Smoked Cheese on a Traeger

      I like cheese. I mean, who doesn't?  But one way of having cheese I've never been a huge fan of; smoked cheese.  I'll add the caveat that I've only tried store-bought smoked cheese.  It's just usually way too strong of a smoke flavor and just doesn't seem right. I've learned recently that some companies, usually the cheaper stuff, soak the cheese in liquid smoke, then smoke it for a short time, so they can say it was smoked.  Yuck.

    So it took me a while to warm up to the idea of smoking cheese at home.  For starters, the cheese I like is generally not inexpensive, and if I don't like it smoked, I just wasted a bunch of money!  But I finally bit the bullet and decided to give it a shot.

    I decided to try out two types of cheese. I used a Gouda and a sharp Cheddar made by The Creamery Utah that I bought from American Arrow Beef Company.  These are 1lb rounds and are really excellent all on their own.  

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The equipment you need will be

 Smoker (obviously)

 Turkey roaster 

 9-inch square brownie pan

A wire rack that fits a brownie pan

 7 to 10 pounds of ice

 Either cheesecloth or wax paper

 2 quart bags

 Smoking pellets of your choice.

THE PROCESS

    First, you need to set your smoker to its lowest setting, on mine it's just "Smoke", you don't want to melt your cheese after all. While it's warming up - approximately 15 minutes, put about half your ice in the turkey pan, nearly to the top.  Place your cheese in the brownie pan on the wire rack and nestle it into the ice in the middle of the turkey pan.  Put this setup in the smoker and set a timer for one hour.

    I was totally paranoid I was going to melt $17 worth of cheese, so I checked it about every 15 minutes during the process...Turns out it's totally fine, the cheese didn't even get warm.  After the first hour, flip the cheese over and restock your ice. Mine was about halfway melted, I dumped most of the excess water because the little pan was getting a bit floaty.

When it's done. Not melted at all!

Wrap it in wax paper or cheesecloth.

INTO THE BAG WITH YOU!

    After this is the hardest part...waiting.  You have to leave these beauties in the fridge to let the smoke permeate the cheese for 3 days!   AAAHHHHHGGGG!

So after sitting in front of the fridge for 3 days, I took them out and cut them to see what they all looked like.

THE GLORY

    The top is the Gouda, and the lower is the cheddar.  You can see the light smoke line on them on the left-hand side.  When I tried them, I was floored.  They were absolutely delicious.  The smoke flavor was there, but not overbearing like many store-bought smoked cheeses.  The flavor permeated through the whole round and, interestingly, seemed to sharpen the flavor of the cheese.

    We tried these with grilled cheese sandwiches and an Indian style fresh tomato soup that Rachel makes.

     I'll say, I was very pleasantly surprised at how this turned out and will most definitely be doing it again.

Cultures are born and die, but cheese is immortal.

 - Icelandic Proverb

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