Black Friday Cheese

[pensrock]

There is NO WAY you are going to see me anywhere near town today. So its a great time to do some cheese.
Twenty pounds total.
Cooper Sharp American - five pounds
Clearfield Hot Pepper Jack/American - five pounds
Yancy's Fancy Horseradish - five pounds
Velveta - yea thats right Velveta
Swiss
Cabot Habenero Cheddar
NY Sharp Cheddar

Do not have enough room to the large stick of pepperoni so maybe tomorrow I'll do the pepperoni along with some pistachios.

The smoker set-up:


The cheese going in the smoker:


More to come after it comes out.

[oakville smoker]

Kick butt and take names buddy !
Thats a whack of cheese. 

Cheese will be my next challenge after I conquer sausage and salami

But damn that looks good.  I will have room in my fridge after tonight to age for you.
Just send it on up and I will return it when its done

[KyNola]

Looking good Pens!  You're gonna make some folks very happy in about 2 weeks!

KyNola

[NePaSmoKer]

Looks great as always.

[Tenpoint5]

That's a serious load of Cheese Pens. Should be good when it comes out. Waiting to see how that Velveeta does.

[jaredpost]

Good looking cheese. I'm also interested to see how the velveeta turns out. have you done that one before?

[pensrock]

Ok, after four hours of smoke, its done. It did not color up as much as expected but it will taste great.

Cooper Sharp American on the left and Yancys Fancy Horseradish on the right. Sorry about the glare kinda takes away from the color of the cheese.


Hot Pepper Jack/American


A mixture, Swiss, Habenaro, NY sharp cheddar and Velveeta.


To answer the questions about Velveeta, yes I have done it many times before and it comes out really good. Make toasted cheese sammies or melted for nachos.
Since the smoker was empty, I decided to throw in a couple trays of pistachios and a stick of Hormel pepperoni.
I also decided to throw a handful of empty pistachio shells on top of the smoking coals. :)

[NePaSmoKer]

Looks fantastic Greg

When i lived on the farm when i was a kid in Calif i used Velveta rolled into small balls for fishin. The trout loved it.

Velveta is on my next cheese smoke list.


nepas

[HawkeyeSmokes]

I bet that smoked Velveta would make some good Mac and Cheese!

[Tenpoint5]

I guess you wouldn't have to worry about the velveeta melting with the cheater smoker on there.

[KevinG]

Awsome mix Pens, what do you do with the empty pistachio shells?

[pensrock]

I guess you wouldn't have to worry about the velveeta melting with the cheater smoker on there.

Thats why I made it. I actually turned on the Bradley heat through my PID to get the temp up a little. I like to do cheese between 70-85F. Since it was in the 40's today it would have never made it past 50. The PID did a great job of keeping the temp around 75. I may be the only one to turn the heat on to do cheese.  ;D
I bet LQ would love hearing that.  ;D ;D

Kevin, I put the shells onto the smoldering wood chips. As an experiment. I'm thinking it will be good but only time will tell.
Just to clear thing up, I'm not smoking empty shells, those are whole pistachios in the smoker, they are fantastic when smoked. I did put a handfull of empty shells in the smoke generator to flavor the smoke.

[tsquared]

Pens--if you want more smoke colour on your cheese, just do the same as I do on fish and crank up the heat! :D
BTW--I'm kind of out of the loop--Where is LQ this fall anyways?
T2

[pensrock]

t2, I have not seen her posting for a while now. Hoping everything is alright. Actually I have noticed that the higher the temp of the cheese, the more color it takes on, thats why I like it to be at least 70, this batch hung around 75, next batch I'm going for 80 to see how much difference it makes. Need to be careful with Velveeta in the smoker though, if you sit it on the counter it likes to melt.  :D

[psuman316]

Pens,
I seen you are using the smoke daddy I attached one on one of my old smokers that is not a bradley however I was wondering if you had trouble with all that smoke escaping out the top of the smoker through your vent?  I found that I was having the air flowing through my vent and out the bottom where the gas burner is attached.  Any suggestions of getting the air flow besides hooking a fan on the top of the vent thanks.