No expert here, but the way I understand it is the smoke flavor permeates the cheese and the strong bitter initial "ash tray" flavor mellows. Have you tried Kevin's at any of the G2G's? Ms. buZZsaw says I'm much better after she vacuum seals me for a couple weeks!!!
The last couple years I've been buying different smoked cheeses. Fresh smoked mozzarella, hickory smoked shredded cheddar (cant find it any more) smoked string cheeses etc. Have seen it in block form so decided to give it a shot.
Youre a bad influence Mike. I was at the downstairs fridge this afternoon and spied the Ziploc bag of them. Opened it up and it smelled like pure Heaven...at least to my olfactory. I couldn't resist any more. Had a few pieces then and a few more for dessert. I will wait til next month to open the vacuum sealed ones.
Good point! I tested it again last night after I sent that last message! Ive yet to try mulberry for smoking as Chvymn99 uses it for cheese. Wishing there was a way I could smoke just a couple pieces to try. For me its SOOOO good already, why try something else? I've used apple, cherry, hickory and oak. I did more research and maple is good for cheese too.
Anybody smoke nuts? I bought a bag of smokehouse almonds last night and thought of trying it out on the smoker. Any tips/pointers appreciated.
No but interested. We ordered a large 5lb bag of what was supposed to be roasted & salted almonds from Amazon, but they sent us plain blanched almonds. Apparently there were no returns so Amazon said just keep them and refunded me. Was thinking of roasting them myself or making almond butter or almond flour.
Has any one smoked potatoes for baking. We were served some at a friends house. Delicious! Don't know the specifics but they were great!
Sounds good. We've been making smashed pototoes in the oven recently. Wonder if they would be cold smoked once baked? Warm smoked with cheese and bacon bits? Just looked it up. Pretty easy. Just like a baked potato only no foil wrapping. Coat with oil and sea salt. Next time I smoke turkey sausage I'll make potatoes too. Just start earlier as they take longer to cook and same temp.
Gonna do another cold smoke of cheese tomorrow. Forgot she gave me a smoker box for a gift and will use that instead of making a fire. Wont have to worry about melting it this time. I cut a bunch of apple here last year and for some reason saved all the saw dust from it. Hope it works well. Pics to follow. I am down to the last block of parchment wrapped cheese from the first run. It is some darn good stuff. Saving the vacuum sealed for next month.
The cheese is on. Cool day with temps in the upper 40's so good day for it. Trying the smoke box this time with apple saw dust. Wouldn't stay lit even though it was dry and I held the torch to it several times. Ill try chips next time. I ended up starting a couple handfuls of Lump charcoal and dumping the saw dust on it. Worked like a charm. Nearing the end as I type. Three hour smoke again and mo melting this time thanks to the cold smoke.
Well I broke into the vacuum sealed cheese smoked over a month ago. Not as good as I expected. The dry texture surprised me. Wouldn't think it would dry out in an airtight environment. I never sealed the cheese from the last smoke two weeks ago. Those were parchment paper wrapped in a Ziploc bag. Tried some yesterday and finished the first block this morning. Guess I found my preference. Unsure of when my next cheese smoke will be, but would like another one or two before it gets too warm.
My current supply of smoked cheese is dwindling so with a cool day I fired up the smoker. Couple pounds of sharp cheddar and the same of block mozzarella plus some string cheese. Did the lump charcoal with apple saw dust again. Just over an hour in. Shooting for three three hours again.
Just took the mozz off. I gave it more time than the cheddar. Cheddar got some good color. Unfortunately with my sinus infection I cant smell how good it is.
Looks awesome! I did my first cheese smoke last weekend and vac sealed it and broke it out yesterday. Was amazing, the vac seal really made it nice and smokey. I also threw on some chicken thighs on the cowboy fire grill. My youngest can't get enough of chicken on the bone.
Its good stuff the smoked cheese. The one "recipe" I found online said to wrap in parchment paper for 2+ days then vacuum seal. The longer it sealed the better it gets. I never VS the second batch I did in early April. Still have a few blocks from my early March smoke. Seems like it dries out the longer its sealed. I wanna try making a white pizza with smoked mozz and chicken. I read you could cold smoke cooked chix which I may do. Shouldve yesterday, but oh well.
I was told by an italian that this is not pizza but here goes anyway. BBQ sauce , chicken ( smoked would be perfect here) and cheddar cheese. I know it sounds a little funky but it is darn good.
