Author Topic: Time to smoke  (Read 1826 times)

John@PC

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Time to smoke
« on: February 13, 2014, 05:07:19 PM »
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.

John@PC

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Re: Time to smoke
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2014, 09:32:03 PM »
Adding the final results.  Ended up going a little longer than planned (4 hr.).

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Time to smoke
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2014, 10:07:23 PM »
Looks great :P I didn't care for my smoked cheese at 2 weeks at 4 weeks much better at 3 months MMMMmmmMMmmmmm
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John@PC

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Re: Time to smoke
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2014, 11:33:09 PM »
I've ordered a vacuum bagger (going to give my little foodsaver rechargeable to my son for sous vide) and as soon as I get it I'll vacuum bag each one separately.   Will be interesting how extra aging helps.  Thanks.

jwalker

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Re: Time to smoke
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2014, 06:00:07 PM »
I don't care for smoked cheese , but my wife likes it , so will have to do some. ;D

I do really like that smoker , never seen one before , does it work good.?

Does it ever go out , or does it burn the whole load of sawdust/chips pretty well ?

I wonder if it would work with pellets , I guess I should look at the link instead of bothering you with all the questions. :-[

Your smoked cheeses look good , a CHEEZ LOUEEZ !

John@PC

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Re: Time to smoke
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2014, 01:09:14 AM »
Thanks jwalker.  Too late to smoke some cheese for your wife for Valentine's day but you have enough time for International Woman's Day.   The smoker works great: simple, not that expensive and small.  Don't be turned off by it's small size as it's is very efficient.  Mine did "go out" on one end but started back up by blowing on it to get it smoking again.  I thought I needed to smoke longer because of it but that may have been a slight mistake because when I opened my cave to get the cheeses out to vacuum bag it smelled like a smokehouse ^-^.

This is only the third time I've used it and there are probably some variables there like dust moisture, ambient temp. etc.  that could affect burning rate.  They do make one for pellets. 

Anyway, I got my Vacmaster and bags today and enjoyed the "bagging" experience.