Rosemary Cheddar

[The Big Cheese]

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?

 

[driedstick]

interesting,,, not sure on the rosemary,,,, but do you just grind up your japs or do you buy the powder and dust them?? I do a lot of cheese and thinking of doing this,,

 

[crazymoon]

TBC, Sorry no help on your rosemary problem but your dusting idea for the other spices sounds intriguing.

 

[The Big Cheese]

interesting,,, not sure on the rosemary,,,, but do you just grind up your japs or do you buy the powder and dust them?? I do a lot of cheese and thinking of doing this,,

TBC, Sorry no help on your rosemary problem but your dusting idea for the other spices sounds intriguing.

I just buy the powder. Be careful with jalapeño powder, any dust that gets in the air can be distressing :). They don’t tell you on the package it’s the weaponized grade ground jalapeno.

I put the powder on a plate and then press my cheddar block in it to coat all sides. Then to the smoker. I’ve also done lime powder which works very well. And also a mix of jalapeno and lime powder. Delish

 

[Cajun Smokes]

I just buy the powder. Be careful with jalapeño powder, any dust that gets in the air can be distressing :). They don’t tell you on the package it’s the weaponized grade ground jalapeno.

I put the powder on a plate and then press my cheddar block in it to coat all sides. Then to the smoker. I’ve also done lime powder which works very well. And also a mix of jalapeno and lime powder. Delish

Lime powder? Is this something like "True Lime"

 

[The Big Cheese]

Lime powder? Is this something like "True Lime"

Sorry for the late reply. yes, I first tried it using Tru Lime. Works fine, but tru lime has some fillers. Malodextrin I believe. Now I use Grelim lime powder. Supposed to be nothing but 100% freeze dried lime. Available on Amazon.

 

[Cajun Smokes]

Sorry for the late reply. yes, I first tried it using Tru Lime. Works fine, but tru lime has some fillers. Malodextrin I believe. Now I use Grelim lime powder. Supposed to be nothing but 100% freeze dried lime. Available on Amazon.

Thanks, I'm going find some of that. I've been using true lime in my beer, never really thought if it having fillers, but not at all surprised.

 

[The Big Cheese]

Smoked a batch today. The usual suspects, all cheddar - jalapeño, jalapeño lime, lime. Also threw a siracha Gouda on. We’ll see. split a block of cheddar in two, did a rosemary paste with peanut oil, and a rosemary paste using a little Oktoberfest ale. Got a vacuum sealer for Christmas. Smoked and sealed, in the fridge. maybe open one for new years. And if this rosemary run doesn’t work out, I’m done with trying a rosemary cheddar. On to something else!

 

[02ebz06]

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[The Big Cheese]

Better late than never for this one lol

Vacuum sealed my rosemary cheeses and opened about a month later. The rosemary-peanut oil coated cheddar wasn't very good. Scratch that one off the list. I didn't have high hopes for the rosemary-beer cheddar, but surprisingly it came out fairly tasty. The cheddar did have some infused rosemary flavor. I will try it again, but this time I think I will use an IPA for a more crisp flavor, and i will mix up my IPA and rosemary paste the day before to allow them to meld more. I also bought an emulsifier powder, so i might try to add a little to the paste, as the beer paste doesn't seem to 'stick' to the cheddar like the oil base paste did.

Now that the weather is getting a little warmer in these parts, cold smoking season is back!