First cheese smoke with mbxl and amnps

[tamarockstar88]

Last night I did my first batch of cheese. Seems like it turned out really well. It was actually TOO cold out yesterday and I had to throw on my burner a few times to keep the temp up. When the sun went down it was around 32* slight breeze. I lit both sides of the pellets and that helped the temp a little. The amnps was putting out about 20* of heat and the internal temp kept settling around 52*

So I think for winter I'll be needing a hot plate or small heater.

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• tamarockstar88
• Feb 15, 2013

For the first round I did some fresh Mozz, extra sharp cheddar, Habanero cheddar, and some montery jack.

I smoke for 2 hours 15 mins with hickory pellets.

Here's after the first hour

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• tamarockstar88
• Feb 15, 2013

And the finished cheddar.

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• tamarockstar88
• Feb 15, 2013

I cut one of the chunks down the middle to see if the smoke penetrated and it did. The Mozz has a heavy smoke flavor and is awesome!

I've got round 2 going currently same batch as above but with apple wood, tried to start a little sooner today and the temp in the smoker is in the high 60's. I opened a fresh wheel of Gorgonzola cheese today at work and mentioned to my chef that I was smoking another batch today. Asked if I could take some Gorg home to smoke for us to use and he said "yea YEA! lets do that!" hahaha So I also have a 1/4 of a wheel of gorg going as well. I can't wait to try that!

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• tamarockstar88
• Feb 15, 2013

 

[driedstick]

Looks good I think you will like the habanero that is probably my favorite smoked so far.   good luck  R you vac packing them and waiting 2 wks to taste?? a lot of folks on here does this as do I and works great if you can wait that long.

 

[driedstick]

Looks good I think you will like the habanero that is probably my favorite smoked so far.   good luck  R you vac packing them and waiting 2 wks to taste?? a lot of folks on here does this as do I and works great if you can wait that long.

 

[handymanstan]

Your cheese looks so good!!

I would like to know if you think the heat in the Habanero cheddar gets hotter when you smoke it?  I Love Mozzarella smoked.

Stan

 

[terrymn]

Seems like it turned out really well. It was actually TOO cold out yesterday and I had to throw on my burner a few times to keep the temp up

I'm doing some now at 15* outside temp, first time too w/my MES30 and AMNPS.  I seasoned the AMNPS for 30 minutes at 275 per the instructions.  Because I only cooled the MES for 15 minutes or so (turned off, door open) I'm having to open the door for a minute or so about every 15-20 minutes to run the IT from high 60s down to high 50s - and then it creeps back up.  I'm guessing that depending on the outside temp, pre-heating your smoker for a half hour or so at 100 (or whatever the lowest temp you can get on your mbxl) might be a good way to keep your temp a little more stable.  Heating the internals on my MES certainly has.

In the good news dept, I'm just coming up on an hour, and the cheese is taking on a gorgeous color... I wish I could time warp to St. Pat's Day so I could taste the finished product!

 

[tamarockstar88]

Seems like it turned out really well. It was actually TOO cold out yesterday and I had to throw on my burner a few times to keep the temp up

I'm doing some now at 15* outside temp, first time too w/my MES30 and AMNPS.  I seasoned the AMNPS for 30 minutes at 275 per the instructions.  Because I only cooled the MES for 15 minutes or so (turned off, door open) I'm having to open the door for a minute or so about every 15-20 minutes to run the IT from high 60s down to high 50s - and then it creeps back up.  I'm guessing that depending on the outside temp, pre-heating your smoker for a half hour or so at 100 (or whatever the lowest temp you can get on your mbxl) might be a good way to keep your temp a little more stable.  Heating the internals on my MES certainly has.

In the good news dept, I'm just coming up on an hour, and the cheese is taking on a gorgeous color... I wish I could time warp to St. Pat's Day so I could taste the finished product!

It was so cold on the first batch I preheated and the temp dropped from 100 - 50's in a few minutes. The second batch I had a stable temp in the 60's and it was perfect. The cheddar picked up way more color. I had cut them into 1/2# blocks and one got so much color it looked like it changed to yellow cheddar looks great, the other block didn't get as much color. Next time ill have to play with position of the amnps and cheeses and probably rotate them around too. The cheese that was closer to the amnps got far more color. Really good for my first 2 batches though, just need to get better consistency on the end result. cant wait to try!

 

[tamarockstar88]

I didn't get a picture of the cheddar because I was in a rush to wrap that day, but I snapped a shot of the gorgonzola. Picked up some nice color and had really great flavor. I took it out at 2 hours and I think it was plenty. The temp control on the 2nd batch was a lot better, maintained around 60*s and the cheese picked up way better color, amazing the difference with only about 10*s temp difference. The mozz on the first batch was good but the edges got slightly crispy on a few pieces, probably due to temp fluctuation with me trying to keep the heat up. This batch was perfect though. I brought some mozz and cheddar down for my gf's brother friday was his birthday and he loved the mozz.

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• tamarockstar88
• Feb 18, 2013

I'm sure my chef will be quite pleased, had to stop myself from picking at it but you know it's just so crumbly!

 

[tamarockstar88]

Looks good I think you will like the habanero that is probably my favorite smoked so far.   good luck  R you vac packing them and waiting 2 wks to taste?? a lot of folks on here does this as do I and works great if you can wait that long.

Thank you, can't wait to try it! I don't have a vac sealer yet, but I'm going to try and get one soon. I wrapped it in parchment, then double plastic wrap, then in a zipper bag... thats about the point i decided I needed the vac sealer haha The Gorg i wrapped tightly in tin foil because it's what they recommend for that cheese I think plastic wrap will cause it to sweat too much it's very moist cheese.  I don't think it will need as long to mellow out, I'm giving it 5 days as it already tasted pretty good. But yea, 2-3 weeks on the others. jeez... only been 4 days

 

[terrymn]

Nice!! The Gorg looks great! -- Regarding the reorg, I started my AMNPS on the left, moved it to the center after 40 minutes, then the right after 40 more - I figured it was easier to mess w/that than the 12 pieces of cheese :)

 

[mr t 59874]

Tama,  As you don't have a vac sealer and I take it you don't care to wax, you can simply coat the hard cheeses with a light coat of vegetable oil and place in a plastic container along with a moist paper towel.  Re-coat every week or so along with recovering any cut sides.  It may be kept at room temperature, 50-70 degrees is ideal for aging. If mold does appear, simply wash it off and re-coat. The smoker temps are perfect for the softer cheeses as the high smoke temp should be 55. 

I know, that Gorg can really get crumbly at the most opportune times.

Enjoy, Tom

 

[tamarockstar88]

awesome advice everyone! thank you. I wasn't aware that you could age it at room temp that way, I figured hickory farms preserved it in some manner to last out on the shelves. I've been searching around for cheese wax and have found none. I would order online but figured I would just order a food saver as soon as I get the funds to do so. Also there's a great farm not far from where i live that my work orders cheese from so I plan on taking a field trip there sometime soon

 

[mr t 59874]

 I've been searching around for cheese wax and have found none.

Here's a start.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...=aps&hvadid=1691709947&ref=pd_sl_4wvvib2yst_b