What's the general rule for applying the second smoke on double-smoked cheese? How soon after the first smoke should you do it and should you give it less smoke? More? How long should it rest after the second smoke?
I've got a couple of blocks that have been resting for a month and a couple more to smoke. I was thinking of trying to double-smoke some of it.
No clue, never have tried it!
I've seen Balderson double-smoked cheddar in the stores... Seems like a pretty good idea to me!
I've smoked a lot of cheese,but never seen a need to double smoke,but that's just me !
Let us know how it turns out.
Interesting that you posted this today. I've never felt the need to double smoke my cheese, every one has been pretty good. But just today I opened up an OKA cheese that I smoked 5 weeks ago. The smoke hardly got to it but I'm almost certain it was because it has a rind and I didn't cut it open before smoking. Now that it's cut I'm going to put it back in for another go. with some surface area to the cheese.
All right, so I decided to take a brick of hickory smoked white cheddar that has fully "ripened" and throw it in with some havarti and Monterey Jack.
Top left is the cheddar with the havarti next to it, Monterey Jack on the bottom rack.
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/BBA35689-7639-42D5-AAFD-0F26D971E25E_zpszipykz4v.jpg) (http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/BoxcarBetts/media/BBA35689-7639-42D5-AAFD-0F26D971E25E_zpszipykz4v.jpg.html)
Obviously I didn't use enough ice in the drip tray! Ambient temp was about 25 deg... Forgot to check cabinet temp before I opened it after the 2-hr smoke cycle. The cheddar fared quite well though. Not sure if the previous smoke had something to do with it or if it was just because cheddar is a semi-hard cheese.
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/84EB4F7E-B803-4992-AE47-A98A632B1C77_zpsuqwwhgts.jpg) (http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/BoxcarBetts/media/84EB4F7E-B803-4992-AE47-A98A632B1C77_zpsuqwwhgts.jpg.html)
Put the havarti and the Monterey Jack back together a bit... Got some great colour! I'll report back in a month on the double-smoked cheddar!
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/AC435379-A1A5-470F-BFFE-08195C1ECAE1_zpstxyv0f7n.jpg) (http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/BoxcarBetts/media/AC435379-A1A5-470F-BFFE-08195C1ECAE1_zpstxyv0f7n.jpg.html)
Cheese-ickles :D
I have seen pictures of these on here before. :o ;D
I never did it myself but got close a few times. :)
It will taste good as long as too much oil did not separate and make it dry.
I've done it once before with Monterey Jack, but it still turned out well! Just funny looking. They did get a bit oily, yes, but I think they'll be okay.
Sorry it 'a been so long, but I figured I'd update you on the double-smoked cheddar.
In my opinion, although it turned out great, it's probably not worth the 2 month wait since single-smoking tastes so good as it is! Perhaps it's not necessary to wait the full month before the second smoke, I dunno. One thing I did notice is that this cheese (old white cheddar) came out very crumbly, which was kind of annoying for how I wanted to eat it. Here are the pics:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/6AEB7F98-3025-4EC7-80DD-366007752D55_zpswccfekhu.jpg) (http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/BoxcarBetts/media/6AEB7F98-3025-4EC7-80DD-366007752D55_zpswccfekhu.jpg.html)
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/8595387F-1947-453F-8874-15A5851E3AD8_zpsnlptp3cc.jpg) (http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/BoxcarBetts/media/8595387F-1947-453F-8874-15A5851E3AD8_zpsnlptp3cc.jpg.html)