I've had my SM045 for two days. Last night I tried cold smoking cheese.
The cold smoking was great -- I smoked three chunks of cheese without any melting. The only issue I had was that I didn't put enough wood in the smoker, so after the first smoke I chilled the cheese for 10 minutes and did a second smoke. For the first I used one small chunk of cherry. For the second I left in the cherry (was only singed on the outside) and added one small chunk of hickory. That did the trick.
I followed the video instructions on cookshack. I used the cold smoke baffle in the bottom rack slot, and put a brownie tray of ice on top of that. I placed the cheese on the top rack far from the burner. I used the seafood/veggie rack.
I turned on the smoker, selecting 235F. Actually the temperature doesn't matter because the machines go through an automated heating cycle for the first 20 minutes to ignite the wood before settling to your temperature, and the cold smoking instructions are to turn off the smoker after 20 minutes. After turning off the smoker I left the cheese inside for an additional hour.
All in all the cheese was smoked for 2 hours 40 minutes, twice what it should have been. This may have dried out the outside of the cheese, especially noticeable on the mozzarella. The gouda and cheddar felt to the touch like normal. The cheeses all took on somewhat of a smoky color, and the flavor hits not while biting but as an after taste. Very nice. We tasted it after the smoke when the cheese was at outdoor temperature (about 90F). I tasted again this morning cold and it's much better.
I want to try using the mozzarella on some type of pizza, may try that this weekend. Will serve the gouda and cheddar with crackers.
Andy
