First time cold smoking cheese

So I finally cut open one of my blocks after a (long) 2-week wait. It tasted...ok, I guess. I was definitely let down a little bit, but I still have faith. I'm hoping that letting it sit for another week or two might help quite a bit. I think if I would have used it for smoky mac & cheese or something like that right now, it would be good. But just eating it plain, it had a little too much of an ashy flavor to it. I'll report back in another couple of weeks and let you know if it mellowed out some more. I will probably not be putting this on the cheese plate for family Thanksgiving next week.

brewersfan73 said:

So I finally cut open one of my blocks after a (long) 2-week wait. It tasted...ok, I guess. I was definitely let down a little bit, but I still have faith. I'm hoping that letting it sit for another week or two might help quite a bit. I think if I would have used it for smoky mac & cheese or something like that right now, it would be good. But just eating it plain, it had a little too much of an ashy flavor to it. I'll report back in another couple of weeks and let you know if it mellowed out some more. I will probably not be putting this on the cheese plate for family Thanksgiving next week.

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My experience was exactly the same. Good for cooking with after 2 weeks, but too much of an ash taste to eat plain. I have a couple blocks left that I'm hoping will be mellow enough for Thanksgiving. My fingers are crossed!

ANT0407 said:

My experience was exactly the same. Good for cooking with after 2 weeks, but too much of an ash taste to eat plain. I have a couple blocks left that I'm hoping will be mellow enough for Thanksgiving. My fingers are crossed!

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I can't wait to hear if it gets better. I like that you are a couple months ahead of schedule compared to me, so I get all of your tips and tricks.

Great thread everyone, I’ve never even thought about smoking cheese before, but it sounds like it may be delicious at some point anywho. I will be following along to see how things turn out, and what adjustments y’all end up making. I did pay close attention to the process of cold smoking and really liked y’all’s methods, smoke tubes, ice trays ect, because this can be used for cold smoking a lot of other things also. I wonder if I could cold smoke steaks, before freezing them, then thaw them on camping trips where I only have my small weber gas grill to get that great smoked flavor without having my smoker with me? I would love to hear y’all’s opinions on this idea.

At the three week mark I tried some of my cheap generic cheddar and some slightly better local pepper jack. Both were really good. They actually smelled more harsh than they tasted, and while I'm not generally a smoked cheese lover, I am excited to try the rest. Next time I'll go for 90 minutes of cold smoke and watch it more closely.

any guesses to how long they would keep when vac sealed in the frig? I am debating freezing some, because even though I am a Wisconsinite , I can't possibly eat all this cheese that fast! Debating whether or not i should freeze for the next two weeks before Christmas.

ANT0407 said:

My experience was exactly the same. Good for cooking with after 2 weeks, but too much of an ash taste to eat plain. I have a couple blocks left that I'm hoping will be mellow enough for Thanksgiving. My fingers are crossed!

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Did you serve some at Thanksgiving? Did it mellow out a little bit more?

I ended up cutting up that first chunk that I removed from the vacuum sealed bag and served it at our Thanksgiving. At that point it was vacuum sealed for 2 weeks and then in a ziploc bag for about 2 weeks. It seemed to go over well, but I forgot to ask people their opinions.

The more I think about this and read, these are the things I would do differently next time. Not sure if they would make any difference or not:
- Move the smoke tube a little further away from the cheese, maybe even underneath the drip pan in my Austin XL.
- Might try apple wood instead of cherry, just because.
- I've read about people using a mix of wood chips and pellets in their smoke tube for better quality smoke. Not sure if that's true, but I would try this next time and see if I get a little less "surface ash" taste.
- Let it rest for 48 hours in parchment paper before vacuum sealing.
- Let it rest in the vacuum sealed bag for a month before eating.

Like I said, I have no clue if this will change anything, but I like experimenting.

brewersfan73 said:

Did you serve some at Thanksgiving? Did it mellow out a little bit more?

I ended up cutting up that first chunk that I removed from the vacuum sealed bag and served it at our Thanksgiving. At that point it was vacuum sealed for 2 weeks and then in a ziploc bag for about 2 weeks. It seemed to go over well, but I forgot to ask people their opinions.

The more I think about this and read, these are the things I would do differently next time. Not sure if they would make any difference or not:
- Move the smoke tube a little further away from the cheese, maybe even underneath the drip pan in my Austin XL.
- Might try apple wood instead of cherry, just because.
- I've read about people using a mix of wood chips and pellets in their smoke tube for better quality smoke. Not sure if that's true, but I would try this next time and see if I get a little less "surface ash" taste.
- Let it rest for 48 hours in parchment paper before vacuum sealing.
- Let it rest for a month before eating.

Like I said, I have no clue if this will change anything, but I like experimenting.

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It did mellow more and people loved it. I think your idea of moving the smoke tube is good. I hadn't thought of that. I will also be trying wood chips as well on the next batch. I am thinking of only cold smoking for an hour as well.

Im back for a quick update. Most of the cheeses in my pic from post #30 were good. the goat cheese not so much, and the aged cheddar was just a bit more crumbly than normal. Surprisingly the best was the mozzarella and cheap cheddar. ANd, the main reason i'm back now is that here we are 2 months later, and the cheap mozzarella has been chilling in my cheese drawer the whole time, not frozen. I just cracked it open now and it is absolutely wonderful. If you have the power to forget about it, it might be worth trying a really long mellowing.

hankhill11 said:

Im back for a quick update. Most of the cheeses in my pic from post #30 were good. the goat cheese not so much, and the aged cheddar was just a bit more crumbly than normal. Surprisingly the best was the mozzarella and cheap cheddar. ANd, the main reason i'm back now is that here we are 2 months later, and the cheap mozzarella has been chilling in my cheese drawer the whole time, not frozen. I just cracked it open now and it is absolutely wonderful. If you have the power to forget about it, it might be worth trying a really long mellowing.

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Thanks for the update @hankhill11!

I tried smoking a piece of Gouda, cheddar and Swiss Back on 12-26. I used apple wood. One piece of cheese sagged a bit so it got a bit too much heat. let it sit in fridge in butchers paper for 36 hours then sealed it up for two weeks. Still really smoke tasting to me Even on 1-24. I think the Swiss turned out the best, but my wife can’t stand it for some reason and likes the cheddar best. I guess I will try again before it gets too hot outside.

I just cut open the 2nd block from the medium cheddar I smoked from post #6, so 2.5 months ago. Pretty similar in flavor to the one I cut open 2 weeks after smoking. Just not quite the flavor I was hoping for - a little too bitter. I put some suggestions in another one of my posts as to what I'd do differently, so I'll have to try again while it is still cold outside.