# My First Homemade Smoked Cheese



## Mr. Zorg (Jan 4, 2022)

With cooler weather finally here in South Texas, my wife & I decided to try making some homemade smoked cheese. It was 36°F here with practically no wind Sunday night. Being the first time to try this, I didn't want to put a whole bunch of cheese at risk. Here's what I started with: a 7 ounce mini-wheel of Castello Gouda and a 6 ounce brick of Black Diamond 5 year aged Extra Sharp Canadian Cheddar.


I quartered these to provide more exposed surface area for smoke to caress, and these chunks are about what I consume when I'm eating cheese for a snack. Instead of a wire cooling rack, I dug out one of the circular aluminum mesh food grates from my BBQ stuff stash to support the cheese while smoking it. I gave this mesh grate a light spritz of cooking oil in an abundance of caution at least this first go.








I don't have any specialized cold smoking equipment or supplies such as a pellet tube, screen maze, pellets, or sawdust. I wanted to generally try the method Chris Allingham has posted on TVWB under "Other Ways to Cold Smoke Cheese" about halfway down the page at this weblink in my Fornetto Basso 18" smoker, as no special equipment is used.


I filled a half size disposable aluminum steam table pan with ice, and placed this inside the otherwise empty water pan. I set the disposable aluminum mesh grate with the cheese on top of the top food grate.







I figured fruit wood would be a good choice for my first try (Allingham chose apple wood in his post). I used loppers to cut some micro-logs from a few smaller diameter rounds of both Wild Cherry wood and Serviceberry wood I had on hand to use as smoke wood. Each micro-log was around 2" long and 1" or less in diameter. Here's my initial Wild Cherry micro-log on the modded fire grate of my smoker's charcoal basket.







I used different charcoal and lighting method. I started with 4 Royal Oak All Natural 100% Hardwood charcoal briquettes as being roughly the same size (mass) as the KBB Allingham used. I took a half dozen ceramic briquettes out of my gas grill, put the charcoal briquettes in that area, and lit that burner. When I was satisfied one side was going well I used tongs to turn the briquettes over to get the other side started.

Allingham placed an apple wood chunk on top of his 4 lit briquettes. My philosophy is to always give wood preferential first shot at incoming oxygen so it burns clean and produces clean, not bitter, smoke. So I laid my 4 lit charcoal briquettes up against the micro-log of smoke wood, and finished assembling my smoker.







I placed a remote thermometer grate probe on the upper food grate. Due to the disposable aluminum mesh food grate, I could only attach this probe near the edge of the grate. I did my best to orient the probe toward the center of the smoker instead of toward the smoker wall, to try to reduce reading the temperatures from the fuel in the annular space near the smoker wall. Next time I'll cut off, or fold flat, a chord of the disposable aluminum mesh food grate to provide better access for the remote therm food grate probe.

We did a pretty good job of keeping the food grate (and smoker dome) temperature readings below 90°F as suggested by Allingham. The initial 4 charcoal briquettes burned low quickly, so I switched to using some of the larger Master Grill 100% Hardwood charcoal briquettes for the rest of the cook session. We positioned these o catch fire from the embers of the prior charcoal briquettes, and positioned additional micro-logs of smoke wood mostly below the charcoal briquettes. So the cheese was also exposed to some minor Quebracho and other South American Hardwood vareities as those briquettes lit. I turned the cheese chunks over about halfway through to change the orientation of each chunk to the rising smoke. The ice had all melted to (still cold) water when we called it quits.







Here's the finished product. The surfaces of the chunks are definitely a darker shade vs at the beginning but not as dark as I supposed Wild Cherry wood might produce based on the dark burgandy surface color of pork & poultry when I use Wild Cherry wood. Overall, I'm taking this as a good sign I didn't oversmoke this cheese.













I put all these cheese blocks into a communal quart zipper bag, and into the refrigerator to cool down & firm up. Next I'll package each chunk into individual snack size bags and vacuum seal them, to return to the refrigerator for two to four weeks before sampling.

I certainly want to try smoking some more cheese, with wood from nut producing trees instead of fruit trees. I have both some shagbark hickory and pistachio tree wood chunklets on hand, and plenty of charcoal. I just need to have faith we'll have some more appropriately cool weather in another 2 weeks or so. I'm really looking forward o sampling the results of this experiment!


----------



## Steve H (Jan 4, 2022)

Looks good. Beautiful color! Bet you won't make it to 2 weeks before trying it!


