1st Attempt at Smoking Cheese

[johnsdorsey]

Tried my first cheese today. Used new 6" Amazen tube. Weather was in 40's today. But I had a heck of a time keeping the temp below 90! I kept opening the door to drop the temp. I was just surprised at how much heat was generated by the pellet tube. I couldn't decide if it was better to open the vents to let the heat out or if that was adding air and feeding the fire. I tried adding cold water to the pan but that didn't seem to make any difference. Any ideas??

 

[pineywoods]

What kind of smoker??

 

[ksblazer]

I've seen some posts about freezing milk gallon jugs and 2 liter soda bottles. I just fill up the water pan with ice in my camp chef smoke vault and replenish when it's all melted.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Not sure what kind of smoker you have but you definitely want to leave the vents wide open. If the smoker is very well insulated you can add jugs of frozen water to help. How did the cheese turn out?

 

[SonnyE]

Wrong method.
Dissolve some pellets with water and make some sawdust. Dry it and use sawdust.
It smolders along nice and slow and cool, compared to what Pellets do.
Cold smoking is <100°. So there is your desired target temperature. Keep it below 100°
I'm completely sold on dissolving my 146 year supply into sawdust. Better control, better taste, better smoke.
I have a Sawdust casserole baking right now in my MES 30.

 

[johnsdorsey]

I have a MES 130/B. Thanks for the tips. I'll try the sawdust and ice next time.

The cheese looked OK, haven't tasted it yet.

 

[SonnyE]

I have a MES 130/B. Thanks for the tips. I'll try the sawdust and ice next time.

The cheese looked OK, haven't tasted it yet.

It gets better as it ages and the smoke flavor evens out. So don't throw it out after the first sampling. ;)