Wife wants me to do a bit of smoked cheese, now that I can do cold smoking easily...
What are the best ones to smoke first? Are there any ones you wouldn't bother smoking?
Thanks!
My fav is Cheddar with apple smoke.
Mike
I did cheddar, swiss and colby with Pecan, and brought them to work.
Cheddar/swiss were the favorites, by far. The colby was weird. Not sure how to describe it.
Apple would be a nice mild smoke.
Mature (?sharp) cheddar is my favourite either with oak or apple. Smoked stilton is nice too. :)
My favorite to smoke is Gouda. Just remove the coating (not the rind) prior to smoking.
I have done many kinds including exotic. All came out okay. Just let your imagination run wild and you will not be disappointed.
HR
horseradish cheese is a hit but they were drinking
seemore
I even smoked some Cabot 75% light Cheddar and it was good!
My standbys are cheddar (a no-brainer) and jack (which, among its many uses, grates nicely into various Mexican recipes). Tried some pepper jack yesterday but will have to wait a while before judging success.
Haven't found a bad one yet. Pepper Jack is always a big hit with Hickory.
Here is my list from the most popular to the least.
1. Cooper Sharp American, I can never have enough of this around, everyone loves it. I think this is only available in a small area.
2. Horseradish, if you like horseradish, this is a must do.
3. Good NY Cheddar.
4. American pepper cheese, for some reason most around here do not care for the pepper jack after smoking.
5. Swiss
6. Velvetta, great for nachos and grilled sammies.
7. Everyday good ole American. Some people eat nothing else?
I have done a bunch of others but only a little here and there although if I could get a block of the hab/peno cheese I had a small piece of, I would do that again anytime.
Pens, I did not even know that they made an American pepper cheese. I will have to try that.
KUDOS on the smoked Velveeta, too. It makes a neat variance on macaroni and cheese.
I have to agree with 10.5: never run into a smoked cheese I did not like.
Smoked Stilton, eh, manxman? I am intrigued and will have to try this.
seemore
Did not occur to ask before, but I assume smoking cheese for an hour or two is ample, correct? I am not talking about huge rounds or anytthing...
It depends on your taste. I would start with a couple hours, then see how well you like it. Next time you can adjust. I normally go 3-4 hours. Swiss seems to smoke the fastest and I normally take it out before the others.
I've only smoked one batch of cheese thus far but my favorite was the pepper jack with an hour of pecan.
Carolyn
QuoteSmoked Stilton, eh, manxman?
First time I did it I wasn't over keen because I over smoked and used oak but I have tried it a couple of times since with much less smoke than I use for mature cheddar (90 mins or so as opposed to 4 - 5 hours for mature cheddar.) and it is much nicer. Apple is also the best puck for Stilton IMHO, smoked Stilton is commonly found in commercial smoke houses around the UK as well.
We found Stilton Blue Cheese at a local grocery store. We are going to pick some up and smoke it.
I can taste those smoked crumbles on my bacon-wrapped filet mignon as I speak.........
Mrs
provolone from Sam's club, then I use it with mozzarella on pizza. Yumm!
Just curious,,,'
Pensrock mentioned that he thought Swiss cheese smoked fastest. Has anybody else found the same? I ask cause I've just done some Swiss and I find it a bit rubbery. Am planning on doing another few pounds in the near future and would like to know if I should be pulling the Swiss earlier than say, Cheddar...
TIA
Pens smokes ALOT of cheese each year .... think he said 100 lbs.
Make a post and ask him.
He's a nice guy.
Hi Guys
I'm a newby here and have been reading a lot on this forum. I would like to get some help on smoking cheeses. I have some questions.
1. How big should the chunks of cheese be
2. At what temp. should I run the OBS
3. How long do I need to age the cheese after smoking
4 How long should I smoke and what wood puck should I use
I have had my OBS for sbout 3 years and have used it about 4 times. I did my frist turkey yesterday. It was sooooo good.Iwant to start useing the OBS a lot more. Thanks for your help
Tolong
I answered slamdunk in a PM he sent me. I wanted to find out the smoker temp because I suspect it got a little warm and caused some of the oils to come out. Also how long he smoked it. I normally take swiss out 1-2 hours before the other cheeses which I normally smoke for about four hours.
Tolong, lets try to answer your questions.
1) The cheese can be cut anyway you prefer. I tend to cut mine in one pound chunks.
2) You want to keep the temperature inside the smoker below 90F, I shoot for 70-85F. Many use a seperate cold smoke box for doing cheeses. If its cool enough outside, below 50 F you should be able to get by without the cold smoke box but you will want to put a foil pan filled with ice on the bottom rack.
3) Seven to ten day min. I prefer two weeks min. The longer it sets the more it mellows and the better it is.
4) How long depends on how much you like smoke, I go for 2-4 hours. I normally tell people to start with two hours and if they feel they want more smoke then next batch step it up. What wood? Well I normally use apple it goes well with everything, I also like hickory, maple and oak.
And do not beleive CRG, I'm really not a nice guy. ;) ;D ;D Yes I smoke 80-120 pounds of cheese each year and I'm still learning and trying different things.
Really if you have question feel free to ask, there are many on here including myself who are more than happy to help out.
Thanks Pensrock
You have helped me a lot I will be doing my first cheese monday. Some of my friends asked me to do some cheese so I thought I woold do some of theirs along with mene
Tolong
Penrock, sorry for not responding to your email. First time back on the forum since I sent mine to you.
I think you've hit the nail on the head -of cheese- I tried to smoke the Swiss at about 90 and had propped the door open a bit to keep the temp down. Unfortunately the door swung shut when I wasn't looking and the temp got up to about 115 when I went back to check it out. As to your question about if the cheese was rubbery on the outside or throughout the cheese, it was just rubbery on the outside, so your answer as to the oils seeping out seems to explain things.
Thanks for your help!!
Well, we smoked our first cheese over the Christmas holiday break. We started small just to see how it would go, half a pound each of sharp cheddar and soft mozzarella. We put them on coffee filters and smoked for four hours with Apple pucks.
Observations: this was not too long, the smoke flavor on the mozzarella was still quite delicate. Temp, just from the smoke generator, in the smoker cabinet may have been a little too high - the mozzarella did flatten out a bit more than I expected, and there was a bit of oil on the coffee filter. Both cheeses were stuck to the coffee filter but it peeled off easily. The cheddar was PERFECT! My lunch that day was a bit of cheese and beef stick sausage with crackers!
Next time we do about 10 times as much in the run and vacuum pack it! I KILLED to waste all that smoke in the OBS for just a pound of cheese!
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ZR7GceXa-uE/SzyqzG7hPQI/AAAAAAAAAV8/eKcY_qB03Wc/s800/IMG_0139.JPG)
Better to waste a few pucks of smoke than a whole pile of cheese.
When I only have 5 or 10 pounds of cheese to do I normally will put something on another rack, maybe pepperoni or pistachios.