First cheese question(s)

[gmc2003]

Hi,

 I received the A-maze-n pellet maze for Christmas, and today was the first day above 30 degrees w/o wind. So I brought out my wsm 22 and fired up the maze(great product worked like a charm - kuddo's Todd). I filled about 1.5 rows with apple pellets and lit both ends. Figuring I would need allot of smoke to fill up the 22's chamber. Anyway after 3.5 hrs I pulled the cheese. It did take on some color and had a wonderful aroma. I let it set on the counter for a couple of hours and vacuumed sealed it up.

My questions are:

1) Does cheese absorb more smoke with both ends lit(generating more smoke)? or would lighting one end have been sufficient? 

2) Can you mail smoked cheese safely via the post office? I want to send some to my daughter who lives in Athens Georgia. I live in         Georgia Vt. so it would take a couple of days.

3) I know it's recommended to allow the cheese to mellow for a few weeks before trying, but I also thought I read soft cheeses can be       eaten right away? I didn't smoke any soft cheese this time only cheddar's and swiss. 

Sorry no pictures, I don't own a digital camera, My wife and I still use rotary and a walton's phone. 

-chris

 

[SmokinAl]

 
Hi,

 I received the A-maze-n pellet maze for Christmas, and today was the first day above 30 degrees w/o wind. So I brought out my wsm 22 and fired up the maze(great product worked like a charm - kuddo's Todd). I filled about 1.5 rows with apple pellets and lit both ends. Figuring I would need allot of smoke to fill up the 22's chamber. Anyway after 3.5 hrs I pulled the cheese. It did take on some color and had a wonderful aroma. I let it set on the counter for a couple of hours and vacuumed sealed it up. It's better to let it sit in the fridge overnight before vac sealing it.

My questions are:

1) Does cheese absorb more smoke with both ends lit(generating more smoke)? Yes. or would lighting one end have been sufficient? One end is plenty.  

2) Can you mail smoked cheese safely via the post office? I want to send some to my daughter who lives in Athens Georgia. I live in         Georgia Vt. so it would take a couple of days.  I think I would overnight it. But 2 days would probably be alright, especially with the cold weather.

3) I know it's recommended to allow the cheese to mellow for a few weeks before trying, but I also thought I read soft cheeses can be       eaten right away? I didn't smoke any soft cheese this time only cheddar's and swiss. Yes soft cheeses can be eaten sooner, but even with soft cheeses, the longer they age the better they are. I have some muenster that is over a year old & just keeps getting better.

Sorry no pictures, I don't own a digital camera, My wife and I still use rotary and a walton's phone. 

-chris

Al

 

[gmc2003]

Thanks for the quick response Al. Why overnight in the fridge? The cheese was cool to the touch(room temp) and not sweating at all. 

Also if I smoked it for a longer period of time would that increase the mellowing time needed or will cheese only mellow so much? I'd like to get more color on my cheese, but don't want to sacrifice taste. 

-chris

 

[SmokinAl]

Overnight dries it out better.

If you have any moisture in the vac pack, you can get mold growing on the cheese.

For my taste 3 1/2 to 4 hours is plenty of smoke time.

What was the outside temp when you smoked the cheese?

It should be between 40 - 60 degrees. If it's too cold it won't take on the smoke.

Down here in Florida, we look for anything under 60 degrees & were good to go.

Unless you have a long pipe between the cold smoker & the smoker, to cool and clean the smoke & use very light smoke you will have to wait a minimum of 2 weeks to eat the cheese.

Al

 

[gmc2003]

Again Thanks Al,

 No pipe separating the smoker and smoke generator. I'm using the A-maze-n pellet maze in my WSM 22. Temp was high 30's maybe 37-9 degrees. In Vermont this time of year that's shorts and tee-shirt weather. By lighting both ends I was able to produce plenty of TBS coming out of the top vent(almost choked me out when I opened the lid to remove the cheese). I was anxious to use my new toy because I love smoked cheese and hate paying top dollar for store bought. The pellet maze didn't heat the chamber up at all, and nothing registered on my grate level thermometer. In fact the grate was cool to the touch. Chances are I won't get to many opportunities to cold smoke again till at least March. So hopefully this last one worked.  Then I'll be looking into cold smoked salmon also. 

-chris

 

[SmokinAl]

That temp may be a little cold for smoking cheese, unless the tube heated up the inside of your WSM.

Did you have a therm on the inside to measure the chamber temp?

The worst case scenario is that you will have a nice mild smoked cheese, which is way better than over smoking it.

Believe me I've done that before and I've had to just about throw away a batch because it was too smokey.

I salvaged it by letting it sit in the fridge for 1 1/2 years before eating it.

Al

 

[gmc2003]

thanks again Al