I have three turkey in brine to do my first meat run on the new smoker. So I decided to play with some cheeses. I've done a lot of cheese research and tried Gouda yesterday cold smoked for 4 hours with self harvested peach wood chips. Ambient temp of 65 degrees and internal temp of 65.8 degrees. I made the mistake of running full smoke and although it was definitely edible and was eaten pretty fast by the family on ritz bacon flavored crackers there was a hint of creasote flavor.
Mostly everything I've read says it needs to mellow. Although I have read that a lighter smoke concentration over longer time will yield a cleaner flavor and eliminate the creasote flavor contamination.
This am I dropped in a 3yr old sharp cheddar cut into butter stick sized pieces along with a 1/4 lb of unsalted butter as a reference and a taste tester. I'm using hickory today as to compliment the stronger cheddar flavor. The ambient temp is 59 degrees and the humidity is 75% I am running my smoke generator at half throttle. Fingers crossed.
Mostly everything I've read says it needs to mellow. Although I have read that a lighter smoke concentration over longer time will yield a cleaner flavor and eliminate the creasote flavor contamination.
This am I dropped in a 3yr old sharp cheddar cut into butter stick sized pieces along with a 1/4 lb of unsalted butter as a reference and a taste tester. I'm using hickory today as to compliment the stronger cheddar flavor. The ambient temp is 59 degrees and the humidity is 75% I am running my smoke generator at half throttle. Fingers crossed.
