Cold Smoking My Own Homemade Cheese 

I came for the Italian messages

I had no idea they made a cold smoker. Thank you!

5:50, first sign of smoke, fire brigade sirens start up in the background - too funny, couldn’t have timed it better, Gavin! Congrats on another great video on a long awaited much-anticipated topic.

I like my offset smoker. The fire is in its own box and the food in a connected box. I have better control over the amount off smoke and the temperature of the cook box. Cut up (chipped) whiskey barrels are my favorite source of smoke with mesquite in a close second place. A pan filled with ice set directly below the cheese is also helpful in temperature control. Theses hints apply to anything you may wish to cold smoke and you don't have to find an old refrigerator to hack around. Love your show, you have taught me so much! Keep it up!

You did very well for your first go. I've been cold smoking commercial block cheeses, cream cheese, olive oil, salt and black pepper corns for ~10 years. I use pellet tube smokers. My favorite woods are apple, cherry, pecan and birch. Smoke 1/4 pound blocks for 3-4 hours. Vacuum pack, refrigerate and age 2 weeks before eating. Must be done in the winter. I use a remote grill thermometer to assure the temperature does not get hotter than 80°F. I must smoke and refrigerate a minimum 50-60 pounds during the winter to have enough for the summer BBQ parties. 🙂

Never have I enjoyed watching someone else eat cheese so much!

I've been smoking my cheeses, chicken and pork for a while now. It's a game changer :)

This is so cool! I've been wanting to smoke cheese. I also have some meat from my pigs I need to smoke so maybe this will inspire me to try! Looks pretty simple enough.

Oh and this also made me remember I saw a tea infused cheese a while back. Could make something similar but use lapsang souchong (smoked tea), wonder how that would turn out.

"More crackers, Gromit!" LOL!

"Lost words. Must eat cheese." Sounds like a motto for something. Or a mantra. (And now I think I need to break out the smoker and try this for myself!!)

Great show! Its off to the cheese cave for me!

I recommend cold smoking a block of bega. You'll be surprised how nice it turns out

Awesome Gavin I bet you we're looking forward to this fantastic.

Dude! I live in Texas where we have Jalapeños for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But yet I have never even thought about smoked Jalapeno Cheese!!! I can't wait till fall to try smoking it!!! I am so excited!! Thank you!!

When smoking the cheese has to be completely dry on the outside else you wont get color of the smoke on it. I made my ownhams and salami before making cheese and back then I smoked store bought cheese. Some of my friends liked the smoked camembert the most. Just mentioning because you said in the one episode to a question of someone you can only smoke hard cheese like Gouda and so on. It all depends on how hot your smoke or your chamber is. I never go over 17-20 degrees C when cold smoking. When the cheese starts sweating its too hot. Therefore I suggest not closing the lid completely, else the heat will accumulate over time. Btw. Ialso have no professional cold smoker I built all from scratch using an old kitchen cupboard some pipes which were feet of a table once and build my own heating element and smoke regulation from some electronics lying around. Basically I only bought an aquarium air pump. But iz was time consuming. And on the air vent again: Even in my cold smoker I built an air vent into which is always at least a bit open bottom and top side so the smoke passes through slowly. If you don't do that and close it up firstly the smoker could lack air and stop working. But even worse.... Without some air flowing through the smoked goods can taste really sour afterwards. I had this once on ham. It got less over time the smoked ham ripend after smoking but it took some weeks. So basically there should always smoke escape while on the other side some is produced. And Hickory is in my Opinion way too overpowering for cheese. I would use something like Apple, Plum or such. I nearly never use Beech since one knows that taste from all industry products. My most favored wood is plum. It has a Taste a bit similar to Beech (but distant different) ond on top a fruity Plum note. Wheras Apple for example is pretty mild and tastes mostly like apple.

Thank you sir! Very interesting!

I love this. It's a great experiment. I'd love to be able to smoke cheese some day, so it gives me something to aim for. Thanks Gav.

hey Gavin, I used to watch you in 2019, it's nice to see you again

I'd be interested in seeing how well the smoke penetrated the cheese. As someone who cold smokes a lot of cheeses, it seems to be that the rind is where the smoke seems to reside...but it's enough to make each slice special.

I’ve been cold smoking cheese for years as the bought smoked cheese uses a chemical to give it flavour. Was doing it before I started watching your videos. Keep the cold smoker to the side of the cheese as you don’t want direst heat contact, never under the cheese. You’re using a Q smoker which uses sawdust. The other alternative is a tube smoker which uses wood shavings. Hickory is sometimes a strong flavour for cheese so I use applewood or cherrywood. I also just let the entire Q smoker expend all the sawdust. Wrap the cheese in butchers paper. Also, did you say the double Gloucester was six years old prior to smoking? Good video though mate. I’m hungry now.

I’m so happy for you

Thanks Gav, i bet those were fantastic.

Hi Gavin! I have had the best luck using a "smoking stick" with wood pellets. I sent you some pictures a while back on how I use them. You should get a lot more smoke then I am seeing. If you are concerned with the heat, put some aluminum foil between the stick and the cheese. The smoke should fill the chamber. A smoke stick is $12-15 US on Amazon. Best investment for the money I have made in a long time. I use it both for cold and hot smoking. Cheers mate!

smoked gouda is one of my top 3 favorite cheeses

I made and cold smoked cream cheese last week. Weather permitting, I want to smoke a guido's, a cheddar and a Colby that I have made. Cream cheese came out awesome.

Hi Gavin, Loving the videos! I was wondering if you might have a recipe to make the sausage shaped semi soft austrian smoked cheese by any chance? I have followed LOADS of your recipes to the letter with great success and thought I’d ask you for help finding a recipe for this particular cheese as I can find no help on or off line for this at all 😟

I love smoked cheddar on chili.

