First Cheese Smoke

[Rainmaker]

I made a run to Costco last week and picked up some cheese in preparation for today's smoke.
In the first picture top left is some Irish Dubliner.  Top right is some 6 year old Balderson cheddar.  Bottom left is some 2 year old Balderson cheddar.  Middle right is some Coastal English cheddar, and bottom right is some Gruyere.



Outside temp was around 55 deg.  I added ice to the drip tray and put a tray of ice on the bottom shelf as well.  Cabinet temp was around mid seventies most of the time.   I used hickory and took out half the cheese after two hours.



Next photo shows the first half of the cheese wrapped and labelled



The last half of the cheese came out after three hours.  It was slightly darker than the batch taken out after 2 hrs.



All the cheese is now vacuum sealed and in the meat keeper where I understand it should stay for a month.  I did taste a small sample and it did have a smokey flavour.  It didn't taste like the bottom of an ashtray as some on this site have said.  Then again, I've never tasted the bottom of an ashtray so maybe it did!  Can't wait for the month to be up so I can start using it.

[OU812]

That all looks good, you better make more.  ;D

When the wait time is over you wont be able to stop eating all that smoked goodness.

[muebe]

And be careful who you give it to at work...I gave it to 1 person at work and the next thing you know everybody's asking me for some smoked cheese :)

[DTAggie]

Great job Rainmaker.  I opened up some hickory smoked cheese this past weekend that had been hidden in the meat department of the fridge for 5 weeks.  Lets just say one 16 oz block lasted about 10 minutes when the family found out I opened it.