Our first attempt at smoking cheese was a success, and after a week to "mellow" before a taste test, we have these opinions....
1. There is little difference between the Alder and Apple smoke, but the Alder is a bit "sharper" and the Apple a bit "smoother". If you didn't have them side by side to compare you would be hard pressed to know which you were eating....
2. With the way our smoker was set up, 5 hours is too much time.... The cheese sweats and tends to split, and the "rind" (in this case the outside smokey layer) is becoming tough and bordering on acrid.... This might penetrate further into the cheese had we waited 2 full weeks (as recommended) before sampling.... Smoking only 1 hour was definitely not enough on our setup.... leaving the "sweet spot" between 2 and 4 hours....
3. Again, with the setup we had, 2 hours leaves the outside of the cheese quite flavourful, with a full smokey taste, but the inside only has a hint of smoke on the Harvarti, and you couldn't taste any difference on the Old Cheddar (as it was already quite "sharp").... Again, after more time the smoke may penetrate further into the middle.... We have lots of each set aside to try again after further "mellowing"....
In order to help reduce the temperature of the cheese, and hence the sweating, I made a "baffle" out of a pizza pan and installed it between the smoker tube and the pan of ice water and rack where the cheese was.... When I started, I had the baffle too close to the smoker tube, and I guess the airflow wasn't enough, as it burned poorly, producing much less smoke.... I moved it further away, as in the photo below, and it worked perfectly.... The baffle is about 1.5" below the hood of the smoker when closed, and the cheese side has lots of smoke, but stays significantly cooler than without the baffle.... There is now no sweating of the cheese, even after 4 hours....
The top row is our own Halloumi, middle row is Mozzarella, and the bottom row is Monterey Jack (both of those store bought).... The column on the left was smoked 4 hours, the middle 3 hours, and those on the right 2 hours.... There is no sweating on any of them, but the corners of the blocks smoked for 4 hours is just starting to dry out a bit.... There was still lots of ice that had not melted, the outside temperature today was 50*F when I started, and 58*F at the end.... I think I have my technique and equipment sorted out now, and look forward to smoking some of our other cheeses when they are ready....
If you haven't tried smoked cheese, you are definitely missing out....
Bob