Smoking your cheese is the best way to make your ordinary cheese extraordinary! We’ll teach you the best way to cold smoke cheese.
The process is actually quite easy, all you need is a smoker tube. You can do this on a grill or a smoker.
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Why You’ll Love this Recipe
Cold smoking cheese requires only a few minutes of hands on time. Cold smoking requires no heat, just a smoker tube, some wood pellets, and something to contain and infuse the smoke into the cheese in—like a grill or a smoker.
Smoked cheese makes an incredible homemade gift, perfect for neighbors, Father’s Day, or even Christmas.
This post will cover in detail what kind of cheese to use, how to add extra flavor to the cheese, how long to smoke cheese, and how to age the cheese before eating.
What You’ll Need
- Torch. A propane torch is needed to light the pellets in the smoke tube and get the smoke going.
- Cheese. Use blocks of hard or semi-hard cheeses. See section below for more ideas on what kinds of cheese you can use.
- Smoke tube. A smoker tube is a metal cylinder that holds wood pellets. The pellets are lit to create smoke, but no heat is generated.
- Wood pellets. Wood pellets come in all sorts of wood flavors to impart smoke into your food.
- Smoker or Grill. For cold smoking you can use a smoker or even a grill as long as you have a smoke tube and some ventilation for airflow.
What Cheese is Best for Cold Smoking
There are so many amazing options for cold smoking cheese! Choose a hard, or semi-hard cheese. Don’t choose a soft cheese like brie or goat cheese. Soft cheeses contain too much moisture, if the cheese is spreadable when cold there is a good chance it will melt during the smoking process.
You will also want to use blocks of cheese, shredded cheese will not work. Some cheeses that are good for smoking are mild or sharp cheddar, Swiss, gouda, gruyere, hard mozzarella (not fresh), provolone, Colby jack, Monterey jack, pepper jack, Havarti, asiago, and parmesan.
Flavor Your Cheese
To add a little extra flavor to your cheese you can add some seasoning, or brush some maple syrup or honey on the outside of the cheese before smoking it.
I love doing maple syrup with a barbecue rub on the outside of the cheese. Feel free get creative, a lemon herb seasoning with honey would be fantastic with mozzarella.
The flavor is subtle, but gives your smoked cheese just a little something extra.
What Kind of Wood is best for Cold Smoking
For cold smoking, use wood pellets, not wood chips. Wood pellets will create smoke, but not heat. You can find wood pellets in almost every flavor.
For cold smoking cheese, I prefer a mild flavored wood. Fruit wood is always a good choice, like cherry and apple. Some of my other favorites are pecan, alder, hickory, or maple.
How to Cold Smoke Cheese
- Cut Cheese. If you bought large blocks of cheese, cut them into blocks about 2-3 inches thick.
- Get Smoke Going. Add your wood pellets to a smoker tube and use a torch to light the pellets on fire. They should start smoking, but not be hot.
- Smoke it. Place the smoker tube in the bottom of the smoker. Add blocks of cheese to smoker grate. Smoke the cheese for about 3-4 hours.Make sure there is ventilation for the smoke to escape.
- Wrap it and wait. Remove the cheese from the smoker. If it is warm at all, let it cool to room temperature. Wrap the cheese tightly in plastic wrap and wait at least 2 weeks before slicing into the cheese and sampling it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The best and easiest way to cold smoke cheese by using a smoke tube to imbibe smoke and flavor into the cheese. You do this by filling the smoke tube with wood pellets, light them with a torch to get the smoke going, placing the cheese in a ventilated, enclosed space with the smoke. Then wrap the cheese and let it age in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Technically, any temperature under 100 degrees Fahrenheit is considered “cold smoking.” However, I recommend keeping the ambient temperature below 60 degrees. Wait for a cool day, keep your smoker out of the sun if it’s warming up.
The “cold smoke” comes from lighting the wood pellets in a smoker tube on fire, but not using any heat (like charcoal) to actually heat the cheese.
It is completely normal for cheese to have a slight sheen or “sweat” on it., you don’t want it to sweat too much. A lot of sweat indicates the cheese is getting too warm.
Some people say that if the cheese sweats too much it can prevent the cheese from absorbing the smoke properly. This isn’t something I’ve particularly noticed, however, too much sweat can affect the texture of the cheese. Try to cold smoke the cheese when the temperatures are lower to help avoid this problem.
If you find that your cheese has too much sweat on it when it is done smoking, remove it from the smoker, let the cheese come to room temperature, use a paper towel to dab off the extra sweat, then wrap or vacuum seal it and let it age in the refrigerator.
Wait a minimum of 2 weeks before sampling the smoked cheese. Wrapping the cheese and letting it rest in the refrigerator actually helps and improve the flavor. If you sampled the cheese immediately after smoking it, it would taste similar to charcoal and sawdust.
The aging period helps the smoke absorb all the way through the cheese and mellows the overall flavor. If the smoke flavor it still too strong after two weeks, you can wrap it back up and let age for another 2 weeks before testing it again.
How to Use Your Smoked Cheese
Smoked cheese can be used like any other cheese. It’s great on sandwiches, added into scrambled eggs, cut up slices for a charcuterie board, on hamburgers, mac and cheese, roasted red pepper gouda soup, or try it in our smoked bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers.
How to Store this Recipe
Smoked cheese, if properly stored, can last for months in the refrigerator. Keep the cheese tightly wrapped, wash and dry your hands before handling it to reduce exposing the cheese to bacteria, which can turn into mold.
Freezing cheese
If you plan on freezing your cheese, make sure the cheese has aged for several weeks before doing so. The smoke flavor will not continue to penetrate the cheese once in the freezer.
If you’d like to freeze your cold smoked cheese, I recommend shredding it first. When cheese is frozen, the proteins structure is damaged by the ice crystals formed, resulting in crumbly cheese that does not slice well. However, if you are planning on melting the cheese, it seems to work just fine.
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How to Cold Smoke Cheese
Ingredients
- Cheese 2-3 inch blocks, you can place as many as you can fit on your smoker, leave at least a ½ inch of space between blocks
- Smoker Tube
- Wood pellets I prefer a mild flavored ones, like apple, cherry, hickory, pecan, or maple
- Propane torch to light pellets on fire
- Grill or smoker
Instructions
- Check the Weather. Make sure you are cold smoking cheese on a cool day. Ideally, when the temperature is 60 degrees or less. This will keep the cheese from getting too warm while it is smoking.
- Cut the Cheese. If using large blocks, slice them into 2-3 inch thick pieces for better smoke absorption.
- Prepare the Smoker. Fill a smoker tube with wood pellets and ignite them using a torch. Ensure the pellets produce smoke without generating excessive heat. If you don’t have a smoker, you can do this on a gas or charcoal grill.
- Smoke the Cheese. Place the smoker tube at the bottom of the smoker and arrange the cheese blocks on the smoker grate. Let the cheese smoke for 3-4 hours, ensuring proper ventilation for the smoke to escape.
- Wrap and Age. Once smoked, let the cheese cool to room temperature if warm. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and allow it to age for at least two weeks before slicing and enjoying. If the smoke flavor is too strong after 2 weeks, wrap it back up and let is age in the refrigerator for another 2 weeks to help mellow the flavor.
Allison says
So easy! We tried a few different kinds and loved them all. My family liked Colby jack the best.