Making and Smoking farmers cheese, first time !!!

[AKinGA]

Howdy,
First of all I would like to say thanks for a great forum and everybody sharing their smoking experiences (the good smoking that is  :)) and all of the great looking recipes and pictures.

I bough my smoker about 3 months ago (Original Electric Smoker) but got put on travel for work and was yet to use it.  Well yesterday I finally did get to use it and boy was I pleased and can't wait to smoke some more things, cheese and meat.

I am originally from Bosnia and back home they have smoked cheese that you bought at the local farmer's markets.  It fresh smoked cheese made fresh, it was the BEST, you can either shred it with your food on like pasta or cut it and eat as appetizers.  Well long story short here it is.

I started by following one these steps to first make the farmers cheese.
http://www.eatingoutloud.com/2008/04/how-to-make-paneer-a-fresh-farmers-cheese.html
http://yulinkacooks.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-to-make-tvorog-farmers-cheese.html

After making it and draining it, let it sit for about two hours in the cheese cloth placed it into the smoker.  Also placed some store bough cheese, brick of it, not sure what kind (this is the interesting result, oops little too much heat for it).  Used maple wood.  These farmers cheese were usually smoked for couple of days back home, not as efficient smokers back home, but never the less about two days worth of smoking.  So I was shooting for about 8-10 hours in the Bradley.  I know that seems way too long by any cheese smoking times here but these take a long time to smoke and dry.

So here are the pictures of the result, sorry for the long drawn out explanation but little bit of history why and how on the cheese I think helps the pictures









AND for the intersting, OOOPPSSSS it got little bit too hot in the smoker, it was about 60 Degrees outside


The cheese melted though the racks.  It was all hanging through the rack.  But tell you what, the little fingers are a perfect snack size bites.


It smoked from about 10 hours overnight.  At about 6 hours had about half the color that it does now.  I wanted to make sure that it smoked and dried all the way before stopping it.  The cheese has a great smell of smoke, and it can be grated, doesn't fall apart or stick to the grater.  Tastes SO SO SO good over any type of pasta.  Macaroni and smokes cheese especially.  or used as appetizers and finger food with few drinks.

Haris

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum AKinGA!

Nice cheese!

I really like that auto-slicing-smoking thing you invented!

[smokeitall]

I love farmers cheese, I have half a block left in the fridge right now...nice looking color, I'm glad it was good.
SIA

[Caneyscud]

AKinGA, that looks delicious!  I've only smoke cheese a couple of times, but the next time, I was thinking of smoking a piece of it a lot longer just to see how it would turn out.  Now I know. - On the to-do list!

OBTW, welcome to the forum.  Glad you like it so far and hope you contribute lots of pics and recipes.  I love to see what other nationalities eat.  Fascinates me.  

You are the second person from Bosnia I have met this week!  

How many gallons of milk went into making those cheese?

[classicrockgriller]

Welcome to the forum AK. Thanks for sharing your photos and the history. Like Caney said, it is always fun to see what other people in the world enjoy and that looks great even the cheese drops.

is the outside of the chesse still eatable and what is the texture of that.  Thanks again.

[AKinGA]

Thank ya all for kind words, it's just as delicious as it looks, well may be more delicious.

Caneyscud,
The big piece took about a gallon of Whole Milk and about 3 1/2 cups of Heavy Cream to make.  Mixed the Milk and Heavy Cream,  brought to a slow and then added about 3/4 cup of Lemon juice and couple table spoons of Vinegar (the acid makes the milk clump up, looks like watered down cottage cheese at that point).  Strained it into a cheese cloth, put that into a strainer,  pressed it down with a plate after I wrapped it into a ball.  Put a pot on top of the plate and added water to the pot to add weight.  Let it stand for couple of hours and drain.  Then smoke time.  I will use may be half the cream on the next batch (in few days, as it turned out so good), it was little bit too rich for my taste, the small one didn't have any heavy cream and it was little bit too dry.  So I figure try the middle of the road theory.

classicrockgriller,
Oh yeah it's very much so eatable on the outside.  The skin has a stronger smell on the outside of course, so when you grate it you get a mixture of some of the inside that's not so smoked and the outside that is, nice balance.  The texture ... I would say kind of like a muffin, not very hard but not soft either.  The cheese is about half the wetness/dryness of the feta cheese that you can get in the brick packages.  But the heavy cream keeps it together so it doesn't crumple like the feta cheese.

Showed some of my family around the states some pictures and they are all placing orders for shipping!!!  So I guess I'm heading to the store for more milk. This type of smoked cheese I nor anybody else have not been able to find anywhere in the states to buy, and I have tried every Bosnian store I can find in any of the states I have been.  Will post more pics as they come.

Happy Smoking !!

[manxman]

Welcome to the forum AKinGA and bringing such interesting information to share. Great pics too.  :)

We should have had a competition .......... "guess what it is"? for the melted cheese picture. Some art critic somewhere would have loved your sculpture!  :)

[classicrockgriller]

AK, Thanks for the pics and info on something new to smoke in the Bradley.

I would love to see a photo step by step on making your cheese if you wouldn't mind doing and posting it.
I'm sure there would be quite a few following your posting on this. Thanks again and Happy smoking

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi AKinGA;

Welcome to the forum.

Your cheeses look fantastic.

[Hopefull Romantic]

Hi there and welcome to the greatest fun and the to our addiction. I see that you are on your wat of getting hooked.

The cheese looks great and I never though of smoking it for 10 hours. I will have to think about that next time.

HR

[Mr Walleye]

For anybody who is interested here are a few links on making cheese from over on DeeJaysSmokePit.com

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/CheeseDownloads_files/LetsMakeCheese.pdf

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/CheeseMenu.htm

Here is a link to DeeJays Forum. If you scroll down you will find the cheese section.
http://deejaysworld.net/deejayssmokepit/yabb/YaBB.pl

Mike

[classicrockgriller]

THanks Mike

[Tenpoint5]

Out of the box and hes making his own cheese then smoking it! I like him already!!! Welcome Aboard AK

[classicrockgriller]

Out of the box and hes making his own cheese then smoking it! I like him already!!! Welcome Aboard AK

That's far out. Pretty kewl.

[monty]

AKinGA - what is next? smoked burek?  :D

welcome to the forum