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

pensrock · December 25, 2008, 09:51:59 AM

The first thing I'm going to try is to allow much more venting. I want the smoke to pass over the cheese and not linger on the cheese. Like you said open the door a little. When using the old grill smoker the temps inside ranged from 70-100. I do not like it to get that hot so I end up opening the top to allow excess heat out. I think ideally the temp should be 60-90, I also wonder if this helps with the cheese taking on more color or if its strictly a time in smoke thing? When I did the batch with the cold box/generator setup the temp stayed below 50 the whole time. My next test is to put the hotplate setup in my cold box and try a batch that way. This will tell me if its the smoke from the generator is more concentrated then that from the sawdust/wood chip smoldering on the hotplate. At this point my cheese out of the old setup is much better tasting and looking than the Bradley but I'm going to try to figure this out because the Bradley is much easier to use than having to change the pan on the hotplate every 30-40 minutes. Plus I can fit more product in the Bradley.

firerescueman · December 25, 2008, 11:09:44 AM

ok... here's what I did...........

2 hours of apple, did 1 lb blocks of sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, colby jack, and pepper jack. the temp in the box stayed mostly around 65, but climbed to about 80 right at the end. I had a pan of ice water on the bottom shelf to help keep the temps down.

The cheese was just a little sweaty when I pulled it out of the smoker, but I patted it down with paper towels and vacuum sealed it within the hour.

I will give it another week and see what happens. I usually love smoked cheese and I'm really anxious to make this work.

Thanks for all the help!

Merry Christmas !

Jeff

Smoking Duck · December 25, 2008, 11:18:11 AM

Really hope it mellows out for you Jeff. Nothing worse than the anticipation and then the product doesn't match the expectations.

Pens, I wish that the color change were more dramatic with the Bradley than it is but I'm not sure if that is more psychological than physiological. Probably more with the brain than with the taste buds.

One thing is for sure: this kind of homework is much more appealing than the stuff I did for school! ;D

SD

pensrock · December 25, 2008, 11:33:23 AM

firerescueman, it sounds to me like you should be fine. Everyone likes a different amount of smoke, it will continue to mellow so in another week or so I would try it again.

QuotePens, I wish that the color change were more dramatic with the Bradley than it is but I'm not sure if that is more psychological than physiological. Probably more with the brain than with the taste buds.

SD, you are probably right. I'm not as concerned about the color as much as duplicating the taste from my old smoker. But I'll tell you something, I can tell just from the color if its done or not, out of the old smoker. I'll just have to learn some more before I can do that out of the Bradley. We'll get it figured out.

FLBentRider · December 25, 2008, 01:42:27 PM

Mine was great after 14 days. Door closed, three hours of smoke, it sweated a little.

Opened the pepper jack today. Wowsers!

hogansons · March 01, 2009, 09:29:08 AM

I usually wrap the cheese in a paper towel in a zip lock for about 24 hours before I vaccum pack it. I soaks up some of the "cheese sweat". I can't keep enough cheese in the fridge. I end up doing about 10lbs a month. Being from MN the temps make it easy to do in the winter. I love the -25 days for cold smoking, it works great.

Quote from: firerescueman on December 13, 2008, 08:22:08 PM
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

Roadking · March 10, 2009, 12:59:30 PM

Next time I do cheese in the Bradley I'm going to do the garbage can method. Something just doesn't seem right to me that you have to wait all that time.

Take the SG out and seal all of the holes up, place a crumpled up burning brown paper bag in a dry water bowl.
Get my racked cheese and put in on the second rack spot from the top and close the door.
Wait an hour.
This is the way we smoke Mozzarella at the Italian store and it was ready to eat 2 hours later. The smoke penetrated about 3/4" on a 7" ball of Mozzarella.

Ka Honu · March 10, 2009, 02:44:18 PM

Only two more days till my first batch (cheddar, pepper jack, and Parmesan) hits the ten-day mark!