Thinking of my first Cheese, little help!

[wkahler]

Well i got a A-MAZE-N smoke tube in the exchange.  Thinking of doing some cheese on my Traeger since it is cold out and i think in theory i can do it with my new toy.  So will my idea work?  With it being cold out i figured i could light it up stick it in the smoker and stack my cheese on my racks and then have at it.  How long should i smoke it?  I am sure there is a thread on here with some details but wanted to see if my idea will work before i go crazy with it.

[TedEbear]

I recently bought one of those A-MAZE-N smoker tubes, too.  There's lots of info on how long to smoke, what flavor pellets to use, how long to cure it afterwards, etc., via a Google search.  They say to keep a log of what you do so the next time if you want to change something, like if you want a more or less powerful smoke flavor than before, you can easily go back and make changes. 

I went with 1.5 hours of hickory pellets and 4 different types of cheddar and other cheeses.  I've read that it takes around 28 days for the cheddar to cure so I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks to taste the results.  Right out of the smoker the flavor was a bit strong.

Here are some links that helped me:

Cold Smoking Cheese

Smoked Cheese

First smoked cheese. Yuck what did I do wrong?

Smoking Cheddar Tips

[wkahler]

Thanks TedEBear for the lead!

[pensrock]

I have never used a tube smoker but see no reason why you cannot use it in your Traeger to do cheese. I would start with 2 hours of smoke for the first run. and also use a milder smoke. The next time you do cheese then you can decide, Stronger smoke? Longer smoke? I would start with something like apple or maple.

[laserdoc]

I have been using the amaze smoker in my cold smoker attachment. Used it to cold smoke bacon yesterday. My temp stayed at 55 all ll hours. If I cold smoke with the same set up will I be OK with the ambient temps outside or do I need to turn or the cabinet to generate a little heat to bring it up to 70 to 100 degrees

[Saber 4]

You should be good, you don't want it to get to hot.

[pensrock]

I do run my tower heat when doing cheese. But that being said.... I am able to tightly control my temperatures to +- 2 degrees F so I do not have to worry about over shoot or under shooting my set point. Unless you are real comfortable with how well you can control the temperature your better off leaving the heat off. I normally run my tower between 85-90 F depending on the cheese I'm smoking. but if doing a real soft cheese like Velveeta then you need to stay much lower. Smoking cheese is no different than doing any thing else, one person may do it one way another another way. It does not mean one is better or worse. Its best to try different ways to see what works best for you. What is nice here you can learn how many people do things and decide what you want to try. And if it works great, if not then you learned something. :) Have fun. Also if it does happen to start getting too hot even if not using the tower heater, you can always open the door for a few minutes to cool then close it but leave it cracked open a bit to let the heat build up to escape. there still should be plenty of smoke.

[wkahler]

Well today is the day got me a block of cheap mild chedder and letting it smoke with some apple.  Will let it smoke for 2 hours and see what happens.  Ziplock it up and fridge it for 2-3 weeks and see what happens!!!

[pokermeister]

You can try it in 2-3 weeks, but will probably still taste like an ashtray smells. I would wait a minimum of 28 days for conversion.

[wkahler]

OK will do it is 30 days then make it a easier number for me to remember LOL!