----------



## DRKsmoking (Jan 4, 2022)

I'm with Steve you will be at that before the 2 weeks are up   

Looks gouda

David


----------



## crazymoon (Jan 4, 2022)

MZ, Very nice color on your cheese, I bet you'll be doing some more soon if the weather cooperates!


----------



## Brokenhandle (Jan 4, 2022)

Great job on your first cheese! The color does vary on cold smoking cheese but doesn't coincide with flavor.  I'd hope for more cooler weather... you're gonna want more after tasting! I just did some cheese also...but it was negative 2 degrees so made it easy for me.

Ryan


----------



## Fueling Around (Jan 4, 2022)

I cold smoke in a kettle with a smoke tube.


Mr. Zorg said:


> ...
> I certainly want to try smoking some more cheese, with wood from nut producing trees instead of fruit trees. I have both some shagbark hickory and pistachio tree wood chunklets on hand, and plenty of charcoal. I just need to have faith we'll have some more appropriately cool weather in another 2 weeks or so. I'm really looking forward o sampling the results of this experiment!


I used pecan pellets to smoke a batch of cheese.  I liked that flavor


----------



## bauchjw (Jan 4, 2022)

Looks like beautiful color! That is going to have some awesome flavor!


----------



## SmokinAl (Jan 4, 2022)

Great looking cheese!
Love the color!
Al


----------



## Winterrider (Jan 4, 2022)

Looks like a complete success. $20 smoke tube would make it even easier for you. Nice work. . .


----------



## BigW. (Jan 4, 2022)

Awesome.  If you want set it and forget, I use a maze with dust.  You'll get a longer smoking season with that in hot TX.


----------



## Mr. Zorg (Jan 4, 2022)

Winterrider said:


> Looks like a complete success. $20 smoke tube would make it even easier for you. Nice work. . .


Thanks. I wanted to run this experiment t see how it would work with materials I have on hand. I don't own a pellet grill / smoker so I don't have use for a lot of pellets even if I purchase a smoke tube. I also like knowing exactly what the wood I'm using is, and looks like, when I cook..

If I ever invest in a less labor intensive smoker than what I already have, it'll be some sort of gravity flow design so I can continue to use the same mixtures of charcoal and wood that have been producing the end products that I, my family, and friends enjoy.


----------



## Mr. Zorg (Jan 4, 2022)

Thank you 

 Steve H
!

Thank you 

 DRKsmoking
!

Thank you 

 crazymoon
!

Thank you 

 Brokenhandle
! We lived in the Great Lakes area for around 10 years, in two different stints including those especially cold polar vortex winters 2013 - 2015 with lows of -17°F one winter and -19°F the following winter. The Alamo City has been the right place for us these past 5.5 years, all immediate family + nieces and nephews are all within a 3 hour drive (in several different directions).

Thank you 

 Fueling Around
! I currently have pecan, red oak, shagbark hickory, wild cherry, serviceberry, guava, and pistachio tree wood available in my smoke wood pallette. Plenty vareity for future experiments, and a number of those varieties I've never seen available in wood pellet form. So I'm going to stick with this method for the rest of what qualifies as winter here.

Thank you 

 bauchjw
! 

Thank you 

 SmokinAl
!

Thank you 

 Winterrider
! I'm going to give this method some more opportunities. 

Thank you @BigW! We'll see what this summer brings.


----------



## Mr. Zorg (Jan 5, 2022)

Well based on the encouragement from all y'all I cut off a sliver of the smoked Gouda and the smoked Cheddar to taste test. The color contrast between the surface and interior cheese is striking!

This cheese is definitely not oversmoked. No way. It's delicious as is! I can't imagine what 2 to 4 more weeks in the fridge will produce, but I take everyone's word to do this.

I can't say I can distinguish a definite cherry & serviceberry smoke flavors,but it's all good. I want to repeat this using either shagbark hickory or pistachio tree wood. Then I can taste side by side for any difference. Forecast shows Thursday to have a 31°F low temperature.


----------



## mike243 (Jan 5, 2022)

Fill the tube with shag bark instead of pellets,  I mix bark and pellets in my tube, works great


----------



## Mr. Zorg (Jan 5, 2022)

mike243 said:


> Fill the tube with shag bark instead of pellets,  I mix bark and pellets in my tube, works great


I didn't use a tube, nor pellets, and I don't plan to start using a tube, or pellets. This technique with the way I executed it provided desirable results. I don't see a reason, for me, to purchase additional equipment, and pellets I'd have zero other use for.

There was natural bark on the micro-logs I used. I don't see a driving need to separate bark exclusively for my use in this application.


----------

