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Originally Posted by 8lug
Now thats the sprit!!!!
How long do you smoke the cheese for. I'd like to try.
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I wanted these a bit on the lighter end so I ran these for about an hour.
It kind of depends on how much smoke you are making, what wood you are using, how well it stays trapped in the smoker, even the temperature of the cheese & temp inside the smoker can have an effect.
Anything from 45 to 90 minutes tends to work with my arrangement. I get pretty dense smoke, only minor leakage and very little temperature rise. Once I start to go past about 90 minutes for most woods, cheese gets to be so overpoweringly smoked that it takes months in a vacuum sealed bag before the bitterness fades so you can eat it, and even then it can border on tasting like you're trying to chew on a campfire.
If you have a cold smoker, I'd say toss a 1/2lb block in and let it run for an hour, then take it out and depending on the wood used, maybe chill it down a bit and slice or vacuum bag it for a week or two then try it. Adjust from there, make sure the cheese is at room temp and has had time to breathe before trying.
If you want to eat the cheese right away, I've found that apple works well; besides being mellow, it leaves a very nice golden brown hue over the cheese. If you don't mind waiting a month or two with the cheese vacuum sealed or saran wrapped and ziploc bagged, then Alder is a fantastic smoking wood for cheese (and lox).
Don't expect to see the very phony perfectly even caramel brown exterior look of most commercially "smoked" cheese (a lot of which aren't even actually smoked, but that's a discussion for a different post).
If you don't have a cold smoker, you can make one for about $12. It's so easy, too easy even...
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Originally Posted by pnoon
A couple of hours will do nicely.
Just be sure you are cold-smoking the cheese (80-90 degrees max; less if you can)
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^ This. I do all my cheeses in the early morning or late night to avoid the temp rises that sunlight hitting my modified BLACK 18"Webber causes. Smoking going into the evening creates issues with moisture condensation that need to be taken into account for though.