All American!

fishrman · March 29, 2012, 07:55:37 AM

I've smoked Cheddar, Gouda and Mozzarella. Just finished reading "Mastering the Craft of Smoking Food" by Warren Anderson and he is a STRONG advocate that you can get better smokes by using processed cheeses instead of natural cheeses. The theory is that natural cheeses contains a lot of exposed butterfat and that butterfat absorbs foul odors readily, and that not ALL smoke 'odors' are tasty ones. Processed cheeses such as American (cheese food products) have a bunch of additives (emulsifiers, conditioners, flavorings, etc.) that attach to the butterfat and seals it off, thus depriving foul odor attachment points.

Well, I like American cheese anyway (call me a heathen) so I had to test this one out. One nice thing is that American cheese is fairly inexpensive compared to some of the other types, so not a huge exposure. Got 6 lbs. of American in block form and cut it up into smaller pieces (nominally 1.5"x4"), put it on frogmats and into the garage overnight to dry out a bit before smoking as Anderson suggests. This morning set up the BDS for cold smoking with my mailbox attachment and two 2-liter ice bottles, loaded up 3 hours of Apple, and slid in the cheese into the chamber. Hope this works out as smoked American should go great with the Maple Cured Canadian Bacon, and I'm all out of my cheddar!!

mikecorn.1 · March 29, 2012, 08:09:04 AM

Nice looking batch of cheese.

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fishrman · March 29, 2012, 10:59:28 AM

3 hours of smoke later (chamber never got above 63F) and out comes the cheese:

I know it gets better with aging, but went ahead and gave it a taste test. Very good, smoke flavor is somehow clean and not ashy like it was on the fresh cheddar. Now have stuck the cheese in the fridge to chill down before vacuum sealing and boy, opening that fridge door right now gets you a blast of smoke aroma right in the face! Looking forward to my omelet tomorrow morning ;D.

So no that the cheese is done, on to the next smoke of the day - Jerky. Here it is stacked and racked and ready to go into the BDS:

mikecorn.1 · March 29, 2012, 11:02:35 AM

Details please ;D. What type? Flavor using?
It's like saying I bought a brand new car ;D. And not giving any other info ;) ;D
Looking forward to the pics. :)

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fishrman · March 29, 2012, 12:01:12 PM

Mike, used London broil and the wild west recipe from the recipe site, but kicked up the chipotle powder by a teaspoon this time. Smoke is rollin' as I type.

mikecorn.1 · March 29, 2012, 12:07:56 PM

Nice.

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viper125 · March 29, 2012, 03:38:12 PM

I like cheese but American and processed is all oil! Wouldn't have thought it would hold up to any heat. even 60 degrees. Could be oil takes flavor different then a milk product though.

fishrman · March 29, 2012, 04:18:52 PM

Viper, Anderson swears by the processed stuff. The early taste was good; I'll post what it is like over time.

JZ · March 29, 2012, 06:26:13 PM

That cheese looks real good. I can attest to the different tastes with different cheeses. I just opened a pack of Jalapeno Havarti that was smoked about 2 months ago with 1hr 20 min of Hickory and it is great - no ash taste at all. It even has a milder smoke taste than what I would like. But the Cheddar I did 5 months ago with 2 hr of hickory still has a very strong almost overpowering smoke taste. Two different cheeses and 2 totally different smoke absorption.

The jerky looks good too. Let us know how it turns out.

La Quinta · March 29, 2012, 06:35:18 PM

I have a question...the "processed American Cheese" you refer to...like a Velveeta kind of cheese?

Smokin Soon · March 29, 2012, 07:28:27 PM

Lq, Velveta can be done, but it your climate might me a prob. I have to partially freeze to keep it together even in the mild temps of San Fran. It does not require the amount of smoke as the harder cheese. 1 hour is fine on the ones that I have done. I think the soft cheese sucks up the smoke quickly. Even if it is below 60 here I still use ice in the cab using the cold smoke adapter.
It sure does make a killer grilled cheese sammy!

fishrman · March 30, 2012, 09:17:48 AM

Quote from: La Quinta on March 29, 2012, 06:35:18 PM
I have a question...the "processed American Cheese" you refer to...like a Velveeta kind of cheese?

American is closer to Velveeta than to cheddar in that it is processed and creamier than cheddar. But it is not a soft as Velveeta and has a somewhat higher melting point. It is great when you want to melt a cheese such as over veggies, in a grilled cheese sandwich, on an omelet, etc.

fishrman · March 31, 2012, 11:20:54 AM

Last night made burgers. No special spice blend, just garlic salt, pepper, worchestershire sauce and chopped onions, all mixed in well. The difference this time was that I put that smoked American cheese on them. All I can say is WOW! That was an incredible burger! The smokiness of that cheese came through 10 times better than the cheddar ever did and the cheese melted beautifully all over the top of the patty. Tomorrow morning it be a canadian bacon omelet that gets the cheese.

It's official, I'm a believer in this smoked American cheese recipe.

La Quinta · April 01, 2012, 12:50:53 AM

SS...I usually don't smoke cheese unless it's below 50 here...as the window is closing...I might try the Velveeta just to see if I can...fill the racks with ice and go for an hour...what the hell right? Use the cold smoke adaptor. Maybe put a pan on the second rack juuussst in case!!!! Go for an hour and vac seal...do you have to wait as long as a whole milk cheeses? I go a minimum of two months on those...

Fishrman you have inspired me!! ;D

fishrman · April 01, 2012, 08:43:30 AM

LQ, this is the first time I've done the American cheese. I've been perfectly happy with the taste and texture starting the day after the smoke. I did vacuum pack the majority of it, so will have to wait and see how they improve with age. Go for it! I want to hear how Velveeta does!