My first cold smoke of cheese.........

[firerescueman]

Hey all,

Did my first cold smoke tonight.  Sorry,  no pics.   The outside temp was around 40 degrees tonight so I decided it was time to try it.  I smoked 12oz blocks of extra sharp cheddar,  a colby-jack blend, pepper jack, and swiss.

Right now they smell alot like an ashtray.....  but I still can hardly wait to try them!  I figure maybe next weekend........

(jeopardy theme will be playing in my head all week....... :P )

wish me luck!


Jeff

[Mr Walleye]

I feel for ya Jeff. The cheese sounds great, I gotta do me some too.

I just did a batch of salmon that's supposed to be for Christmas Eve but I accidentally ate one package already.  ::) Ohhh... But it was good!  ;) :D

The wait is always a killer...   ;)

Mike

[Buck36]

I am grabbing some cheese in the morning to get in the smoker too. I wanted to have some done for the relatives at Christmas. I have been procrastinating so long I am getting tight on time for the cheese to mellow in the fridge. Good to hear you are right on schedule!

[firerescueman]

Ok.....

I got the urge today to sample a little bit of my newly smoked cheese.....


WRONG THING TO DO!!!!!!

it was   NNNAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS- "T"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tasted like I was licking a used cigarette butt....


O well,  Guess I should have waited a few more days.....  I re-vacuum sealed the bag and put it back in the fridge for a few more days.


The good news is that I no longer have the urge...... :o ::) :-\


Jeff

[Smoking Duck]

I keep telling my kids, Don't put your tongue on the frozen flagpole.  Sure enough, one of them has to try it just cause I said not to.  Welcome to the club, Jeff!  ;D

[Caneyscud]

[Mr Walleye]

Hey Caneyscud... I resemble that!  :D  :D  ;D

Mike

[firerescueman]

ok....    2 1/2 weeks and still tastes like an ashtray.......


keep on waiting I guess.....   :-\  :-\


I really want to cut my cheese  ::)  :'(

[firerescueman]

WOOOO  HOOOOO!!!!!


Looks like that was my 100th post!    I just got upgraded to junior member!      Do I get a free brisket or something since I hit this important milestone?

How about some AGED smoked cheese?

LOL


Merry Christmas all!


Jeff

[Smoking Duck]

Jeff,

Something may be wrong if your cheese still tastes like an ashtray after 2 1/2 weeks.  By 10 days, usually all of my cheese has gotten to the point where it is extremely edible.

How long did you smoke the bad boys for and what type of wood?  How high did the temp get in the box?  I would think at 2 1/2 weeks if it still tasted like an ashtray something just isn't right.

SD

[deb415611]

Jeff,

I smoked some within a day of yours.  I will be opening some of mine later today and will let you know how mine is. 


SD,

Jeff's original post but was the 13th so only 1 1/2 weeks but even at that shouldn't it be ok?

Deb

[firerescueman]

oops....   just realized the typo.....   yes   1 1/2 weeks,   not 2 1/2 weeks.

sorry,

Thanks for catching that, Deb!


Jeff

[Smoking Duck]

Yes, the cheese should have mellowed quite a bit by the 10 day mark.  Usually I find if it has the bitter taste that long, a couple of things may have happened:

1. Too much smoke
2. Too high temp when smoking
3.  Used mesquite  ;D

Some will find that a 3 hour smoke is way too much for certain cheeses; their palates may only tolerate a 1 hour smoke.  Accordingly, what you and I find very good may be viewed as too smoky and thus the ash-tray taste.  Really hard to tell.  The first time I did cheese, the temp got away from me a little and while the cheese wasn't ruined, it had the ash-tray taste which I think was caused by the mixing of the smoke and the oils produced by a sweating cheese.

I could be totally off-base on this but that's been my observations, anyways.

SD

[pensrock]

I cannot say the reason but if I smoke cheese using the bradley generator, it takes a long time to mellow. When I smoke cheese in my old gas grill setup it is ready to eat after 7-10 days, but gets even better the longer it sets. The old set up uses a hot plate and ducting for the smoke to get into the grill area. I need to smoke it longer using this setup but the cheese takes on much more color. I have never had an ashtray taste to cheese using this setup. I am experimenting with the Bradley generator and a cold box setup trying to duplicate the taste and making the process easier and quicker. What I have found is the cheese from the Bradley will mellow but takes longer for it to do so. Some I have done a month ago is just now getting close to eating.

[Smoking Duck]

Wow, Pens.  I just had some cheese that was smoked about 10 days ago for Christmas and it had great flavor to it.  I wonder if it has anything to do with opening the door when cold-smoking?  I have had some at the 5 day mark that tasted ashy, but I expected that.  Just wonder what the difference is as I've never had an ashy taste at the 10 day mark with any of the cheese I've done in the Bradley except for the ones mentioned earlier where the heat got higher than I expected it.  I wonder if you can keep your unit at the 50F mark versus 70F mark if it makes a difference?  I'm just throwing arbitrary numbers out there; not sure if it would make a difference at all, but this has piqued my interest.  The last time I did cheese, I was able to keep the box under 60F for the entire smoke except for about the last 10 minutes where it hit a high of 65F.  Now, I've got to do some investigating.....................i wonder if it makes a difference on the mellowing time if the cheese is directly vac sealed out of the smoker or if allowed to "breathe" a little before vac sealing?  The problem is that most times I'm a simpleton and just do it as I've done it before...now, you've piqued my interest to start doing some "trial runs" and see if I can notice a discernable difference.

SD