# First time smoking cheese



## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

Was ambling around costco yesterday - £3 off a side of salmon - bought three - and they had some samples of a rather pleasant cheese. 

turns out to be a strong double gloucester. 
double gloucester is a full fat hard cheese. sort of like a creamy cheddar, but subtler flavour. It's good cheese.

This stuff was excellent. bought a 1.3 kg block (2.8 pounds).
Now i've got four shelves in the smoker, the salmon wil occupy three, so thought i'd slice the cheese into decent chunks, cold smoke it, vac pac and freeze.  

ps. there will be qview on the whole cold smoked salmon process. that'll be in the smoker for 5 hours. But would that be too long for the cheese ?
I've seen times ranging from 30 minutes to several hours to 15 mins an hour for a whole day ! 
given that these will be aprrox 6 oz blocks - what do you reckon for smoking time ?
forget any temp issues. modded bradleys smoke real COLD. :-) 
just need some idea on time.


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## richtee (Sep 27, 2008)

A couple hours per block should be good. And don't forget to put the cheese on TOP...heh.

Also, don't judge the stuff right out of the smoker. A day or so later it will be much better.


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## richoso1 (Sep 27, 2008)

What he said.


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## shorts (Sep 27, 2008)

Be very careful...very easy to make fondue in the bottom over your smoker...very hard to clean back up!!!  I cold smoke mine usually about 4 hours...I also put a coating on it of season salt, onion powder and garlic powder...they fight over the outer edge so I cut mine into 1" slabs...

Oh and what Richtee said...seems like it gets better as it sits!

GL CA!


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

cheers guys - fondue - not a problem. There is no heat source in the smoker when I'm cold smoking. 
The bradley smoke generator sits in a cardboard box with a tumble dryer tube from the top of the box to the the bradley (i'll q-view the thing tomorrow). No heat on in the bradley. 
Hmm, not sure about the seasoning the cheese. 
bear in mind this isn't american cheese - this stuff tastes great as it is ;-)
I think I'll stick to just the smoking. I'll take a piece out each hour and see which one tastes best after a day in the fridge.
It's a plan :-) 
Thanks guys.


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## walking dude (Sep 27, 2008)

i cold smoke (under 90 degrees) hard/yellow cheeses two hours, white (softer) cheeses one hour. the cheeses (pepperjack, monteray jack, mozz, swiss) takes on smoke easier. two hours I/We have found is abit too strong. But the yellow/harder cheeses can take 2 easy.

And what they said before. the longer the cheese sits, the stronger the smoke flavor it attains...........


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

well this stuff is a medium hard cheese. I'm a cheese eater and while I've been told that there are some small dairies making decent cheese in the states now - I've never found any when over there. So not sure what you'd compare a mature double gloucester with ( and this is a great double gloucester). 

I'll cut the chucnk into 4 or 5 pieces and take one out each hour and seal it in  a bag and label it.
Then I'll leave it in the fridge for a day or two and we can have a blind tasting :-)


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## walking dude (Sep 27, 2008)

curious, then you haven't ever had Maytag Blue Cheese........its known world wide...........its a goodun


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

never even heard of it - worldwide maybe - but not in england :-) 
like I said, I don't doubt there are some good american cheeses - just never had one.


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## walking dude (Sep 27, 2008)

sorry bout your luck curious........



http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

looks good. Okay I'll have a shufty and see if there's any available round here :-)


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

nope not loooking good, no one seem to sell it over here :-( 
 I'm off to bother the smoker :-) 
Those last few degrees you know ? 
lol


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## richtee (Sep 27, 2008)

One of the best I have had. The Danish and the Stilton might have a bit of edge on it. But you's do no wrong subbing one for the other for sure.


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

like the white crumbly look of the maytag, and I'm  asucker for anything that's matured in a cave. Just can't find anyone selling it. And I do look in delis and I do buy cheese at food shows and maytag's never crossed my palate.
I suspect that maytag just isn't exported. :-(

I'll keep looking.


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## walking dude (Sep 27, 2008)

kind of hard to be a world class cheese, if its not exported.....


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## curious aardvark (Sep 27, 2008)

no it's not dude. 
You have cheese competitions in the us ? 
Right some of those judges are international. 
World class - is not the same as widely available :-)
Never has been, probably never will be. 

It looks like maytag is mainly sold by mail order in the us anyway. So that would explain my never seeing it in a shop.


