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How to smoke cheese

A step-by-step guide to cold-smoking your own cheese. Cheap, fun and delicious!

Ingredients

  • cheese as many pieces as you have space for
  • cold-smoking wood dust I used oak

Instructions

Container

  • You have a pretty wide choice of containers to place the smoker in. I have had success with a couple of different small, lidded barbecues, but the plain old cardboard box I used the other day also worked fantastically.
  • For the barbecue method, you simply place the smoker where you would put the coals and put the food on the grill - a lid for the barbecue, whether it comes with one or you fashion it yourself, is essential.
  • For the box method, I put the smoker on a metal baking tray to avoid any potential risk of fire, then balanced an oven shelf with the food to be smoked on two glass jars. After closing the box, I covered it with a large towel to make sure that no smoke escaped.
  • Your box/barbecue needs some venting - just a small hole or gap that a little oxygen can enter from. I felt that, to keep the smoke burning for all those hours, it needed some flow to achieve this.

Wood Dust

  • There are a wide range of different flavour smoke dusts for you to choose from. I used oak for this, which was great, but any of the smoke flavours and aromas will be great with cheese.

Cheese

  • Smoking will improve a not-so-great cheese, but it will elevate a really great cheese.
  • Pat the cheese dry first with paper towels. A drier surface helps the smoke adhere/penetrate better and minimises the risk of moisture dripping from the cheese onto the wood dust and putting it out.

During Smoking

  • Go back and check intermittently to make sure that the smoker is still alight. Dripping moisture has extinguished the dust for me a few times.
  • Although I have read others insist that you should only smoke cheese for a couple of hours, I don't think this is always true – I left some halloumi smoking for about eight hours and it was fantastic.

After Smoking

  • When ready, wrap the cheese in baking paper and leave it to rest, at least overnight, even up to a week for the best flavour. This enables the smoky flavour concentrated on the outside to really penetrate and develop.