Cold smoked cheese....help

[pooch897]

2 hours hickory.  Cold day so never went above 70* in the smoker with cold adapter. 


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[renoman]

Think about the size of a slice of cheese you eat. You want the edges to be mildly smoked. I find the end pieces way too smoky. If your cheese was smoked in bite size pieces it will be WAY too smoky with smoke on all 4 sides. For my taste anyway.

[tskeeter]

2 hours hickory.  Cold day so never went above 70* in the smoker with cold adapter. 


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Given the size of the pieces of cheese you smoked, I think Iceman is on target.  Consider shortening the length of time you apply smoke.  When I smoke cheddar cheese, I cut the block of cheese into pieces about 4 X 4 X 2 inches.  So, a much lower surface area to mass ratio than you had.  And I appply about an hour of smoke (I like my smoke flavor on the more delicate side).  The next time you smoke butter stick size pieces of cheese, why don't you try 40 minutes of smoke application and see if that meets your expectations?  If it's not smokey enough to suit you, you can always smoke it again to add more smokey flavor.

Another thing to consider is the wood you used.  Hickory is one of the more robust flavors available.  Many folks use wood that is lighter and sweeter in flavor, such as apple, cheery. or maple.  I prefer apple.  I use apple for everything I smoke, except for pork shoulder, where I use hickory, and fish, where I use alder.  I have used cherry for some ribs, but found it too sweet for my taste.

You didn't say what type of cheese you smoked, so I'm making the assumption that it was cheddar, or something similar.  I haven't smoked a lot of soft cheeses, such as brie or mozzarella, but folks who do smoke those cheeses report that soft cheeses absorb smoke more readily than harder cheeses.  So they use shorter smoking times than they do with harder cheeses.  If a person was smoking a quite hard, dry cheese, such as Parmesan, a longer than normal smoking time would probably be required.

If you were using the color development on your cheese to gauge how much smoke it had absorbed, that could contribute to your cheese being over smoked.  Color development seems to be more affected by temperature than by the amount of smoke absorbed.  Your 70F and below cabinet temp would have deterred color development.  Many cheese smokers shoot for a cabinet temperature of about 85F - 90F for best compromise between color development and risk of melting the cheese.

[pooch897]

To be honest I'd rather have the pieces be larger.  I just followed step by step  directions from another forum.  Next time I'm gonna do bigger pieces for 1 hour.   


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[pooch897]

Hot pepper jack. And sharp cheddar. 


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[iceman]

Shred some of your smoked cheese and mix it 50/50 with unsmoked cheddar then make a grilled cheese sammie with it.  :)

[Davemartin88]

Does it make a difference if the cheese is at room temperature before starting a cold smoke or okay right from the fridge?