first cold smoke

[squirtthecat]

It all looks good!

Cheese is cooling off a bit...




Salt/peppercorns/paprika: (check out the smoke penetration though the coffee filters)




Busch Stadium peanuts: (I tried a couple, and the smoke does sneak into the shell)




Everything packaged up for a trip to the office:




Say Cheese! (colby, cheddar & swiss)

[Quarlow]

Looks good Squirt. Hope your cheese turns out better than mine.

[pensrock]

Looks good.

Quarlow, what happened to your cheese?

[Quarlow]

Well my burner wasn't burning the pucks complete but I still had lots of smoke, and I used apple pucks which didn't give much flavour. The old cheddar had some smoke flavour, but the german swiss and the mozzarella smelled smokey but had no flavour. Next time I will plug into a different socket and I have made up a good heavy 12 ga. 15' extension cord. I will also use hickory too.

[Habanero Smoker]

Everything looks good. Let us know how the paparika turned out.

For smoked pepper corns I've found that smoking at 200°F - 210°F works best, and that cracked peppercorns (not ground) take on more smoke because of more surface area that is exposed. I thought I had posted my method on the recipe site, but I guess I forgot.

Here is a link:
Smoked Black Peppercorns

[Hopefull Romantic]

Great news about the peanuts Squirts I think I am going to try that next time I do cold smoke.

Q, I have monitored my woog burning the last time and found out that it would help if you start the smoke by blowing some hot air at the first brisquette (my wife's old hair dryer). Now I have the cold smoe ada[tor and thus it would not come in touch with what I am smoking.

HR

[squirtthecat]

Everything looks good. Let us know how the paparika turned out.

For smoked pepper corns I've found that smoking at 200°F - 210°F works best, and that cracked peppercorns (not ground) take on more smoke because of more surface area that is exposed. I thought I had posted my method on the recipe site, but I guess I forgot.

Here is a link:
Smoked Black Peppercorns

Thanks Habs.  Cracking them first is a great idea.
I'm going to give out samples at the office tomorrow and solicit feedback..

The cheese is on probation for 2 weeks now. I'll cut into one when we get back from vacation next week.

[Quarlow]

If you ask my wife she will tell you that I am always blowing hot air and wouldn't need her blow dryer. But that's a good idea.

[squirtthecat]

Ok, I brought the smoked spices in, and they were pounced on by my coworkers...  So I think it went over well!

My office neighbor brought in his new Pentax DSLR, so he had some macro fun...

(click for full size)

[Tenpoint5]

Squirt how did the peppercorns turn out when you ground them? a good smoke flavor or just smoke smell when ground?

[squirtthecat]

Squirt how did the peppercorns turn out when you ground them? a good smoke flavor or just smoke smell when ground?

To be honest, I haven't tried them yet...     

I did use some of that salt on some french fries I baked last night.  It was good!  Very mild..

[classicrockgriller]

That looks like a fun project. I like the smoke black pepper.

[squirtthecat]

That looks like a fun project. I like the smoke black pepper.

I could probably go into business selling just the smoked salt & paprika at work.    I probably gave away 1/2 the jar in small plastic containers..

Another guy asked about smoked sunflower seeds.   We'll pursue that when I get back from Charleston next week.

[OU812]

Looks good there squirt.

Who woulda thunk the smoke would penetrate the shell on those pnuts

I have smoked butcher grind b pepper with great success, hot smoked though, just through it in on the top shelf when I was smoking some bacon with Hickory.

Tried salt but it was table salt and you couldn't taste the smoke.

[ArnieM]

This thread got me thinking - not necessarily a good thing.

My wife buys giant bags of roasted peanuts in the shell; she feeds the chipmunks.  Hmmm, chipmunks, but that's another thread.

I'd appreciate some suggestions.  Here's the goal.  Smoked cheese coated in smoked chopped peanuts and ground smoked black pepper.  Sound any good?

I don't know how to salt the peanuts.  I dated my cheese as "Do not use before 10/10", and I haven't.  So, it's time.  I thought of the peanuts in the food processor and the peppercorns in a spice grinder.  Then, roll/press the cheese into the mix so that it's coated, rewrap for a week or so.

If this sounds dumb, please tell me.  I don't want to waste that cheese.