# Smoked Cheese round 3



## RipC1ty$moker (Jul 5, 2021)

Okay so I have been trying out smoking cheese. Have done 3 rounds so far.

Using the pitboss pro series 2 combo unit.

Round 1 - I was smoking brisket at the same time and the propane chamber where the cheese was just got too hot because I had the pellet side too hot. Cheese melted a little bit but the flavor was still good, and only after a week of sitting. 

Round 2 - didn't even think about ambient temp really. The cheese again melted a bit, but it was all salvageable. Haven't tried it yet, been sitting vac sealed for about a week now. Only smoked for 1.5 hours. 

Both rounds 1 and 2 were smaller blocks of cheese since I was attempting for my first times. 

Round 3 - just finished up and it's now sweating. This time since I was worried about it melting, I used some ice trays. I used a glass pan full of ice, put tin foil on top and placed the cheese blocks on that. I then had a smaller meatloaf pan that I filled with ice and I set the glass pan on top of that. The temp stayed lower, maxing out at 100 at one point, but never exceeded. The cheese did not melt at all. But when I took the cheese off after 4 hours of smoking, the cheese was in water from the melted ice in the glass pan. 

I think I know what I need to do next time and it's use a tray on top of the glass pan if I use it, instead of tin foil. Or stick to smoking at night for cooler temps. Which I did thus time, but was worried as it was still kinda warm out. 

All that said, is the going to be ruined because it was in water? The smoke color is strong on the areas that were not in the water, but the part that was in the water looks as if it wasn't smoked at all. Will that added moisture ruin the cheese?


----------



## forktender (Jul 5, 2021)

I wouldn't try saving it, either use it right away or try placing it on a rack next time.
Add and inch or two of H2o to your pan then freeze the whole pan.  Once its frozen solid place a wire rack over the pan to keep the cheese away from the water. You can also freeze up a coffee can or few soup or bean cans full of water to place the frozen cans near the cheese. It will help keep temps down while containing the melting H2o.

Better yet buy or make a smoke maze and make up or buy some dust, dust will put off a nice mild smoke without the heat of a smoke tube or the burner of your smoker.


----------



## RipC1ty$moker (Jul 5, 2021)

forktender said:


> I wouldn't try saving it, either use it right away or try placing it on a rack next time.
> Add and inch or two of H2o to your pan then freeze the whole pan.  Once its frozen solid place a wire rack over the pan to keep the cheese away from the water. You can also freeze up a coffee can or few soup or bean cans full of water to place the frozen cans near the cheese. It will help keep temps down while containing the melting H2o.
> 
> Better yet buy or make a smoke maze and make up or buy some dust, dust will put off a nice mild smoke without the heat of a smoke tube or the burner of your smoker.


Would drying it out, and then smoking for a hour be worth it? I've got it in the fridge now after I patted it dry. Not vac sealed yet.


----------



## Steve H (Jul 5, 2021)

I'm confused. Are you actually using the smoker as a smoke source? Or using a smoke generator with the smoker completely off?


----------



## RipC1ty$moker (Jul 5, 2021)

Steve H said:


> I'm confused. Are you actually using the smoker as a smoke source? Or using a smoke generator with the smoker completely off?


Using the smoker as my smoke source. The pit boss series 2 combo unit has a slide gate between the propane and pellet side that allows you to use the propane side as a cold smoker. It stays about 100 degrees cooler than the pellet side when pellet is at smoke temp of 180. I placed a meat probe in the propane side to be able to watch the ambient temp.


----------



## Steve H (Jul 5, 2021)

RipC1ty$moker said:


> Using the smoker as my smoke source. The pit boss series 2 combo unit has a slide gate between the propane and pellet side that allows you to use the propane side as a cold smoker. It stays about 100 degrees cooler than the pellet side when pellet is at smoke temp of 180. I placed a meat probe in the propane side to be able to watch the ambient temp.



Neat unit. I'm not hip on this smoker. But it does sound like something is getting too warm. Perhaps a stand alone smoke generator will be better in warmer times?


----------



## RipC1ty$moker (Jul 5, 2021)

Steve H said:


> Neat unit. I'm not hip on this smoker. But it does sound like something is getting too warm. Perhaps a stand alone smoke generator will be better in warmer times?


Unfortunately that's what I'm thinking as well, just trying to avoid it if I can since I bought this unit for this cool feature. The ice worked well, kept the ambient temp way cooler. It was my dumb mistake to not put the cheese on a tray and just have it sitting on tin foil on top of the ice. I also used cubes instead of having just solid trays of ice. 

I think my next attempt will have a solid reusable aluminum tray of ice set down at the slide gate, and then a couple gallon bottles of ice on top of the grates to cool the ambient air. If I went with a smoke generator I would go top of the line, from Smoke daddy, and I just don't wanna spend another $100 if I don't have to. I think I'm close to figuring it out. 

The ambient temp was pretty good on this one but the cheese still cracked a little so I am gonna try to keep it cooler. Going to shoot for 75 degrees. This cook stayed 90 or under except for when the pellet side got up to 196 the propane side saw 100. But never any warmer than that and it was short lived, like 10 to 20 minutes.


----------



## SmokinEdge (Jul 5, 2021)

I sometimes smoke cheese in my pellet machine (Yoder) so what I do is use a pellet tube. I turn on the smoker power, I don’t start the fire. At this point the fan runs only and creates air flow through the cook chamber, this feeds air to the smoke tube keeping it burning producing smoke. The only heat at this point is the smoke tube (minimal) this process works well for me.


----------



## ammjr (Jul 23, 2021)

Here's what I did.  I got one of these chill chests, some HVAC ductwork and a smoke tube.  I took some metal pans and put a grate over them and cut vent holes it in.  It actually works quite well.   https://www.acehardware.com/departm...K6iTaZh46hyWfa1_5HYaAsYrEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds  I think they sell them on Amazon too.


----------

