Smoking Cheese...in a Smoker??????

Okay, okay, being from Wisconsin I should already know this but....

My son has a Pit Boss smoker and has gotten really good results with meat. I opened up a brick of smoked Gouda last night that we bought from a cheese store and it was fantastic. Was bragging to him about it on the phone last night and he asked me to post for more information on the collective Trapperman Brain Trust.

Any tips, hints, or tricks on smoking cheese in a smoker?

Thanks!

Moosetrot

Can you cold smoke in his rig?

Fella here smokes cheese and his smoke is piped into the smokehouse so it's cold. I never did it myself, but saw his set-up.

I don't do it myself but know guys that do. Temperature is the key, and you need to use quality cheese, can't be oily or it won't absorb the smoke. It's really just trial and error with each smoker I would say.

The key is little or no heat, but you can smoke cheese on a BBQ grill.

You need a pork and bean can or something like it. When you open it do not take the lid off completely, leave enough you can hinge it open or closed. About an inch up from the bottom of the can drill a hole in the side big enough you can stick the end of a soldering iron inside the can. Wet down some wood chips and place them in the can on top of the soldering iron. Close the lid part way down and plug in the soldering iron.

Put the can with soldering iron and some cheese inside your grill and close the lid. If you have a top rack put the can on the grill and the cheese on the top rack. You may have to play with it a bit to see how much smoke you really want. You can add more chips to the can if needed.

When done I like to wrap my cheese in plastic and freeze it, that tends to mellow out the smoke a bit so it isn't bitter.

I have done it a couple times. First time with Hickory chips in a soup can with h a unused electric soldering iron to heat the chips. I put it inside my gas grill on a cold day and obviously don’t light the gas grill. I found Apple chips were good and not so harsh. I do the same thing with pepperoni sticks and use the hickory chips.

I use wooden dowels to secure a smoker rack inside an upside down cardboard box, put cheese on the rack, and suspend the box several feet above the vent of the smoker, and fire up the smoker. Works good in cooler weather, even very cold weather.

I used a smoke tube with apple pellets, cold smoke, do NOT let it go past 60 min.!....:)

Also use smoke tube (amaz-n-smoke??) apple pellets are good. Only smoke a couple hours, Gouda, pepper jack are good smoked.

I love to smoke several kinds of cheese. It is best to do in cold weather as the key is to never get above 80 degrees in the smoker. Give it a couple hours of smoke, let it set on your counter for a couple hours to set up nice. Then vacuum seal it and store in the fridge for at least 3 weeks before eating it. If you try it too soon it often tastes like an ash tray. One thing to realize is that the vast majority of "smoked" cheese that you buy has never been near a smoker, but dipped or painted with liquid smoke.

^^^^^
One way to eliminate a lot of that acrid "ash tray" flavour is to smoke whatever you are smoking with punky cottonwood, sounds crazy, but try it, very clean smoke.