Smoking a variety of cheese - we didn't get any from the christmas smoke, so I'm keep

[curious aardvark]

ing this lot !



Got 2.5 lb mature/very-sharp cheddar.
2.75 lb red leicester
2.2 pound (1kg) whole brie
1 lb mature stilton - well it's been in the fridge for about a month so definitely mature

The cheddar, leicester & brie all came from costco - think the stilton come from tesco at christmas.

In the smoker




Once it was all up and running I added a pound of coriander seeds.






And the situation as it stands at this very moment. The thin and blue is rolling true (lol)



I figure another hour or so for the leicester&cheddar and another hour on top of that for the stilton and brie.
and I'll keep the smoker running for a few hours after that and throw in some garlic with the coriander.

Speaking of garlic, I invented bacon jerky this weekend and for the test batch used the euro B2B seasoning, talk about some serious garlic smell coming out of the dehydrator and filling up my workshop !

oh yeah I'm using apple wood with maybe some bay thrown in at some point - either that or I'll hack some more chunks off an apple branch :-)
Dave keeps complainng that he's got no apple trees left in his garden - I'm not complaining

[Texas-Hunter]

Nice...

One question Alex, Why have you not purchased a side fire box for your smoker??

[SMOKE FREAK]

Interested in the smoked stilton...love me some bleu...

And what Ken said...

[curious aardvark]

2 reasons (maybe more we'll see lol)

1) they're seriously expensive over here. Okay they've come down a bit - but still £97 I don't need to spend
2) 1 12lb bag of lumpwood will last me for 3-6 smokes. From what I've seen of the side box smokers the fuel consumption would skyrocket. At the moment I can run the smoker all day for pennies, add a side box and it starts getting noticeably costly.
Running the outlaw as an offset is just so amazingly efficient I'd be daft to change to something so much less efficient.
3) I can only buy charcoal during the summer - so the five bags I bought to take me through winter would not have lasted more than a month or so with an sfb.
4) when it gets wheeled out of the way the slot it goes in is too small for it if it had the sfb
5) the warming rack actually gives me as much cooking space as a single level smoker with an sfb (say a longhorn) as well as giving a sensible temperature variation.
6) I'm planning a filing cabinet conversion with sfb and electric for the business side.
7) if I ever get an amaze-ing smoker style smoke generator functioning (failed again today) I'll clean up the old bradley and that will become a dedicated cold smoker.
8) and finally (lol) I've got a consistent working smoker with 4 easy to adjust temperature settings, plus easy to use for cold smoking - IT's taken me a year or so to get to this point, so why bugger about with what works ?

Oh yeah this is what a chargriller outlaw costs in englandAlmost bang on $500 !

But I wouldn't part with mine, brilliant bit of kit and the best damn grill ever !

ps. the stilton smoke is a first for me. we'll see. But the feedback I got from the people who had the smoked brie was amazing, so I had to do some of that ! and figured the stilton creaminess would take the smoke pretty well.

[Whisky Fish]

Thanks for the post Alex I've gotta get on this before it warms up. Let us know about the Stilton, real curious about that one too.

[Texas-Hunter]

That answers my question One Grind..

[curious aardvark]

just added a couple of small bits of bay to give the smoke a wee boost for the last half hour on the cheddar and leicester.
The ai temp is around 42, though there is ice in the birdbath - go figure. The smoker hasn't cracked 75 yet :-)

Going to give them 2.5 hours now.
'bout another 20 minutes and I'll remove the top tray, move the brie up and add some garlic powder (in trays).
Speaking of which my workshop smells like a garlic factory in full production.
Might have overdone the garlic just a 'tad' in the last batch of B2B seasoning

I'll go post the bacon jerky up so you can see why

[curious aardvark]

Okay cheese now in fridge in clingfilm for a week.

The stilton took on a good colour and smelt fantastic. It's also feels a lot firmer and less crumbly. So that's going to be interesting in a week



Like last time the brie doesn't seem to change colour. Definitely smelt smokey though
That'll be interesting as I never even tasted the last batch.
Here's just over 10lb of cheese in the workshop fridge :-)



Between the smokey smell from the cheese and the lingering garlic from the bacon jerky, my workshop smells divine !

Now all I need is some bloody work to give me an excuse to be in there lol

[Fishawn]

Easy on the Garlic Mate.... And get some fricken beer in that fridge!


Man, that Stilton looks Heavenly

[curious aardvark]

yeah beer !
It's 20:30 and I'm just about to fire the outlaw up to cook the b2b sausages.
While I'm trundling back and forth I'll ferry some beer up from the dogroom (room under the house - no dogs, long story)
Pretty sure there's two partial cases of either dos equis or sol down there.

Got to admit I'm looking forward to trying the stilton. I know the cheddar and leicester are excellent. and people tell me the brie is too. But the stilton is the one I've got serious hopes for.

[Fishawn]

Yeah, let us know.... That picture of the Stilton is awesome

[curious aardvark]

going to take couple of pieces to a mate today, but we'll crack the rest on saturday for lunch :-)

[Richtee]

Hmmm interested. I purchased 4 lbs of Stilton a while back. Damned good Bleu.

[HawgHeaven]

Great looking cheese CA... and I love me some Stilton!!

[curious aardvark]

Well we broke into the clingfilmed blocks today.

Red leicester makes one of the best smoked cheeses around. The whole texture and flavour changes.
The cheddar was pretty good to.

The brie - even after nearly 4 hours was definitely smoked but pretty mild. Next time I'll give it 5 !

The stilton is excellent. Next time I'll pick a less mature block though, this stuff bites back !

So all in all a great smoke.

If you haven't done cheese - get at it