First cheese smoke with questions

[bamasmoker77]

I smoked my first set of cheese last night. I read up on Mr. T's Cheese smoking post. There is a lot of good information there. I used my MES30 with the cold smoking attachment. To cut back on the creosote, I ran a six foot piece of double tubing between them. I have used the cold smoking attachment directly on the smoker and got some pretty good smoke. When I used it though, the MES was also on.

So my questions are concerning the smoke. It seemed a lot different. I know heat rises, so I am guessing that is why it didn't really rise this time. It came out of the top of the smoker, but didn't come out at a good pace. It more or less just drifted out and stayed low on the smoker. Again, I am assuming this is due to the lack of heat. It was also very humid last night in Alabama. The temp was in 50s.

I should have taken some pictures of the smoke, but I didn't. Rookie move I know. So is this normal for the smoke to do that? Should the cheese have had a really strong smoke smell to it when I took it out? I took some out at 30 minutes, one hour and then the rest at two hours. The only real discoloration was on the top of the cheese. The rest barely showed any change. Is this normal? I let it sit on the counter for an hour before vacuum sealing it.

I thought about it this morning and wondered if it would be helpful to set up a fan on top of the MES and face it away from the smoke so it pulls it out some. I thought more air flow for the smoke would be good. I only did half of the cheese I bought. I wanted to try both Cherry (which I did last night) and Hickory. I plan to do the rest this week and want to make whatever adjustments are needed. Oh and I smoked cheddar and mozzarella.

Thanks for any thoughts or comments you have. I always appreciate the help I get here.

 

[GaryHibbert]

You can put a fan by the exhaust or at the air inlet to the smoke attachment. I would suggest the latter. Also it looks likethere is no incline to the MES to help the smoke move into the smoker.
Gary

 

[driedstick]

Yes, like GaryHibbert said,,, fan or raise,,, I would raise the MES,,, set up up higher like on a end table or a box of some kind just so the smoke can rise,,

Good luck and let us know

A full smoker is a happy smoker,,, is your smoker happy??

 

[bamasmoker77]

I didn't realize the MES should be higher. I will definitely give that a try. I think that and a fan by the outlet will help to move the smoke.

 

[gmc2003]

I'll usually flip my cheese half way through the smoke, and let it rest overnight loosely covered in the fridge before vacuum sealing.

Chris

 

[PerazziMx14]

I set a box fan on a 5 gallon bucket about 6 to 10 inches away from the smoke outlet to pull the smoke through. Turn the smoke generator on until you see smoke exhausting out of the smoker then turn off the element off. The slight draft will keep the chips burning with adding no additional heat from the element. With my setup scold smoking cheese can be done when its 90 degrees outside. You need to add a pan full of ice on the bottom tray of the smoker. This will keep interior tempos in the 60's.

I also mounted a power strip to the back of the smoker so I can plug in the fan, smoker (only to see time & temp) and the smoke generator. Masterbuilt 30" w/ the masterbuilt cold smoker generator.

 

[bamasmoker77]

I set a box fan on a 5 gallon bucket about 6 to 10 inches away from the smoke outlet to pull the smoke through. Turn the smoke generator on until you see smoke exhausting out of the smoker then turn off the element off. The slight draft will keep the chips burning with adding no additional heat from the element. With my setup scold smoking cheese can be done when its 90 degrees outside. You need to add a pan full of ice on the bottom tray of the smoker. This will keep interior tempos in the 60's.

I also mounted a power strip to the back of the smoker so I can plug in the fan, smoker (only to see time & temp) and the smoke generator. Masterbuilt 30" w/ the masterbuilt cold smoker generator.

Thanks I will give this a try.