Got to get some cheese ready for Colorado.
I left out the part about cutting up the blocks of cheese. Today I smoked up blocks of Swiss, Sharp Cheddar, pre-chopped cubes of Med Cheddar, slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack. I cut the large bricks of Swiss and Sharp Cheddar down into cubes as well. 5 hours of Apple smoke, courtesy of Todd's AMNPS. If you don't have one of these, you're missing out. And his Apple Pellets are the best I've used, and believe me, I have this thing for apple smoking.
Anyway, enough of the endoresements and on to the smoking. I used my GOSM, mostly because of it's large capacity. The QVues will speak for themselves. Oh, by the way, the ambient temp inside the smoker was about 74 degrees, yet, as you will notice there was a hot spot in all the trays, which are in alignment with the exhaust stack of the GOSM.
All loaded up. AMNPS down at the bottom on top of the inverted water pan.
The requisite thin blue smoke. It's a 5 hour smoke, we're going to kiss the cheese with smoke, not hit it with heavy rolling smoke.
New mini camera, learning how to use it. See, now we have a date stamp. That's going away.
5 hours later, smoke is off, so to speak, door open and airing out the cheese.
Smoked Sharp cheddar
Smoked Med Cheddar
You can really see the hot spot above right hand side, middle. That was my string cheese.
Smoked Swiss
You can easily see the hot spot in the Swiss trays. Hope I remember that fact the next time I smoke some cheese. And yes I know the time sequence is out of sync. When you are retired, you really don't care....
Up next, sliced pepper jack. I kept them in 2 slice packages, then when I cut them up for serving, it's easier.
Now the same thing with sliced Monterey Jack (SWMBO's favorite cheese).
And now we're almost all wrapped up
How about a closer look?
and
A note about the sliced cheese. After being in the smoker for 5 hours, the slices were rather soft so each 2 slices has a layer of wax paper between. It'll make separation easier later. I learned this lesson a few months back in a previous cheese smoking session. All was not lost though. Instead of slices, I had a very thick slice. Just as good.
Well, it's been my pleasure to bring this all to you. For any newbies out there contemplating smoking cheese, remember if the ambient temp is in the 90's, think about jugs of frozen water in the water pan or you'll get, uh, string cheese, yeah , that's it.
Thanks for the viewing. Later.
~Dave
I left out the part about cutting up the blocks of cheese. Today I smoked up blocks of Swiss, Sharp Cheddar, pre-chopped cubes of Med Cheddar, slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack. I cut the large bricks of Swiss and Sharp Cheddar down into cubes as well. 5 hours of Apple smoke, courtesy of Todd's AMNPS. If you don't have one of these, you're missing out. And his Apple Pellets are the best I've used, and believe me, I have this thing for apple smoking.
Anyway, enough of the endoresements and on to the smoking. I used my GOSM, mostly because of it's large capacity. The QVues will speak for themselves. Oh, by the way, the ambient temp inside the smoker was about 74 degrees, yet, as you will notice there was a hot spot in all the trays, which are in alignment with the exhaust stack of the GOSM.
All loaded up. AMNPS down at the bottom on top of the inverted water pan.
The requisite thin blue smoke. It's a 5 hour smoke, we're going to kiss the cheese with smoke, not hit it with heavy rolling smoke.
New mini camera, learning how to use it. See, now we have a date stamp. That's going away.
5 hours later, smoke is off, so to speak, door open and airing out the cheese.
Smoked Sharp cheddar
Smoked Med Cheddar
You can really see the hot spot above right hand side, middle. That was my string cheese.
Smoked Swiss
You can easily see the hot spot in the Swiss trays. Hope I remember that fact the next time I smoke some cheese. And yes I know the time sequence is out of sync. When you are retired, you really don't care....
Up next, sliced pepper jack. I kept them in 2 slice packages, then when I cut them up for serving, it's easier.
Now the same thing with sliced Monterey Jack (SWMBO's favorite cheese).
And now we're almost all wrapped up
How about a closer look?
and
A note about the sliced cheese. After being in the smoker for 5 hours, the slices were rather soft so each 2 slices has a layer of wax paper between. It'll make separation easier later. I learned this lesson a few months back in a previous cheese smoking session. All was not lost though. Instead of slices, I had a very thick slice. Just as good.
Well, it's been my pleasure to bring this all to you. For any newbies out there contemplating smoking cheese, remember if the ambient temp is in the 90's, think about jugs of frozen water in the water pan or you'll get, uh, string cheese, yeah , that's it.
Thanks for the viewing. Later.
~Dave
