It got down to 36 here this morning, sooooo ...
With the cold morning I decided it was high time to smoke some cheese on my Weber grill with a smoke tube and grilling pellets. It's super easy to do. The hard part is waiting at least a month to taste it -- and two months is better.
Cut a two-pound loaf of Tillamook into eight chunks each about the size of a stick of butter. Put the pieces on a cooling rack, then fill your smoke tube about half way with pellets and put both in your Weber or any other closed grill or smoker. Tickle the pellets with a propane torch until they catch fire and stay lit for a couple of minutes, then blow out the flame. They should smolder for two hours or more. I find two hours about right for medium and sharp cheddar. When the time has elapsed, bring your rack into the kitchen and let the chunks rest a bit. If damp or oily with"sweat," you can dab them off with a paper towel. Then vacuum seal, put in the fridge and try to forget about them for at least a month, and two months is better. They will continue to improve for a year or more. I threw on a few peppers with this batch, and will dehydrate and grind them for seasoning.
You need to do this on a chilly morning, as you don't want the ambient temperature to get much beyond 50-55 at the end of the smoke. This is what it looks like.
To be clear, you don't light the grill. You just want the enclosed, fire-proof space to contain the smoke tube and smoke. You could do it in a cardboard box if you could keep the lit pellets from igniting the cardboard.
By the way, if you do try some before waiting long enough, you will think you ruined the cheese as it will taste like cigarette butts. You really MUST be patient. I'll send some of the ones I am smoking this morning to family for Christmas gifts as it should be pretty well cured by then. Here it is, 90 minutes in.