A simple card board box lined with aluminum foil and that cold smoker. Just have the cheese raised higher over the smoker

At around 18 minutes. I was thinking to myself "Gosh I hope he cleanses his palate" then it cuts to a drink lol

I will try a tiny bit of cheddar in my pipe before I get onto the harder stuff

I wonder how deep the smoke actually penetrates into the cheese? Would it be possible to introduce the smoke at an early stage in the cheesemaking process (smoking the curds?) so that the smoke flavor is evenly distributed throughout the cheese?

Morning from Caerphilly

You then can eat the cheese directly and get smoke flavor only at the outside or let it sit some weeks then the smoke will distribute into the cheese.

I've been enjoying your cheeesemaking videos for the last few months and just found this one. I have to ask - is that a wood- fired oven hiding behind the BBQ? If it is, I would love to see you demo a recipe or two using cheeses you have made!

I do like to cut my cheeses into sticks roughly the size of a cracker so you get the smoke ring all the way around.

The smoke should always be indirect. This prevents melting and overly brown areas. BTW, what was the temp outside? I hate the cold, but winter is the best time to smoke cheese.

Hi mate. Sorry, I missed this video. I recently asked you about applewood smoke "flavoured" cheese from England. Ill join you on the 17th hopefully to ask the cheese man ;)

I am glued to this .. I want to make cold smoke cheese. Could you have put the cheese higher up? Where did you get that smoker tray?

What is up Gavin!

Hi Gav what timber was the saw dust used. I do a lot of smoked meats in a ceramic oven must try cheese.

I would recomend you to smoke the cheese a lot longer, 12-16 hours for that size could give a good result. or maybe even as long as 24 hours, and then hot vax the cheese. I use real cheese wax and have it heated to 170 celsius before dipping the pieces 3 times to get a thick layer of vax to have a protection against mechanical wear and tear during the 12 months I store them in the refridgerator at 6-8 celsius. please try and you will notice the extreme different

If you ever do another cold smoking video try a blue cheese

Crumbly cheese on a hamburger still works, it is just a bit of extra mess to deal with, which a good burger brings anyways :D

Interesting

Oh yes yes yes.

I could send pictures of my smoking kitchen cupboard and the cheeses and such I did back then.

You wont get much smoke penetration after 2 weeks or so. Let it sit in the fridge for multiple months then you see the smoke color go through nearly completely. After such short time the smoke is mainly in the outer 5mm of the cheese. And IMPORTANT: The Guido isn't that mild smoked because its a guido. It has nothing to do with that! As I already mentioned in my other comment: It's so mild because it was more wet on the outside (because its a fresher cheese and you didnt let it air dry before smoking). If something is wet or moist on the outside it won't catch smoke good (you can see that good if you compare your cheeses. The old dry one is yellow the fresher ones are not nearly as yellow). You have to have dry outsides then all cheeses have the same ammount of smoke aroma when they are the same time in. Having it longer in when it's wet doesnt make it catch much more smoke it just makes it taste sour lateron. Basically you have to let all things you smoke airdry on the outside. Same as one does with Bacon or ham and such. Before smoking they got hung up for a day or so in the fridge so the outside dries up. Also As suggested before: Dont use Hickory for cheese use something softer like Plum Apple or Birch or similar where Birch is the least harsch of the 3 and maybe to subtle for 6hrs. I smoke longer and then let it penetrate the cheese for weeks to months. Cheese is about 2x 10hrs in my smoker. You need the pause for the better taste. But it depends on the ammount of smoke you generate and if it flows and how much or if it just sits in the moker and gets denser all the time. Basically I start eating my smoked cheese intantly but when I get near the last ones after 2-3 months they are completely penetrated with smoke (I make 10 or so the same time).

What wood did you use for smoking?

Smoking cheese? What kind of rolling papers do you use? Seriously though, I bet something with fruit would provide an interesting contrast in flavor... but then you'd probably be stuck with a younger cheese, dunno if that would smoke well or not since they are wetter. Maybe a cranberry wensleydale

My opinion you should not block up the grill with foil and leave it free to vent as usual. Set your rack high enough to be near the top of the cover but just make sure it's above the joint or seam of the grill top where it joins with the bottom. The smoke will remain above that line and by allowing the grill to vent it will keep the temperature low. I have a similar smoking tray and use it the same way with my grill. I prefer it above using my smoker for cold smoking. I use pellets instead of sawdust but that shouldn't matter much other than maybe runtime? Not even sure of that. I can get 12 to 14 hours out of pellets but I've never used sawdust to know how it performs. I would definitely avoid having anything being smoked sitting directly above the smoker tray though.

In the 12 hours of cheese there was mention of a honey rubbed cheese. By Ruth? I am looking for the recipe. I thought it was in 200 easy cheese. Can you help me with further info so I can find this? I want to make it with home milked goat milk, and honey from my hives

GAVIN. PUT ALUMINUM FOIL ON THE RACK. IT SHOULD NOT BURN IT AND SMOKE WILL STILL GET TO IT. THEN FLIP IT OVER TO GET THE BOTTOM

All cheese looks so good and they would not have made it to the smoker😁🤣

Gav, so many epiphanies from this vid! Good tutorial!

To your health

And the smoke is maybe even too much. It should give about so much smoke like a cigarette. Also when its directly below the cheese it melts... Ah just see you realized 😂

😎🖖👌✌️👍🤓

I hope the 12 hour Curdathon went without a hitch Gavin. I'm sad I didn't get to watch the whole thing.

strewth cobba, I cant watch anymore, mmmm

POV: you’re here from the TikTok

POV you’re here from tik tok😂