I also re-smoked some smoked almonds with mosquite for one hour. I'm going to do a whole pound jar next. My wife thought it funny, until she tasted them. Now she is all for doing the whole jar.
I just took smoked Cooper two weeks old to work and have orders for 20lbs . So I would try it and see what you think.
I always use the rule that I Don't open any cheese before 3 weeks and double it for the harder cheeses. I have some Italian sharp that I did on 9-18 I might open it for Christmas.
I've done a lot of cheese and find the loner the better !
Jim O
CentPAS, I have done many many blocks of Cooper. Out of all the cheeses I do its the most popular followed by horseradish cheese. I probably average a hundred pounds of cheese a year.
Does the smoking somehow extend the life of the cheese? I've opened cheddar and then put in a ziplock and then into the special little cheese drawer in the fridge. After a few months, some of it is pounding on the fridge door trying to escape!
SoCal, I do not know why but smoking seems to keep any molds from forming. I just opened some cheese I smoked over a year ago and its like the day I put it into the fridge. This was not vac packed, just put into a ziploc bag and put into the fridge.