The weather here in central SC is warm and beautiful as the pictures show
. I've been meaning to "clear my cheese spindle" and figured it's a perfect day for smoking. I use the 6"
Amazing Smoker with a hickory, maple, cherry blend of wood dust. My smoker is an el-cheapo small Charbroil grill which does great. Steps and pictures below:
1. Pulled cheeses out of cave and brushed / cut off any mold
2. Cut a section out of each cheese and vacuumed bagged the leftovers.
3. Filled the smoker with dust, making sure the surface of the dust is below the "channels"
4. Lit each end with propane torch (burning from both ends will smoke for 3 to 4 hr.)
5. Set smoker in bottom (with no bottom grate), put grates and cheese into smoker and smoke for 3 hr.
6. Vacuum bag and refrigerate (or put back in cave) for 2 weeks for flavor to penetrate.
All of these cheeses had been cut so I've pretty much lost track of which is which. I know there is an Alpine-style tomme, small cheddar, Gouda, gruyere, small caerphilly, Emmental in there somewhere. The "oddest" is a aged lightly pressed ricotta (about 5 months now in the cave) that was an experiment - ok but should be better being smoked. I'll add the "finished" picture this afternoon.