- Dec 1, 2023
- 10
- 3
Howdy, folks!
I'll try and keep this short :)
I usually smoke Cabot 9 month sharp cheddar blocks. The blocks I usually dust with herbs and/or spices, then smoke with hickory for 3 hours. I have dialed in jalapeno dusted, lime dusted, and jalapeno lime dusted cheddars. Mmmm fantastic (especially with a little sippin tequila).
But here's my nemesis - I have smoked rosemary cheddar a bunch times now, and still cant dial it in. First I tried crushed rosemary iterations, didn't work (no rosemary flavor). Then next iteration coated my cheddar with ground rosemary. Better but turned out basically just cheddar with some smoked rosemary dust on it. So I mixed ground rosemary with a little brown ale to make a paste to coat the cheddar and meld together. The paste wouldn't 'stick' to the cheddar. Like oil and water. That also wound up tasting like just a block of cheddar that I tried to smear some rosemary paste on. So latest iteration I mixed my ground rosemary with a little olive oil. The paste stuck to the cheddar. However after smoking, the olive oil taste wasn't the right mix with rosemary, smoke, and cheddar. Had a sort of bitter taste, it was the olive oil. So I'm going to try next maybe a little peanut oil rosemary paste. We'll see.
So - Any ideas on a good rosemary paste that wont go rancid? I looked online for a cream/dairy based rosemary 'sauce', which I think would meld with the cheddar, but I'm very leary of any kind of dairy based rosemary paste will not turn out well after smoking (rancid milk fear).
Thoughts?
I'll try and keep this short :)
I usually smoke Cabot 9 month sharp cheddar blocks. The blocks I usually dust with herbs and/or spices, then smoke with hickory for 3 hours. I have dialed in jalapeno dusted, lime dusted, and jalapeno lime dusted cheddars. Mmmm fantastic (especially with a little sippin tequila).
But here's my nemesis - I have smoked rosemary cheddar a bunch times now, and still cant dial it in. First I tried crushed rosemary iterations, didn't work (no rosemary flavor). Then next iteration coated my cheddar with ground rosemary. Better but turned out basically just cheddar with some smoked rosemary dust on it. So I mixed ground rosemary with a little brown ale to make a paste to coat the cheddar and meld together. The paste wouldn't 'stick' to the cheddar. Like oil and water. That also wound up tasting like just a block of cheddar that I tried to smear some rosemary paste on. So latest iteration I mixed my ground rosemary with a little olive oil. The paste stuck to the cheddar. However after smoking, the olive oil taste wasn't the right mix with rosemary, smoke, and cheddar. Had a sort of bitter taste, it was the olive oil. So I'm going to try next maybe a little peanut oil rosemary paste. We'll see.
So - Any ideas on a good rosemary paste that wont go rancid? I looked online for a cream/dairy based rosemary 'sauce', which I think would meld with the cheddar, but I'm very leary of any kind of dairy based rosemary paste will not turn out well after smoking (rancid milk fear).
Thoughts?