Watching Football....need cheese...Qview

[meatnbeer]

When I woke up this morning I had no plan of running the smoker. I was just going to do some quick yard work and watch football (go Packers!!). I need to go to the hardware store. As I was in there, I remembered a post that danbury put on my thread from last week for my sausage. I wanted to do a cold smoke but my smoker isn't capable of hitting low temps. danbury suggested that I use a hotplate with my smoke box to create smoke but not heat. Well, the hardware store had a hotplate for $15.......and a guy from work just gave me a new termometer that was going to be retired due to it not meeting the high standards we have of accuracy withing .1 degree.

Now it looks like I am smoking while watching football. I picked up a pound each of sharp chedder, swiss, munster, and mozzeralla. I alos pick up a a couple small pices of salmon. I put a dry rub on them for about 4 hrs before going in the smoker.

The smoker is holding at around 102 degrees. A little warmer than I wanted, but the ambient temp outside is in the 80's. Now I am actually looking forward to winter!!!!!

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[bmudd14474]

gotta love it

 

[fire it up]

You put rub on your cheese? That's going to be interesting, just be careful with those temps, when I cold smoke cheese I try to keep the temp under 80 because some cheeses will begin to melt after 80 degrees.
I'm looking forward to Winter also, not only because I will be able to easily smoke cheeses and do a traditional pastrami (cold smoke 5hrs, hot smoke 5 more wrapped then an additional unwrapped and at regular temps) but I also have one of those torches that you hook to a propane tank and I'm looking forward to getting out there at 5 in the morning and clearing the driveways.

 

[meatnbeer]

Clarification. There is only a rub on the salmon, not the cheese.

That would be interesting, probably not desireable.

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks Great ...

 

[meatnbeer]

Smoke is done. It looks like things turned out. The swiss started to melt sighlty, but not to the "clear" stage. Just in time for the Packer game to start.

Hope I didn't smoke it too much. But I guess that is part of being a noob. Making mistakes and correcting them the second time.

I have them in the fridge to firm them all up for crackers. I can't wait to try them. Although what I have been reading is that I need to let them sit for a few days so the flavor can mellow. At least I have the salmon for now.

http://s843.photobucket.com/albums/z...t=DSCN1347.jpg

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Any suggestions?

 

[herkysprings]

I usually smoke cheese for only like 20-30 minutes, and I do small slabs, 1 1/2 2" thick. After a couple of days the smoke flavour will get a bit stronger and come together as well.

To keep the temps down I usually fill some empty pop cans with water and freeze them the night before. put those on a rack above the smoke (below the cheese), possibly in a tinfoil pan to avoid dripping water on your wood.