First attempt at cheese

[zeddy]

well everything on my GMG seems to work out well so I thought I would try some cheese. I thought 150 might be too high for cheese so I pulled out my trusty modified Big Chief.

Before I bought a pellet grill I bought this big chief. I always found I couldn’t get it hot enough so I put the burner and thermostat out of a hot plate. This allows me to control the temps from about 75 to 225 degrees.

I bought a block of 2yr Aged white cheddar and chopped it up. I put some alder and cherry wood in the chief. Let’s see how it turns out.

 

[cmayna]

Cheese is typically smoked cold, not the way you are doing it but maybe you will be able to keep the temp down. Let us know how it goes.

 

[zeddy]

I've seen guys do it in the green mountain, which the min temp is 150, they do all sorts of stuff like put ice buckets in with it so I thought I'd give this a shot. I will post updates.

 

[ksblazer]

Now that the weather has cooled off. I'm planning on smoking up some cheese soon.

Look forward to seeing your process and how it turns out.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Need to keep your pit temps below 70 for cheese.

 

[zeddy]

I'm fighting to keep it down, I have opened the bottom of the door to keep the temps down. I will pull the cheese after three hours and vac seal it. the results won't be known for a bit. I'm hoping it's as good as the blocks I have been buying.

 

[zeddy]

Ok I pulled it at 2.5 hours the Color was starting to get quite dark from the two pans of chips. Now I guess I will let it sit for a couple weeks before sampling them.
Pretty dark considering I started with almost white cheddar.

 

[SmokinAl]

It sure looks good from here!
Al

 

[gmc2003]

Zeddy, Now that's some dark colored cheese. It looks like you were just a couple degrees away from a meltdown nice save. Next time you can always smoke it till you start seeing it soften, let it cool for a while then back into the smoker.

Chris

 

[idahopz]

Looks good - oils (sweat) appear to be on the surface did you blot the cheese, and are you vacuum sealing it?

I like the Big Chief - still use one that is about 30 years old for jerky and smoked dinner salmon. Although I use the stock heating element, I control it using a dual probe Auber PID, but have not tried going low enough to smoke cheese.

 

[zeddy]

Yeah it started to get soft so I propped the door open to keep it cool. Mopped the oils and vac sealed. I’m thinking I will wait about two weeks before trying it. It was in for about 2 hrs 45min a little below 100 deg.

 

[cmayna]

Don't be in a hurry to try it. Let the cheese hang for as long as you can put up with it. I typically let it rests for 4-5 months plus. But then again, that means always have cheese available from previous smokes. Smoke some well before you run out, so it can sit and rest a long time.

 

[mowin]

Grab a a-maz-n tube smoke generator. Puts off little heat and works great for cold smoking. I age my cheese for a minimum of 4 weeks depending on how clean my smoke is.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

I just cracked open some Tillamook cheddar and Tillamook Pepper jack that I smoked four years ago. Some of the best cheese I’ve ever had.

On another note, I like to rest my cheese loosely covered for 1-2 days in the fridge before vac packing. Seems to help it mellow a bit faster.

 

[zeddy]

I'm going to order a smoke tub but in anticipation of Xmas I put another load on. This time I managed to lower the temp to 75deg by modifying the door. It doesn't seem to burn chips that fast at the lower temp so I think these will be lighter.
Stand by....

 

[zeddy]

Three hours at around 70 deg, these ones came out a little lighter. Only burnt one pan of chips too. Off to the fridge for two weeks.

 

[pc farmer]

View attachment 346230

Three hours at around 70 deg, these ones came out a little lighter. Only burnt one pan of chips too. Off to the fridge for two weeks.

Good looking cheese.

 

[cmayna]

I'm going to order a smoke tub but in anticipation of Xmas I put another load on. This time I managed to lower the temp to 75deg by modifying the door. It doesn't seem to burn chips that fast at the lower temp so I think these will be lighter.
Stand by....

I would research first as to which style smoke generator would be best for you. For cheese most have used the original AMNS which uses wood dust. Then there is the AMNPS which was designed to use pellets yet some use dust in it as well. Then there is the AMNTS (tube) which was originally designed to use in propane smokers and puts off the most amount of smoke and heat.

 

[zeddy]

Thanks for that, I assumed they were all the same.

 

[zeddy]

I couldn’t wait. I opened one of my first batch. Wow is it smoky. Not ashtray just very very flavour intensive. It smelled up the whole kitchen as soon as i broke the vacuum seal.