Another cheese smoke

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I ordered some alcohol fire gel a few weeks ago to use for lighting my pellet smoker tube.  When I did my first smoke with the tube it was hard for me to get the pellets lit.  I don't have a torch so I had to rely on lighter cubes and some wood chips to finally get my tube going.  Once I got it going it was a little too lit and it was hard to keep temps below 90 degrees.

I've had the alcohol lighter gel for a few weeks and decided to do a test run last week.  I stuffed my tube with hickory chips since I have a really big bag of them and probably won't smoke much with them as I think it's a bit heavy.  A little bit of alcohol gel in/on the end of the tube did a great job of getting the pellets burning without getting to many of them going at once.  I used my 26er with the bottom almost closed and the top wide open.  I placed a ice tray on the cooking grate opposite the smoker tube.  I out the lid on the grill with the vent opposite the tube. It settled in nicely even though it was 81 degrees outside.  I noticed that as the outdoor temperature went down a few degrees the the temp at the grate in the grill went down as well. 

Since the grill was already going and running better than my first cheese smoke I chopped up a 2lb block of pepper jack, put it on a cookie cooling rack and put it on the grill.  I also added an additional ice tray on the cooking grate directly above the smoker tube. 

The grill had no problems holding under 90 degrees and was smoking a lot slower than my first cheese smoke.  It was a really calm day so the smoke was just barely rolling out but was a nice thin blue color as it did.    I smoked the cheese for 4 hours, let the cheese rest inside for a bit to cool down to room temp then sealed them up with my food saver.  I'm hoping to take them to a party on Saturday to enjoy the results.  It will be 11 days sealed in the fridge so it should be good.  I'm hoping the hickory smoke works as good as the Apple did on my last smoke.  My first smoke results were great but I think now that I've learned to lit the tube so that it burns slower the hickory results should be just as good.  I would generally think of Hickory as being to heavy but since it burned slower and produced a third of the smoke that the apple pellets that were burning too fast did, this round of cheese is going to rock!














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[MikeRocksTheRed]

Trying to post a video of the smoke coming out of the top vent but tap a talk isn't playing nice at the moment.


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[Davescprktl]

Your cheese looks awesome as always.  Good job!

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@Davescprktl -  I wish I could have given you a block of the pepper jack instead of the cheddar or monterrey jack (don't remember which you ended up with).  Those were good, but the pepper jack was a step above!

[WNC]

Wow looks awesome!

[Big Dawg]

Lookin' Good!

I got an A-Maze-N tube for Christmas and have been thinking about some cheese.  Guess I'd better get going before it warms up ! !





BD

[Josh G]

Mike how long do you normally smoke your cheese for?  The last batch I made had just a bit too much smoke flavor.

@MikeRocksTheRed

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Mike how long do you normally smoke your cheese for?  The last batch I made had just a bit too much smoke flavor.

@MikeRocksTheRed

4 hours on both cheese smokes.  This last one burned a lot slower and had less smoke so I'm interested to see how it turns out.  Are you sealing yours and sticking it in the fridge for at least 7-10 days before eating it?  I haven't even tried the cheese fresh off of the grill since everyone says it needs at least 7-10 days to let the smoke mellow out through the cheese instead of just being super strong towards the outside edges.