I've seen a lot of pictures on here of cheese smokes gone bad because of higher temperatures. This can happen easily in warmer climates and warmer months. I've been thinking the mat would add a good bit of support and might just help out smoking cheese in warmer temperatures but I needed to test it to see if my thoughts were correct. So I decided to test it this evening.
I smoked 6 lbs of cheese for 3 hours then removed 4 lbs and left 2 lbs for the high temperature test. I had two 1/2 lb blocks of cheddar and two 1/2 blocks of mozzarella. I placed one of each on the mat and one of each straight on the plain rack.
The outside temperature was 69* when I started and dropped to 56* by the end. The smoker temperature was 78* when started and 83* at the end of the cold smoke.
I am using a GOSM propane smoker and the coldest I can get it while burning is 135* and I wasn't sure how much heat the cheese would take and I didn't want it dripping all over the inside of my smoker, I just wanted a slight melt letting it droop through the plain rack. I lit the burner and let it warm to 100* then turned it off. It dropped 10* in 8 minutes so I lit it again and took it to 125*. I kept doing this every 10 minutes taking it up 10* - 15* each time and keeping an eye on the cheese. At 35 minutes I still wasn't getting any droop of the cheese so I took the temp up to 160* and let it sit for 10 minutes. It dropped down to 130* so I looked and the cheese was starting to droop so I called an end to the test.
The cheese was about 80* when I started the hot test and it spent 45 minutes over 100*, up to 160* at the end.
The mozzarella got softer and drooped a bit more than the cheddar through the plain rack. Both blocks on the mat got soft but not as soft as the blocks on the plain rack. Both blocks on the mat didn't droop a bit, when I flipped them over they were as flat as when I put them on.
Here they are on the rack at the end of the test:
Bottom view:
Flipped over:
Side view:
So what I suspected was true, the mat added a lot of support to the cheese, it didn't droop at all. The cheese did get soft but I couldn't even feel the slightest indentation to the surface next to the mat.
I smoked 6 lbs of cheese for 3 hours then removed 4 lbs and left 2 lbs for the high temperature test. I had two 1/2 lb blocks of cheddar and two 1/2 blocks of mozzarella. I placed one of each on the mat and one of each straight on the plain rack.
The outside temperature was 69* when I started and dropped to 56* by the end. The smoker temperature was 78* when started and 83* at the end of the cold smoke.
I am using a GOSM propane smoker and the coldest I can get it while burning is 135* and I wasn't sure how much heat the cheese would take and I didn't want it dripping all over the inside of my smoker, I just wanted a slight melt letting it droop through the plain rack. I lit the burner and let it warm to 100* then turned it off. It dropped 10* in 8 minutes so I lit it again and took it to 125*. I kept doing this every 10 minutes taking it up 10* - 15* each time and keeping an eye on the cheese. At 35 minutes I still wasn't getting any droop of the cheese so I took the temp up to 160* and let it sit for 10 minutes. It dropped down to 130* so I looked and the cheese was starting to droop so I called an end to the test.
The cheese was about 80* when I started the hot test and it spent 45 minutes over 100*, up to 160* at the end.
The mozzarella got softer and drooped a bit more than the cheddar through the plain rack. Both blocks on the mat got soft but not as soft as the blocks on the plain rack. Both blocks on the mat didn't droop a bit, when I flipped them over they were as flat as when I put them on.
Here they are on the rack at the end of the test:
Bottom view:
Flipped over:
Side view:
So what I suspected was true, the mat added a lot of support to the cheese, it didn't droop at all. The cheese did get soft but I couldn't even feel the slightest indentation to the surface next to the mat.
