Cold Smoking Cheese Recipe

I love me some smoked cheddar! I love it. The problem is, it can be pretty hard to find a good smoked cheese if your grocery doesn’t carry it. Fixing that situation is quite easy though, because its super easy just to smoke your own! If that sounds good to you, your in luck because below I have a simple recipe for smoking whatever hard cheese you desire. Check it out below!

Stuff You Will Need:
Hard brick cheeses (enough to fill your smoking space)
Apple, cherry, peach or Pecan wood chips (1 of the smaller bags is usually enough)
Charcoal briquettes
Cellophane wrap
1 metal pan for ice
Ice
2 hours time to smoke & 30 minutes prep time
A cold day (Think below 40 degrees Fahrenheit)

Directions:

  1. Cut up cheese into smaller oblong chunks no smaller than 1 – 2 inches thick.
  2. Get a pan of ice to help keep the smoker or grill cool
  3. Start briquettes (Only a few are needed to keep wood chips burning)
  4. Place ice pan in grill or smoker
  5. Place cheese on grill or smoker (place on opposite side of briquettes if doing off-set smoking)
  6. Feed wood-chips every 15 minutes, for a rolling, even smoke
  7. Feed one single briquette if the fire looks like its going to die
  8. Turn cheese every 15 minutes.
  9. After 2 hrs, wrap with cellophane wrap and store in refrigerator for 2 weeks (Do no freeze. Freezing will make cheese crumbly). This 2 weeks is necessary to help mellow the smoke flavors on your cheese.

Note: If temperatures become hotter than 100 degrees in the smoker, open it up until it cools down and flip any cheese that might be melting. Also keep your vents open on your grill. The goal is not to heat up the inside of your smoker, but to make the smoke roll over your cheese.

For those of you who are more visual learners, here is a video of me making this awesome smoked stuff on one frigid, snow covered afternoon!

Ok! That about does it everybody! I hope your cheese turns out as awesome as mine was. Everybody in the house loves it and hopefully you will too! Also before you go, please consider subscribing to the GroovySauce YouTube channel! CLICK HERE and subscribe! I don’t always do recipes like this on the channel, but I try to do as many as I can! In any event, good luck with your cheese and happy smokin!