Temps today were not optimal for cold smoking, but I have friends coming in 2 weeks, and they requested smoked cheese.
Soooooo, I sliced up 5 lbs. of sharp cheddar into chunks, and included a pound of soft goat cheese just for the heck of it.
Used a Q-Mat I bought from Todd, and slid into the fridge smoker with about 10 lbs of ice inside.
Since temps are in the 70's today, I thought it best to speed up the smoke as much as possible. Lit up my AMNPS on both sides with a 50/50 mix of apple and peach pellets, and kept my smoker inside the garage, out of the sun with the garage door wide open.
Pulled them out after 3-1/2 hours. My probe was reading 92°, but it didn't feel that hot in there to me. I'll have to calibrate it again.
Anyway, here are a couple before shots:
And a couple after shots:
As you can see, there was no melting at all. The goat cheese held up remarkably well on the Q-Mat. Not so well when I went to insert it into a vacuum sealer bag. Oh well, it's still mostly intact.
So the verdict--Todd's Q-Mats are great! I'm sure this would not have worked out half this well without it. Thanks Todd, you've come thru again with another great product!
Soooooo, I sliced up 5 lbs. of sharp cheddar into chunks, and included a pound of soft goat cheese just for the heck of it.
Used a Q-Mat I bought from Todd, and slid into the fridge smoker with about 10 lbs of ice inside.
Since temps are in the 70's today, I thought it best to speed up the smoke as much as possible. Lit up my AMNPS on both sides with a 50/50 mix of apple and peach pellets, and kept my smoker inside the garage, out of the sun with the garage door wide open.
Pulled them out after 3-1/2 hours. My probe was reading 92°, but it didn't feel that hot in there to me. I'll have to calibrate it again.
Anyway, here are a couple before shots:
And a couple after shots:
As you can see, there was no melting at all. The goat cheese held up remarkably well on the Q-Mat. Not so well when I went to insert it into a vacuum sealer bag. Oh well, it's still mostly intact.
So the verdict--Todd's Q-Mats are great! I'm sure this would not have worked out half this well without it. Thanks Todd, you've come thru again with another great product!
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