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"
https://vimeo.com/201689625Sent from my iPhone using
Weber Kettle Club mobile app