DIY cold-smoked cheese: It’s Gouda and saves you cheddar
Everybody loves cheese. Smoked cheese takes that love to another level. But if you’re buying smoked cheese from the store, you’re paying a premium.
An 8-ounce package of smoked Gouda cheese costs about $6.99 at H-E-B, but a traditional Gouda of the same size costs $2.50.
It’s really easy to smoke your own cheese at home, and in addition to saving some dough, you get bragging rights. Who made this smoked cheese? You did.
Smoke adds deep flavor. Because of it’s high fat content, cheese absorbs smoke like a sponge, maybe even more so than meat.
But you don’t want to smoke it like you do meat because the goal is not to cook the cheese. When smoking meat, the cooking device is usually set to 225 to 300 degrees. For cheese, you want cold-smoking, where the goal is just enough heat to produce smoke.
Ideally, your device should hover around 90 degrees at most, but it can be lower as long as smoke is being produced. If you have a smoker, charcoal grill or gas grill, you can cold-smoke.
You want small wood chips versus wood logs to keep the heat low. Soak the chips in water for about an hour in a small aluminum or metal tray, then drain the water before using.
The wood you choose is up to personal preference, but cheese is much more subtle than beef or pork, so going with a fruit wood like apple, peach or cherry produces a great finished product.
I tested Gouda, Swiss, pepper Jack, cheddar and mozzarella, and they all absorbed the smoke equally, so go with whatever cheese you like. The key is to use blocks of cheese that weigh at least 8 ounces so they stay intact.
The smoking process: For gas grills, set the wet chips in the tray on top of the grate of a burner set to low.
For charcoal grills, use a handful of briquettes placed on one edge of the grill and burned enough that they begin to get ashy, and set the tray of wood chips on top of that.
I prefer to use a traditional steel offset smoker with a handful of hardwood lump charcoal — again, burned enough that they are beginning to get ashy — and the tray of wood chips set on top of it.
Place the block of cheese on an elevated rack inside a pan filled with ice and as far from the heat source as possible. The ice gives the cheese a heat buffer that will keep it firm during smoking.
Smoke the cheese for two to three hours. As long as you see smoke and the cheese holds firm, it’s working. Add more ice or wet wood chips as necessary.
The finish: After the allotted time, chill the cheese quickly, either by placing it in the refrigerator or in a cooler over a bag of ice. The cheese might have melted slightly in the smoker, but it will firm up after about 20 minutes as it chills.
You can then slice it. The smoke flavor gets more concentrated with refrigeration.