Kamado Smoked Cheese

[K'man]

It's the time of the year when I like to make little treats for friends at Christmas.  Smoked cheese goes over very well here.

Actually the Kamado has very little to do with the cold smoking process, it's just handy to use.  I find the Cold Smoker Tray from A-Maze-N Products works very well.  It does not generate any amount of heat.  I've had good success doing this before but you have to be aware of outside temps.  Temps above 70˚F will cause to the cheese to soften and deform.

For this smoke I'm using Alder wood chips and 2 year old Balderson Cheddar.  I will smoke the cheese for two hours and let it rest over night then vacuum seal it so it can age for 2 weeks.

Further pics to follow.

 

[KismetKamado]

Awesome K’man!  Can’t wait to see how it turns out. 

[K'man]

Proximity matters.

This was a new bag of pellets, I've not used them before.  There was some deforming of the cheese in the area directly above the smoking tray where the pellets were smouldering. They burned a little hotter than I have encountered before.  I have another 4 pounds of cheese I want to smoke so next time I will use a diffuser in an effort to even out the smoke and the temps.  We are 11˚C above freezing here today so the outside temp was not the issue.

I'll let the cheese rest overnight outside in the Corningware and vacuum seal it tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.

.  

[Shortyque]

1 hour ago, K'man said:

 

Just took a bunch of swiss off my classic.  I agree about the diffuser.  I've found out the hard way that I need to have just a half deflector on the x-rack directly above the tube ( I have the tube, not the maze).  My last load of cheese, the bottom rack looked like modern art.  I thought the droopy look was really cool, the wife not so much!

[K'man]

@Shortyque  Not sure where you're from but normally here this time of year temps will offset an error or two.  I would not be doing this if I lived in the Southern states for sure

[UTVol]

I was just researching this over the weekend.  Do you leave all the vents open?  I have the maze as well and am looking forward to giving this a shot in the morning or evening as the temps are lower.

[K'man]

26 minutes ago, UTVol said:

I was just researching this over the weekend.  Do you leave all the vents open?  I have the maze as well and am looking forward to giving this a shot in the morning or evening as the temps are lower.

Yes I had both vents open.  Just to share my experience, one row only will give you at least 3 hours of smoke. I would either turn your cheese tray during the smoke or have a diffuser over the smoke tray to diffuse.  It's not hot here by any means but there was enough heat generated by the maze to soften the pieces immediately above it.

[Squarehelmet]

I know everyone will hate me, but I think that a gas grill is a better tool for this.  They are more open by design which lets the heat out.  A kamado will keep the heat in much more effectively, which is not what you want with cheese.

[K'man]

25 minutes ago, Squarehelmet said:

I know everyone will hate me, but I think that a gas grill is a better tool for this.  They are more open by design which lets the heat out.  A kamado will keep the heat in much more effectively, which is not what you want with cheese.

 

I don't hate you and I agree.  You could do this in a cardboard box if set up properly. I don't have a gas grill any longer.  I know the next time a diffuser over the smoke tray will do the trick.

[UTVol]

1 hour ago, K'man said:

 

I don't hate you and I agree.  You could do this in a cardboard box if set up properly. I don't have a gas grill any longer.  I know the next time a diffuser over the smoke tray will do the trick.

 

+1  no hate, you're spot on.  Same reason I pitched it after getting a Kamado is one of the benefits for smoking cheese. 

[KismetKamado]

15 hours ago, UTVol said:

 

+1  no hate, you're spot on.  Same reason I pitched it after getting a Kamado is one of the benefits for smoking cheese. 

 

@Squarehelmet, @K'man, @UTVol

 

This is brilliant - next time I want to add another little something to my outdoor cooking arsenal, I'm just going to tell my husband: "yes, I know I have all these other things, but I need THIS to smoke cheese."  And I plan on deploying that tactic regardless of what it is that I want...  He won't know the difference as to whether it makes sense or not.

[K'man]

The beauty of having one of these little trays is that you can cold smoke a number of different foods or meats.  

[KismetKamado]

2 minutes ago, K'man said:

The beauty of having one of these little trays is that you can cold smoke a number of different foods or meats.  

 

Going to have to throw my hat in the cold smoking ring one of these days. It’s something I’ve not tried. Expect the time or two I unintentionally snuffed my fire. Lol.

[Bachman 5]

I did this last year in the winter months last year , I used the Amaze pellet smoker as well with it placed at the very bottom of my BJ , the x-rack with my soapstone pizza stone with a tray of ice placed on top of that and then with grate with the cheese placed directly above and didn't open the vents much as these really don't consume much oxygen to keep going.

 

Had no problems with the cheese getting soft.

 

The Havarti came out awesome and will definitely be doing more during the holidays.

[Smoke and Awe]

Must try the Havarti.  I'm smoking some med. cheddar this morning, also for gifts.  Had a lot of trouble getting the smouldering needed with the Amazen Smoke tray, maybe damp wood dust or something.  Anyway, dumped it all into a folding stainless steel steamer basket and now it's smoking away like it was designed for that.  So if you don't have the tray, get creative.  However, having a cold day with a bit of breeze helps too...