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## williamzanzinger (Sep 27, 2008)

You guys know I love talking about my Dad. He told me a stroy once when he was 11 or so in NYC he used to go by this italian deli where the guy would smoke mozzerella and provolone. The guy would hire him to babysit the cheese which was suspended about 6 feet over a small smoldering smoke. His job was to keep the cheese moving so it wouldnt get too hot, just push it back and forth for a few hours. At the end of the job the guy would give hime a couple of pounds of cheese and a loaf of italian bread. Right up there with his story about stealing sugar cane off the back of the trucks in P.R. Dad loved to eat.(still does)


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## walking dude (Sep 27, 2008)

hmmm curious............

from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag_blue_cheese

and suprise suprise.......guess where it was held at?

London

http://www.anniehallinc.com/pages/awards.html


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## curious aardvark (Oct 1, 2008)

lol that would explain it - london is a totally different country to the rest of england. 
It's a dirty, smelly, over crowded with rude people, total craphole of a place. Weird that they don't tell you that in the tourist brochures eh ;-)
bears about about as much resemblence to the rest of the country as most capital cities do - ie: NONE !
Yep there might be delis in london you can buy it from. But they're not advertising the fact on the tinternet.

I'll be buggered if I'm going to london to look for cheese :-) Can't stand the place.

However - just for walking dude - I'll ask someone I know who lives in london and probably knows some really good cheese shops.


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## curious aardvark (Oct 1, 2008)

Anyways - first cheese smoke is now done. Cheese was tasted, results are in.

I loaded four slabs of chees into the smoker while I was smoking the salmon. 
Took one piece out every hour and sealed it in a labelled bag. 
Left for a couple of days. 

For my money the 3 hour cheese was bang on the money. The four hour cheese was a bit too strong - but will be great for cooking with.
The 1 & 2 hour, while tasting a bit smoky were a little too subtle for me. Though the 2 hour might well be sufficient for most people. 

So In future I'll probably smoke cheese for 3 hours :-)


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## chef_boy812 (Oct 1, 2008)

curious aardvark;266765 said:
			
		

> well this stuff is a medium hard cheese. I'm a cheese eater and while I've been told that there are some small dairies making decent cheese in the states now - I've never found any when over there. So not sure what you'd compare a mature double gloucester with ( and this is a great double gloucester). In larger cities with WHole Foods, and Specialty Cheese store popping up it is work but mature double glouster isn't incredibly hard to get. Neal's Yard is a huge importer as well as the Fine Cheese Co. of Bath. We even get alot of the borough market cheeses as well.
> 
> As Far as small Farmhouse and artisan cremeries there are plenty, I can send you a spread sheet of them later, Most are super smal and only sorce to local stores. Ones of considerable note to look for:
> Cowgirl Creamery from Point Reyes, CA
> ...


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## irish (Oct 1, 2008)

I love cheese and a few American favorites are Carr Valley, Santori, Award Reserve. I can get these in a very fancy grocery store called Wegmans around here.


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## jbchoice1 (Oct 1, 2008)

great aardvark...  sounds about right to me...  thanks for the discussion..  I enjoy you and rich back and forth...  if I have any questions about anything I will be sure and let you two know about it, I'm sure all bases would then be covered...  and if not, I'll call on Walking dude and his soapbox. :-)


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## jond (Oct 1, 2008)

Looks excellent Aardvark :) nice Qview :)

I have to agree London is a hole, same as Paris.  I'm only 15 miles outside and 5 miles from Heathrow but hate having to go there :(  The english mostly hate londoners and the french the parisiens...  I was presented with an evening menu in a 4* hotel with a menu for Lapin Vitesse Pizza (Lapin Vitesse translates to Speed Rabbit) i opted to wait till the morning lol.

Jon.


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## curious aardvark (Oct 2, 2008)

this woman owes me HUGE favour :-) (see 'Yes Yes Yes' blog post)
www.chocstar.com
So I think I'll give her the task of looking for some maytag :-) 

Hey now we got plenty of rabbit in the freezer - anyone smoked rabbit (umm I'll go post over on the game section lol)
cheers for comments anyway. 
I'm learning. 

Alas out of smoke at the moment, woodturning this weekend I feel - stilll deciding what to go for next. Definitely not cherry again. Leaning towards either oak or maple at the moment - any thoughts ? (hmm, again probably needs different thread lol)


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