When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one person to take his hobby to the next level, he moves from Wine and Beer to Cheese. After all what is the logical food stuff that is served with Wine....Cheese of course. Now I have yet to be brave enough to tackle the actual cheese making process, I have decided to tackle the smoking of cheeses.
I picked two of my favorites to start with. Cheddar and Pepper Jack. I am using my Backyard smoker and Hickory chips to do the job.
There is one huge difference in the smoking of cheese and the smoking of meat. In meat I normally get my smoker to 225 to 250 degrees and smoke the meat for many hours. That is way too hot for cheese, in fact anything over 90 degrees is too much, all you want to do is smoke it not cook it.
To accomplish this I choose a day when it wold be cold outside, and used just a few bits of Charcoal.
Be sure to pick a day when it is cold, even 4 pieces of charcoal can heat up a smoker grill. As you can see I choose a perfect day to smoke the cheeses I have chosen.
As you can see I cut the cheeses (Did I just say that) into halves. I did this for two reasons, one I really liked smoke flavor and want to make sure the smokiness gets to most parts of the cheese. And two I wanted to make it easier to store the cheese when it is done.
Now I do something that most people in parts of the country not used to smoking food forgets, I soak the wood chips for a while, the time it takes to get everything together is about right for chips. This simulates the wood being green and creates more smoke.
Place the cheese as far from the fire as possible, if you have a regular charcoal grill you can place a few coals in a large can, such from Pork and Beans and this will keep most of the heat away from the cheese wile allowing the smoke to cook it.
Once the smoking starts just let it go until it is done, this depends on the amount of smoke you create and the amount of cheese you are smoking.