smoking cheddar tips!

[Isle of Wight deep south]

Hi great site learned alot thanks! Had a few goes at smoking cheddar now and have found a hard dry mature cheddar seems to take up the smoke quicker and produces a better product.Where as the cheaper more prosessed looking cheese does not.I cut into 1lb slabs and smoke with apple,first batch was for an hour and I thought was very nice but some said it was to little not relising how much it had enhanced the cheese.So this time I smoked  2 hours  hoping it will be more smoky but not like an ashtray as it is now,will test in a few days and hope and prey I havent ruined 10 kilo of cheese :(
what I ment to ask was?
1. what thickness or weight to smoke time do you do? me 1lb 2.5 inch slice! 1 hour now 2
2. how long what wood do you think is good? apple has always been the word in england.
3.Rest time when is the peak time to eat.
4. top 5 best cheese?
Have read all the posts and it goes so of topic on most threads I gave up.
Heres hopefully Andy

[pensrock]

1. what thickness or weight to smoke time do you do? me 1lb 2.5 inch slice! 1 hour now 2
2. how long what wood do you think is good? apple has always been the word in england.
3.Rest time when is the peak time to eat.
4. top 5 best cheese?

Andy, Welcome to the forum.
  I have been smoking cheeses for years now and it's difficult to answer your questions, I'll try to explain. I have learned that each kind of cheese seems to take on smoke differently, so how long for each different size as well as different kind is simply a learned thing. I found swiss cheese smokes very quickly, where a softer cheese like an american takes twice as long. I am to the point now where I look at the cheese every 20-30 minutes, after the first hour and remove it from the smoker when the color is what I want. I have smoked cheese as quickly as 1-1/2 hours up to five hours. Last year, from November to April, I smoked over 180 pounds of cheese, a new record for me.  :D

Question 1: I normally cut it into one pound pieces. Some speciality cheeses are only 1/2 pound. Time varies per kind and size of cheese as well as other conditions such as windy weather.
Question 2: I normally use apple wood. But sometimes use hickory, oak or maple. But by far apple is the main wood I use.
Question 3: I prefer at least a five day wait period, but the longer you can wait the better. I'd say 1-2 weeks.
Question 4: So hard to say because of the speciality cheeses. Also some are local cheeses. The top cheese I make is called, Cooper Sharp, number two is horseradish, three is xsharp NY cheddar, four is swiss and five is pepper cheese.

I do not think two hours of apple will ruin your cheddar, I actually think it should be about right, I may have even gone a little longer. But smoke flavor is different for everyone. Some only like a very mild taste of smoke while others like it stronger. Some people will use alder wood which IMHO is a very mild smoke, I like it on fish but feel it's too mild for cheeses and meats. If you think the cheese you did is too strong, allow it to sit for a few more days then taste it again. It will mellow out as it ages.

Have fun smoking!
pensrock

[La Quinta]

Uh...yeah...what Pens said!!  ;D Isle...I can't do cold smoked cheese...but from what Pens wrote I would go with his advice. Others will chime in...

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum Isle of Wight deep south!

What they said - I also live where cold-smoking can only happen a couple of days a year..

[Isle of Wight deep south]

cheers for the wellcome and tips tryed some today and some blocks taste stronger than others,no ashtray taste now and some taste very mild.seems the top ones are stronger than the bottom.Temp was a constant 65 f .Only thing I did notice when they came out was some had a sweat on which may have stopped smoke penertrating so bringing them up to room temp(didnt before) to give them another hour later today.
Andy

[manxman]

Welcome to the forum Andy.

I have tried cold smoking quite a few "British" cheeses such as Cheshire, Red Leicester, Worcester, Mature and Mild Cheddar etc etc together with others such as Danish Blue and Stilton.

IMHO a good quality mature cheddar takes some beating. I did a tasting amongst friends a while ago and mature cheddar came out top, mild cheddar second and stilton third but the mature cheddar won quite easily. The others listed were also rans and I havent tried them again!  Not unpleasant but just nothing special. ::)

The size of blocks I end up with are 6" x 3.5" x 1.5" roughly. I always let them come to room temperature before smoking.

With regards to time I have tried anything from 2 hours through to 6 hours but tend to smoke somewhere around 4 hours now, although both me and the friends I supply like it on the strong side.  ;)

I have used apple and oak, both traditional British smoking woods and both very good with cheese. I have'nt tried any others as yet.

Favourite way of eating smoked cheese at the moment is grated over a chilli or cheese on toast with some sweet chilli sauce added!  ;) :D

[Isle of Wight deep south]

cheers sounds good and smoky ;D the chesse on chili sounds nice may unwrap mine and give it another hour from room temp cheers ;D

[EnglishGuy]

Hi Isle Of Wight   :)

I smoked several cheeses earlier in the year. I tried cheddar, stilton, edam, gouda, vintage manchego, brie, ordinary manchego and vintage gouda.

I haven't tried smoking cheese at this time of year, but it is cold enough to do so overnight.

The best results that I had were from cheddar and gouda (take the wax covering off), and manchego was okay. I find the the mature cheeses work best. The brie was a disaster, and I should have removed the rind, but I haven't retried it without the rind. My next door neighbours didn't much like the gouda, but loved the cheddar. My American secretary loved both the gouda and cheddar. I didn't particularly like the stilton, so now I tend to stick to cheddar and gouda.

I find the apple pucks work for me best. I was told when I bought the Bradley to only smoke for a maximum of an hour. After experimenting, I disagree. I now smoke for 3.5 to 4 hours over apple. I then use a vacuum bag sealer to wrap them and store for a week before eating.



(Should let you know that I'll be on the island next weekend as my brother is taking a couple of his kids there for a holiday for the next two weeks, and I'll be joining them on Saturday!)

[waz]

I smoked a batch of cheddar, swiss and gouda last year. Only about an hour. Wrapped it in wax paper and tasted two weeks later. Ashtray. Just awful. Stuck it back in the garage refrigerator and forgot about it for 6 months. Decided to see what it tasted like. WOW! Amazingly good. I'll have to try a few more batches and figure out what I did wrong but if you get that ashtray taste just age it a good while don't toss it.

[La Quinta]

As we are on this subject...my hubby and I are more then willing to give up our mailing address and shipping costs for more smoked cheese!!! :)  If it gets cold enough here...I don't know about it!!!  ???

[RFD]

Good morning, I have been smoking Cheddar cheese here in the UK for a few years and sell it commercially, I buy it in a bulk blocks of around 4.5kg and cut it into triangles of about 150g to 250g which range from 20mm to 35mm in thickness.
Have tried various times but 1.5 hrs seems to give good results using cardboard box method
However in the winter when tempratures are alot cooler I do my Winter smoked cheese...Leave the generator connected to the box and smoke for about an hour while rotating the racks...The result is a lovely golden colour on the cheese
Ah yes all smoked in Apple
Hope this might be useful

[manxman]

Thanks RFD, I cold smoke a lot of cheddar using the cardboard box method but will give the Winter smoked cheese a go........ interesting variation.  :)

[Smoking Duck]

The last batch I did (which included different cheddars), I smoked with pecan.  Normally I use apple if I have it but at the time only had pecan.  Smoked for 4 hours (I like a little stronger smoke flavor).  The cheese is and was delicious.