When can I eat the cheese????

[Smokeville]

I smoked it last Sunday and vac sealed it Monday. First attempt ever.

How long do we have to wait for it to stop tasting like an ashtray?

Rich

[Ka Honu]

Minimum two weeks.  A month or more is better.

[Tenpoint5]

That depends on the type of cheese you smoked. The softer cheeses (Mozzarella) tend to go faster 2-3 weeks. The harder cheeses (Aged Cheddar) tend to take a little longer ( 1 month - 6 months). I had some 3 year old aged white cheddar that I let sit for a year. Brought it out for one of the Smoke Outs and it was like butter and delicious

[CoreyMac]

I had a weird experience with cheese recently, I did some regular marble and mozza cheese last February 9 months ago. The marble is getting better as time passes, the mozza is getting a stronger smoke flavour as time passes. I smoked these at the same time. Mozza is so smokey that the wife says she really doesn't like it anymore (more for me I guess).

Odd
Corey

[Smokeville]

I can hardly wait!

Thansk, guys!

[viper125]

Well when I do mine i always keep a small block out of one of my favorites. I find the first quarter inch to be stronger. After that no so much. But i enjoy it straight out as some of my friends do too! Not for every one though.

[tskeeter]

Smokeville, to prevent the aggravation of having to wait (I have no patience), I keep a rotating stock of smoked cheese in the fridge.  I think I still have a piece or two from the April smoke, some from the June smoke, and then the smoke I did a couple of weeks ago.  The rotating stock came in handy when a neighbor asked me to smoke some cheese shortly before Thanksgiving.  I kept some of the cheese they provided and substituted some of my ready to eat stock so they could have some smoked cheese over Thanksgiving, if they wanted.  If I find I have more smoked cheese than I can eat, I always seem to have neighbors who are more than happy to help me dispose of my excess stock.

By the way, try smoking some cashews.  One of the big containers from Costco will make a nice layer in a couple of trays in the smoker.  (I picked up some cheesecloth at the grocery store and cut a double thickness to fit the trays with a fair amount of overhang.  Also have frog mats in the trays I used for the nuts, but I'd think just cheesecloth should work fine.)  When I used hickory, I had to let the nuts age for a month or so.  The apple smoked version is edible as soon as you are done smoking, but is better after a week or so.  I like a lighter smoke, and have been applying smoke for an hour.   

[Tenpoint5]

If your gonna do cashews give the Kicked up cashews a shot

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=25285.0

[Smokeville]

Well, after 1.5 weeks, we had to try the cheddar.....

A wee bit rough, but well on it's way! Considering it was on-sale cheap ($3.88 for 500grams) I'm real happy!

Thanks everyone,
Rich