Smoked some cheese today!
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Well I took the cheese out of the butcher paper and used the Walton’s fresh vac sealer to seal all the cheese. One thing I noticed about the butcher paper is it allowed the cheese to develop a bit of a rind on the outside. Maybe next time I will only let it sit for 24 hours instead of 48. I did try a small slice and I think it is going to be good! I am going to try some at 1 week vac sealed to see how smokey it is. If it is a bit strong I will let it mellow another week.
ND Mike i have never tried wrapping in butcher paper and don’t see much of an advantage. I’ve heard some talk about “drying” the cheese. These cheeses are already finished, we are just adding smoke. I think the oil some think they are drying off is because the cheese got too warm during the smoke. If you decide to “dry” the cheese, 24 may even be too much. It is still the same cheese before you smoked it, so you have to ask if you would treat it like that without smoking it. I just let mine set in the fridge an hour or so lightly cover with a paper towel to cool, or cool down in the smoker if its cold enough outside, then I vacuum pack like some have metioned. It mellows after being vac packed. Just my 2 cents.
As zbigjeff has posted, about any cheese can also be frozen as long as its thawed properly.“You never really die until you end up on the wall at a Cracker Barrel”
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ND Mike i have never tried wrapping in butcher paper and don’t see much of an advantage. I’ve heard some talk about “drying” the cheese. These cheeses are already finished, we are just adding smoke. I think the oil some think they are drying off is because the cheese got too warm during the smoke. If you decide to “dry” the cheese, 24 may even be too much. It is still the same cheese before you smoked it, so you have to ask if you would treat it like that without smoking it. I just let mine set in the fridge an hour or so lightly cover with a paper towel to cool, or cool down in the smoker if its cold enough outside, then I vacuum pack like some have metioned. It mellows after being vac packed. Just my 2 cents.
As zbigjeff has posted, about any cheese can also be frozen as long as its thawed properly.GWG8541 Exactly how I do it. I agree with everything you said, it doesn’t take much heat to bring out the oil
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Well I took the cheese out of the butcher paper and used the Walton’s fresh vac sealer to seal all the cheese. One thing I noticed about the butcher paper is it allowed the cheese to develop a bit of a rind on the outside. Maybe next time I will only let it sit for 24 hours instead of 48. I did try a small slice and I think it is going to be good! I am going to try some at 1 week vac sealed to see how smokey it is. If it is a bit strong I will let it mellow another week.
ND Mike looking good my friend
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The Cookshack smokers have a “Cold Smoke” baffle that you can buy. This is a heavy stainless steel plate that you freeze and then slide into the smoker between the heat source and the smoke chamber. You can do basically the same thing with a pan of ice. I have smoked cheese with the outside temps in the high 80’s. I just have to make sure the smoker is in the shade or I get some cheese melt.
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ND Mike i have never tried wrapping in butcher paper and don’t see much of an advantage. I’ve heard some talk about “drying” the cheese. These cheeses are already finished, we are just adding smoke. I think the oil some think they are drying off is because the cheese got too warm during the smoke. If you decide to “dry” the cheese, 24 may even be too much. It is still the same cheese before you smoked it, so you have to ask if you would treat it like that without smoking it. I just let mine set in the fridge an hour or so lightly cover with a paper towel to cool, or cool down in the smoker if its cold enough outside, then I vacuum pack like some have metioned. It mellows after being vac packed. Just my 2 cents.
As zbigjeff has posted, about any cheese can also be frozen as long as its thawed properly.GWG8541 yeah, I didn’t have any problem with oil as it was not going to get too hot. I had watched videos where they used parchment paper or butcher paper. I even saw one video using saran wrap. The premise was to allow the smoke to work into the cheese and not just on the outside layer. Who knows…we will see after I sample some.
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ND Mike i have never tried wrapping in butcher paper and don’t see much of an advantage. I’ve heard some talk about “drying” the cheese. These cheeses are already finished, we are just adding smoke. I think the oil some think they are drying off is because the cheese got too warm during the smoke. If you decide to “dry” the cheese, 24 may even be too much. It is still the same cheese before you smoked it, so you have to ask if you would treat it like that without smoking it. I just let mine set in the fridge an hour or so lightly cover with a paper towel to cool, or cool down in the smoker if its cold enough outside, then I vacuum pack like some have metioned. It mellows after being vac packed. Just my 2 cents.
