Christmas Smokes
Well, as usual, I didn’t plan my Christmas Smoking out very well. So yesterday I figured I’d best get started.
First on the list was some Smoked Pretzels for my Step-Daughter. Personally, I’m not a big fan of pretzels but the kid loves them. So……
Using a modified version of driedstick’s recipe (I had to as nobody in my family does spicy hot well) I mixed up:
½ cup of veg oil
1 package of dry Ranch Dressing
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
After laying the pretzels out on Frog Mats laid on 4 smoker racks, I used Miss Linda’s small basting brush to coat each individual pretzel with the flavor mix. As you can imagine, that was a lot of fun—thankfully I was only doing one package of pretzels.
Then it was into the MES at 170 degrees for 2 hours of apple smoke. The pretzels were then vac/sealed into two bags.
No pictures were taken of this smoke. There was nothing to see. After all, a pretzel is just a pretzel, and a smoked pretzel still just looks like a pretzel.
Today, things got a little more interesting. It was time to smoke some cheese. The temperature today was perfect for cheese smoking—sitting at a steady plus 2 C (about 36 F). I dug out one package each of Gouda, Monterey Jack, Blue, Old white cheddar and two of Imperial (a blend of old cheddars):
Each block of cheese, except for the Blue and the Imperial, was then cut in half. The cheese was laid out on Frog Mats spread out on 2 racks:
I filled the AMNPS with orange pellets, and when it was smoking well and in the Mailbox, both racks of cheese went into the MES at 2:20 PM:
It was a beautiful day for cold smoking. The temperature never varied all afternoon, so my cheese stayed firm and did NO sweating. Perfect.
I pulled all the cheese at 5:30 PM after just 3 hours in the MES. The only other time I’ve smoked cheese was with my stick burner and I pulled some out at 2, 2 ½ and 3 hours—we were happiest with the 3 hour smoke.
The smell emanating from each block was fantastic. None of the cheese took on very much color but, due to the ambient temperature, that was to be expected. The Gouda had the best color, followed by the White Cheddar and the Monterey Jack. Neither the Danish Blue nor the Imperial showed much in the way of color change.
I sealed up all the cheese in individual bags (didn’t vac) and put them in the fridge for the next two weeks to mellow. That means they’ll be ready just before Christmas. It couldn’t have worked out better if I had actually planned it that way. LOL:
Just as a side note, my Son-in-Law took one of the bags of pretzels to work with him today. He got nothing but rave reviews on the pretzels and came home with about a dozen orders for bags half that size. He wants to use my MES. Looks like I’ve created a monster when it comes to smoked food. I’m going to have to get that boy a smoker of his own. That sure says a lot for driedstick’s recipe!!! Thanks @driedstick.
Thanks for looking.
Gary
