First cheese smoke of the season

Using either the soup can and soldering iron or the AmazN Tube method, I smoke for about 2 hours also. I use my gas grill with the smoker element on the grates and the cheese (or butter) on the warming rack above. I use either alder or apple chips/pellets.
Note: get butter sticks and roll them in garlic powder and smoke them. When finished store in fridge until you grill a steak and as serving place a pat on the warm steak. Heaven.

magnusfide wrote:
SD, you've made the forum awesome again with your smoking! You're an inspiration to us all. I'm thinking smoked cheese would be a terrific Christmas present for cheese aficionados :w

Thanks Magnus. I'm still nursing some health problems but had to get back to doing something productive.

Gjac wrote:
How many hrs do you guy smoke the cheese for?

Everyone's smoker (brand) operates a little differently. My smoker is very air tight and really holds the smoke in. 2 hours of smoke is what works for me. Smoke taste preference is also a very subjective thing so one has to do some trial and error testing. If I was doing it for the first time, I'd pull a few blocks out at different time intervals and label them, 1 hour, 2 hour, etc. and then taste test after the appropriate resting period. I would recommend at least 2 weeks before sampling and then sampling in one week increments.

SD, you've made the forum awesome again with your smoking! You're an inspiration to us all. I'm thinking smoked cheese would be a terrific Christmas present for cheese aficionados :w

How many hrs do you guy smoke the cheese for?

Looks great SD. I started stockpiling today. Went to the supermarket to get supplies for Turkey day, and grabbed 8lbs of assorted cheeses. I usually do 30-40 lbs a yr.

Temps were in the 30's here today so it seemed like a great time to do up another batch.

Thanks for posting about the A maze. The electric element on my smoker burned out so I removed it and installed a new bottom plate with holes in it to allow smoke to come up with a smoldering wood fire from below. I just smoked some blue fish yesterday with oak and it came out good. A wood fire is much more difficult to control temperature wise that electric. I will have to try some cheese and eggs. By the way smoked fish dip is delicious also.

Taste testing has begun. It's getting close to being there.

I have issues with the maze thingy staying lit. I think air flow is important. I usually end up with a box fan blowing in the direction of the kettle, towards the bottom, the help with the air. Under hot conditions obviously the convection process keeps drawing in air, but when cold smoking I seem to need to help it.

I have a traeger, but I can't turn the fan on separate from the smoke pot, so can't do cheese in there.