# Tis The Season



## Norwester55 (Oct 19, 2019)

Finally cooled down a bit so I could get started smoking cheese. The local Waremart had Tillamook medium cheddar on sale this summer for $3.98 a 2# block so of course I ended up with 20 lbs! :) I smoked 6 lbs the other night, 6 lbs last night, and I'll do another 6 tonight and then I can move on to some other types. Still have some Pepper Jack, Gouda and Muenster from last winter but ran out of cheddar a week or two ago.


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## jcam222 (Oct 19, 2019)

I bet that delicious. I need to try doing cheese at some point.


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## texomakid (Oct 19, 2019)

How are you smoking your cheese and what type of wood?


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## Norwester55 (Oct 19, 2019)

jcam222 said:


> I bet that delicious. I need to try doing cheese at some point.


If you can cut the cheese you can smoke it too. :D 



texomakid said:


> How are you smoking your cheese and what type of wood?


I use an AMNPS tray and usually pecan dust. I ran out of pecan and am smoking the last 6 lbs right now with alder dust. It'll be quite a bit milder than the pecan but thought I'd give it a try.


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## Steve H (Oct 20, 2019)

That looks good. How long are you smoking them?


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## Norwester55 (Oct 20, 2019)

Steve H said:


> That looks good. How long are you smoking them?


Thanks, I went 3 hrs on this batch and 3 1/2 on the batch tonite with the alder dust. I'm not sure, I'll give it a few days to mellow but I think I think I like the alder smoke better.  Oh well, I've got a lot more to smoke this winter.


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## Steve H (Oct 20, 2019)

Norwester55 said:


> Thanks, I went 3 hrs on this batch and 3 1/2 on the batch tonite with the alder dust. I'm not sure, I'll give it a few days to mellow but I think I think I like the alder smoke better.  Oh well, I've got a lot more to smoke this winter.



I do the same. Between 3-4 hours. The Alder should give a nice mild flavor. And I do have some Alder pellets left so I'm going to do some white cheddar with it.


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## SmokinVOLfan (Oct 21, 2019)

That cheese looks great took on some nice color! I've got a drawer full I have been waiting to do myself. I usually run apple pellets 3-4 hours. One of these days I will get some dust and try it out!


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## Norwester55 (Oct 22, 2019)

SmokinVOLfan said:


> That cheese looks great took on some nice color! I've got a drawer full I have been waiting to do myself. I usually run apple pellets 3-4 hours. One of these days I will get some dust and try it out!


Thanks, I don't know what kind of temperature difference you get between pellets or dust but I think I only had a 4-5* rise in temperature while smoking these. Plus its edible right out of the smoker! I made this dust out of pellets but it stinks so bad while drying I'm going to buy dust or maybe dry it outside in the smoker next time. Its nasty!


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## JCAP (Oct 22, 2019)

Looks really good. Hard to beat a nice smoked cheddar!


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## Hawging It (Oct 22, 2019)

Nice.


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## gmc2003 (Oct 22, 2019)

That's a whole lot of cheese your smoking. Cheddar is one of my favorites and yours looks really good. 

Point for sure
Chris


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## Norwester55 (Oct 23, 2019)

Thanks, I like Gouda and pepper jack too but nothing beats cheddar!


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## Central PA Cowboy (Oct 23, 2019)

Looks good. Did Mild Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar, and Swiss this past weekend for the first time and have to say, the Sharp Cheddar is by far the best. Used GMG Fruitwood pellets for 2 hours.


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## zwiller (Oct 23, 2019)

Norwester55 said:


> Thanks, I don't know what kind of temperature difference you get between pellets or dust but I think I only had a 4-5* rise in temperature while smoking these. Plus its edible right out of the smoker! I made this dust out of pellets but it stinks so bad while drying I'm going to buy dust or maybe dry it outside in the smoker next time. Its nasty!



I found pellets added 20-30F compared to dust.  Yes, dust has little to no temp increase.  I had serious doubts that using dust would be much different or even better than using pellets but boy was I wrong.  Total game changer.  I have since started using dust for everything I smoke.  I bought a $10 meat grinder on ebay to make dust but plan to make larger batches with wet and dry approach.


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