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Question: Would having a drip pan with sand in it help keep the temp down? I heard that some people smoke with sand in the drip pan instead of water to ensure a "cooler" smoke. Anyone concur or do you all think I'm crazy like my wife does for mentioning that I wanted to try smoking a hunk of gouda?
The sand just does the same job the water does. It adds something else to the smoke chamber to absorb and hopefully slowly release the heat. If you use sand in your drip pan, put foil on top of the sand to catch drippings so as not to have rancid sand in your smoker :mrgreen:
A trick I have used with Smoking Cheese and butter is to place a pan full of ice under the soft cheese to keep the temp of the cheese or butter cooler. I love the taste of smoked cream cheese makes great cheeseballs
I have been Smoking Velveeta for about a year now, it is killer on a sandwich with Tomato Soup. The best way I have found to do any cheese is the A-MAZE-N Pellet smoker. Only once did I have a problem and it was just to hot outside in the first place.
Cold smoking is the main reason why i got the AMNPS. and that was just before christmas last year but by spring time and got to hot to cold smoke velveeta cheese, i ended up smoking 3 2lb Reg bricks and 3 2lb bricks of the Mexican velveeta that i bagged and vac packed and held in the fridge till the end of july so the smoke flavor would mello out. at that time i gave out small samples and sold it all and i ended up with over $15 a brick.
Velveeta has a very low melting point that makes it allittle hard to smoke without coating the bottom of your smoker with melted cheese.
A better approach would be to smoke some regular cheddar and then make a pseudo-"Velveeta" using sodium citrate.
You'll end up with a better all-around product without the issues of smoking Velveeta.
It's like Velveeta, it's the essence of J. L. Kraft's invention.
If you're making a pseudo-"Velveeta" to be sliced it benefits from the addition of carrageenan.
You can find more info via a Google search.
I'm not sharing all my secrets! :biggrin:
LOL it doesn't take much heat to melt velveeta thats for shure.
found the picts i took smoking this cheese last spring, by the time that it got to hot to do this i had over 3 2lb bricks each of the Reg and the Mexican with samples to give out. i had it vac packed and didnt get into it till the end of july where it was really mellowed out. even tho i smoked it at 32 deg or below the cheese never froze during the 5 hr smoke.