Feeding cheese to my Ranch Kettle

[MikeRocksTheRed]

My smoked cheese has become a must have for lots of friends and family so I decide to do a big batch to break in my ranch kettle.  Of course it was actually warm yesterday for the first time all week, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I already 8lbs of pepper jack in my fridge and stopped by the store to get more cheese only to find they had every cheese I could think of but pepper jack.  Pepper jack is my favorite smoked cheese and is also the most requested by my friends.  2lb blocks were on sale for $5.99 so i didn't want to pay full price somewhere else. I ended up trying a few other cheese I haven't smoked instead.  I ended up with the pepper jack I already had then Colby jack, Monterrey jack, a block of mozzarella, a round of mozzarella, and some smaller blocks of hot habanero cheddar that were marked down.  I didn't pay attention to my total amount of cheese, but I think it was around 16 pounds.

They all fit on the ranch kettle just fine along with a few sticks of butter.  I'm was hoping the butter would smoke without melting so I can use it with my sous vide to add some smoke to those cooks.  The butter didn't melt and came out just fine.  I haven't tried it yet to see how much smoke it absorbed. 

Since it was 70 yesterday I got a 10lb bag of ice and out it under the charcoal grate to help keep temps down.  It did the trick.  I lit my amaze-n-tube loaded with Maple/hickory/cherry pellets and got the grill going before I added the ice.  A combination of air temp and the sun hitting that huge lid was putting grill temps around 95.  Too hot for cheese.  I put the ice in the bottom of the kettle still in the bag and built a wall out of patio stools to block the sun. Once that was done the grill settled in around 73 and ran about 3 degrees higher than the air temp the entire cook.  I'm hoping this means I'll be able to smoke up until air temps get above the mid 80's.

I smoked the cheese for 4.5 hours.  I was in a bit of a hurry at the end and didn't get any post Smoke pics, but everything turned out great. 




Took a few pics in case I forgot what was what.








Thermoworks Smoke fits perfectly on the frame!



The sun defending wall at "Fort Weber"









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[Mr.CPHo]

Damn that's a lot of cheeeeze.  Great 1st cook and congrats again on the ranch!


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[weldboy]

Lot of cheese Mike! That's awesome man!


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[Travis]

I'm still laughing at the look on your face. Total excitement! Great job, man!


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[Davescprktl]

Can't be enough cheese!  Nice rig!  How is the Thermoworks working out for you?

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Can't be enough cheese!  Nice rig!  How is the Thermoworks working out for you?

I love the Thermoworks Smoke!  I hope they do a good job on their app when they release the wifi link...that is the main reason I bought it.

[HoosierKettle]

Man that's cool!


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[Old Dave]

Very nice....looks great!

[WNC]

That's awesome!
You look too proud!


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[varekai]

I'm still laughing at the look on your face. Total excitement! Great job, man!


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EXACTLY what i thought, look at that grin on his face, he's screaming like a girl inside his head!!!....LOL  Looks awesome Mike!!!

[varekai]

@MikeRocksTheRed , i'm really interested in how the butter turned out, that could be a game changer!!... and now I'm gonna HAVE to buy an A-Mazen tube..thanks alot.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@MikeRocksTheRed , i'm really interested in how the butter turned out, that could be a game changer!!... and now I'm gonna HAVE to buy an A-Mazen tube..thanks alot.

I'll let you know as soon as I use it.  Hopefully sometime in the next few days so I have time to make more of it before it gets too hot here.

[captjoe06]

I'm still laughing at the look on your face. Total excitement! Great job, man!


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The look that says "Yeah, I nailed it!"

Awesome!


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[MikeRocksTheRed]

Pulled SOME of the cheese out for a pic yesterday.  Lately I've been nagging up the cheese together after a smoke instead of individually.  This is for two reason. First, after smoking for 6 hours I'm usually too lazy to individually bag the cheese.  Secondly, it saves a lot of space in the fridge doing it this way. 

This pic is some of the cheese I smoked for 4 hours on my ranch kettle on Sunday and one package of cheese I'd previously smoked.  I usually smoke cheese for 6 hours but only did Sunday's for 4 hours due to time constraints.  I also flip my cheese mid smoke but did not in Sunday.   You would think the Smoke would hit the cheese evenly but I've found that the top smokes more than the bottom does.  The sides absorb less than the top and more than the bottom.  Also something interesting is the color of the upper right hand cheese in the pic.  That cheese did smoke for 2 more hours than the other cheese in the pic, but I'm pretty sure was not as dark as it is now when I pulled it off of the grill.  I'm going to watch Sunday's batch to see if it gets more color as it sits in the fridge sealed up.

In the pic, 5 pieces of cheese equals 2 lbs.  I had two more bags of cheese in the fridge when I took the pic.  Only a few more weeks of cold smoking weather out here and that is being optimistic.  Hopefully I have enough after I mail some out to people I've promised cheese for to get me through the long warm/hot season here. 

Also, I pulled out some of the butter I smoked yesterday and I did smell smoky.  Cooked some chicken sous vide with some smoked butter but unfortunately it didn't really impart any smoky flavor.  I'm thinking I might melt the butter the next time I try this and see if it absorbs more smoke as it slowly solidifies while it's being smoked.




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[Darko]

Looks great Mike.