I am interested in cold smoking (cheese)

[pne123]

I love smoked chedder. Was thinking of smoking some cheese and maybe trying to make jerky but my GOSM would never be able to keep the temp that low. How low does it need to be for cheese anyway?

But i was thinking of running a heater vent tube or equiv. from the my GOSM exhaust vent about 8' away into another box w/ the cheese. This should get the smoke temp to almost ambient temp.

Has anyone tried this? should it work?

 

[pitrow]

I'm pretty sure I saw on here a couple designs for making cold smokers for cheese. Looked like pretty much what you're describing, only it had a small fan to move the smoke into the smokebox.

 

[ds7662]

pne123,
I have not tried what you are looking to do. I have smoked some cheese however and It should be fine as long as temps don't go over 100*.

You might try a test run on what you are thinking with some cheap cheese to see how it works. Them you can always do more later.

 

[setitandforgetitsmoker]

what you could do is get a small fire rod electric element say 4 inches long set it in your smoke box in your smoker put wood chips (dry) over the element plug element into electricity close the door and monitor temps you should get enough heat to smolder chips but not enough to get to warm for your cheese another way is get a cheap single burner hot plate set it in smoker put chip pan directly on burner turn burner on high to get chips started. then turn to the lowest setting . monitor temps if to high prop door as needed open to let cooler air in will also help your chips smolder. i have done this with jerky. also i have seen guys smoke cheese in a smoker like ours with a coffee, can soldering iron and wood chips this should also work. hope this helps you.

 

[pne123]

set&4get

that makes since. I do not need to use my gas if i want to do cheese. I can get a hot plate and smoke that way. but i was thinking since i had so much smoke coming out while doing ribs i might as well try and use some of the smoke to do cheese. that would require me to be prepared and organized. those are two things that i rearly do at the same time.

 

[stacks]

Squeezy posted this
early today. Neat idea. I'm going to try some this weekend by resting a few hot coals on some hickory and apple chips. Using just three or four briquetts should keep the temp low enough to cold smoke especially with outside temps in the twenties.
Good luck on your smoke!

 

[ron50]

Squeezy's post is a novel idea that should work well. Instead of the iron though, you could always just take a hot coal or too and add it to a can or pouch of chips and smoke that way. I find using chunks for this is too much of a pain in the butt when you don't have a heat source like charcoal. Even if I can maintain the low temp with the propane it usually is too low to keep the chunks smoking. Use chips or even smoking sawdust. A couple places sell it in different wood types like cherry and apple.

 

[rodbuilder]

I just cold smoked 8 lbs. of cheese yesterday in my GOSM... I bought a 1000 watt hot plate and placed in the bottom and run the cord out the door. I put my wood in an aluminum pouch and punched some holes in the top for the smoke to come out. I was able to maintain 75-77º for the entire smoke. Worked great. I smoked the cheese for 1 1/2 hour. The hot plate was only $15...

 

[abvignes]

I'd like to try cold smoking fish as well. The temp has to be much lower though to be safe - right? About 40 degrees F?

Anyone tried an old refrigerator, on that still functions. Punch a hole through it and generate the smoke on the outside? Read somewhere that a soldering iron in wood pellets is a good way to generate the smoke withought much heat.

 

[jbee-smokin]

What was your source for the hot plate?
JB

 

[viper222]

OK, I just started smoking some cheese in my MES using the soldering iron method. Seems to be putting off some great smoke, but temps are up around 92 and it is about 77 degrees outside. Today is a cool day. My problem is that I figure after the summer gets here, I will be out of luck.

I had an idea and wanted to see if anyone else thought it might work or have tried it.

Since those little refrigerators are so cheap at wallyworld now adays, I think like $50, I could buy a small refrigerator, drill a vent hole say 1/2 inch in the top and then just plug it in to be cold and use the soldering iron or hotplate method.

What do you think?