Cheese (lots of pics)

[pineywoods]

This is going to be a long post but we've been getting lots of questions about what kinds of cheese to smoke. I added a bunch of pictures of different types if you smoke other ones post a pic and tell us how you liked it. I try new varieties when I see them and the Parlano was a new one for us I'll let you know how it tastes in a couple weeks.
Here's what we started with.

We unpackaged all of them and I cut some to get more surface area for the smoke. As we got them ready we put them on trays that have perforated bottoms to go into the smoker.
Here's a pic of the bottom of one of the pans which I think are actually pizza pans

Into the smoke house with it

Used apple pellets it gives a nice light fruity flavor to the cheese. Since the smoke house is 4x4x8 I use two trays of pellets and as you can see one tray was smoking and the other was still burning getting it ready to smoke. It has gotten hot in Florida so I put a sprinkler on the top of the smokehouse to keep it cooler. Sorry no pics of that but didn't think we needed one.

After 4.5 hours of smoke we called it smoked and took it into the house

Will continue and finish in the next post

 

[pineywoods]

It was very humid out and the sprinkler made it more so. Pretty much all the cheese came out of the smoker wet or damp.

We spread some towels out on the kitchen table and put the trays on them. We took the cheese off the trays and dried them then used paper towels and dried the cheese the best we could then put it back onto the trays and left it to dry out. After awhile we flipped the cheese over and continued to let it dry. It was a busy day and the wife had to get up at 4:30 the next morning for work so I just put it all in ziplock bags and I'll cut it up a bit to make variety packs and she will vacuum seal them on Tuesday when she's off again. I'll try to get more pics then.

We got it all sealed and into the fridge for aging I did cut a little piece of the new cheese and the wife said it was awesome she want's more of it next time.

Thanks for checking out this thread I know it was kind of long and lots of pics

 

[DanMcG]

That's a lot of cheese!! I got to try the Dubliner in the smoker some time, one of my favorites.

 

[gmc2003]

Nice looking batch of cheese Piney. Cheese sweats is something I think we've all experienced at some point.


Point for sure
Chris

 

[crazymoon]

PW, That is a great batch of smoked cheese,interested to see how your Parlano comes out ! like

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Great looking cheese there Jerry.

 

[Murray]

Cheese sweats? From atmospheric humidity or moisture leaving the cheese?

 

[creek bottom]

Awesome!!! I just did about 60 lbs this past weekend for different people. NY Sharp, Swiss, Blue, Pepper Jack, Ghost Pepper, and Gouda.... Sorry, no pics . I was busy trying to keep the wife happy doing lawn work while the cheese was smoking so I didn't have time.... Next time....

 

[HalfSmoked]

Awesome cheese smoke there jerry.

Warren

 

[hardcookin]

Piney looks like your set for cheese for awhile. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Misplaced Nebraskan]

This is on my short list. Great turnout! I haven't done cheeses yet, but I think it's time I corrected that. This post is just inspirational! Thank you! Like!

 

[dougmays]

oh man! Good work there PW! I didnt get a chance to smoke any cheese when it was colder and now its heating up. Maybe we'll get one last cold front soon

 

[gmc2003]

Cheese sweats? From atmospheric humidity or moisture leaving the cheese?

It could be from either. Cheese getting to warm will release some of its oils. If you dab this off your basically removing some of the smoke flavor. It's better to let it rest uncovered before vacuum sealing. Humidity can also cause moisture on the cheese. The moisture from humidity can be taken off by patting the cheese with a clean paper towel before vacuum sealing.

Chris

 

[pineywoods]

We finished packaging the cheese today and I posted the pics in the second post thanks for checking out this thread

 

[bbqbrett]

It could be from either. Cheese getting to warm will release some of its oils. If you dab this off your basically removing some of the smoke flavor. It's better to let it rest uncovered before vacuum sealing. Humidity can also cause moisture on the cheese. The moisture from humidity can be taken off by patting the cheese with a clean paper towel before vacuum sealing.

Chris

That is pretty much how I do it. I have had it before where it got to warm and had to dry it and then had more humidity than normal and had to dry again before I vac sealed it.

 

[pops6927]

You hit my hot button on the 3 yr old cheddar, Jarlsberg, and the Red Hoop cheddar! I cut and wrapped over 500 cheese varieties in cheese islands I supervised, over 30 of them. I'd get 40 lb. balls of domestic parmesan cheese from Casa Imports in Utica, NY and make massive displays in my islands, usually a 12 ft. display on the end, complete with red-checkered cloths, red, green and multi-colored grapes, wicker baskets, bottles of wine (showing what wine goes with each section of cheeses), and so on. My favorite? Smoked cheeses, of course!

 

[Hawging It]

That looks awesome! And I thought I was hooked on cheese smoking! Very nice!