As zbigjeff has posted, about any cheese can also be frozen as long as its thawed properly.GWG8541 I would be interested if you would share the proper way to thaw frozen cheese. Is it different between cheese flavors or brick versus shredded? Thanks
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GWG8541 I would be interested if you would share the proper way to thaw frozen cheese. Is it different between cheese flavors or brick versus shredded? Thanks
Jesser I do not ussually freeze shredded, just block. I vacuum pac anything I freeze. I take it from the freezer and let it thaw in a fridge for at least 2 full days before I use/open it.
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GWG8541 I would be interested if you would share the proper way to thaw frozen cheese. Is it different between cheese flavors or brick versus shredded? Thanks
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Jesser Throw the frozen cheese in the fridge for 3 days (I make it 4 for good measure) and the cheese is just wonderful in texture and ready for consumption.
zbigjeff I agree with the longer the natural thaw the better. 2 full days is a minimum and obviously the size of block and fridge temps come into play a little. I ussually smoke smaller/thinner blocks.
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Jesser I do not ussually freeze shredded, just block. I vacuum pac anything I freeze. I take it from the freezer and let it thaw in a fridge for at least 2 full days before I use/open it.
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zbigjeff I agree with the longer the natural thaw the better. 2 full days is a minimum and obviously the size of block and fridge temps come into play a little. I ussually smoke smaller/thinner blocks.
GWG8541 As normal, use and do whatever works great for YOU and guidelines are just THAT. Love the banter.
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I know Jon and Austin are everything but the meat. Have they made a video on best practices for smoking cheese or is it still to come?
dawg i don’t think they have.
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Mike would you be so kind on letting me know what is a good temp to smoke your selection of cheeses and type of wood used. I have been a lover of smoked cheese forever and would like to try and make my own
BruceBruce 0 this was the first time I have done. I know most people wait until the temps are cold and do it with no heat. The rulebis nothing over 90 degrees. I just used a smoke tube for wood smoking pellets and used cherry pellets for this.
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Bruce 0 this was the first time I have done. I know most people wait until the temps are cold and do it with no heat. The rulebis nothing over 90 degrees. I just used a smoke tube for wood smoking pellets and used cherry pellets for this.
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I’m not endorsing this company or brand, but you can always use aluminum foil tape and this ducting between the smoke generator and smoker and it will dissipate the heat to absolute ambient temp.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Deflecto-Semi-Rigid-Flexible-Aluminum-Duct-4-dia-x-8ft/5005422529?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-app-_-bng-_-PLA_APP_174_Laundry-_-5005422529-_-Online-_-0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&ds_rl=1286890&gclsrc=ds -
I love dashboard warm smoked cheese while traveling.
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Mike would you be so kind on letting me know what is a good temp to smoke your selection of cheeses and type of wood used. I have been a lover of smoked cheese forever and would like to try and make my own
BruceBruce 0: I know you were asking NDMike but I am a Mike also. I have been doing cheese for a long while now. I have done a lot of different types of cheese. The Cheddars are a good place to start. I have done everything from medium to extra sharp, Dubliner and Coastal are Irish pub cheddars and are good. I liked cheddar habanero but can’t find it in blocks anymore. Pepper Jack is a really good cheese to smoke. I smoke Swiss cheese in both the blocks and Jarlesberg which is cut from a wheel. Gouda and Havarti are good as is Mozzarella. I have done both the block and fresh balls of Mozzarella. You have to take special precautions as far as the smoker temps with these soft cheeses. The fresh Mozzarella needs to be wrapped in cheese cloth. The one cheese that I have smoked and can’t stand is Gruyère. This is a personal thing, I simply cannot stand the smell of this cheese, it smells like dirty feet to me and I can’t get it past my nose. I have heard of people smoking blue cheese, and cottage cheese but haven’t tried them yet. I have a piece of parmesan that I am going to smoke in the next couple days. Woods I use to smoke include pretty much all of them. I really like oak but can’t find it in pellet form around here. Hickory and pecan are both good. Since I have been using the smoke tube method of smoking cheese I have been using the hard wood and fruit wood blended pellets. I have heard that straw smoked fresh Mozzarella is really good. I have used different methods with my smokers. When using the cold smoke baffle I place the baffle between the heat source and the cheese. Start the smoker and let it run until I see smoke coming out of the vent and then turn the heat off. This gives me about 2 hours of smoke. I usually go through this cycle 3 or 4 times. I have also done this using just a large pan of ice between the heat and the cheese. I have gone to using just the smoke tube and when I do cheese using the tube I have done it without anything between the tube and cheese with moderate success but prefer using a pan of cold water or ice between the tube and cheese. Don’t ask me how I know, but I would urge anyone starting out smoking cheese to put a drip pan covered with aluminum foil under the cheese. This saves a LOT of clean up until you get the hang of smoking cheese.
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