In my last post I mentioned how much I’m enjoying the new wood pellet smoker/grill. Last month I learned about cold smoking. Cold smoking is a technique that can preserve food and add smoky flavors without cooking the food. Specifically, I wanted to create smoked cheese.

Of course, if you cook cheese, it melts. The wood pellet smoker grill cannot operate without creating heat, so you need to have another smoke source. There are external smoke generators that pump smoke into an enclosed vessel for smoking foods, but that was too elaborate for what I wanted to do.

The answer was a smoke tube for creating smoke from smoldering wood pellets. I used the Z Grills smoker grill as a place to concentrate the smoke and hold the cheese I wanted to smoke. The thing is, ideally you want to keep the temperature no higher than 80 to 90 degrees. Cooler is better. I smoked the cheese on cool mornings and after the first batch, was able to keep the temperature in the 80-degree range.

To do this, you fill the smoke tube with wood pellets and light it with a small torch. I used a kitchen torch intended for uses such as glazing the sugar topping on creme brulee. You need to keep the torch on the pellets for at least 30 seconds to make sure the pellets are well lit. Let it burn for at least five minutes with visible flame, then blow it out and it will continue to smolder. My tube will smolder and produce large amounts of smoke for five or six hours when filled.

I removed the heat diffuser from the smoker/grill and placed the smoldering smoke tube in the bottom of the smoker/grill on the far left where the pellet feed is located. I put the grills back in place and placed the cheeses to the right side, near the chimney. My first attempt was a learning process and I learned a couple of things.

I used gouda and cheddar cheese. I placed the gouda to the far right on the main rack and also on the smaller second rack. Then I placed the cheddar more in the center portion of the racks. Cheddar has a higher melting point than gouda, so I thought it was safe to have it closer to the smoke tube which generates some heat.

It turned out the cheddar was overheated and also over-smoked. But it wasn’t all that bad. The gouda was very good. I watched a lot of YouTube cold smoking videos and tried to learn something from them. Everyone has their own take on how to do it and I tried to glean the best tips and combine them. Everyone agreed on one point – do not taste test the cheese right away. When it first comes out of the smoker, the flavor is harsh. It needs to be wrapped and aged in the refrigerator for a minimum of one week – two weeks is much better.

For my second round of smoked cheese, I added a step to the aging and also smoked the gouda first, then the cheddar as a second batch to keep all of the cheese on the far right – away from the smoke tube. I smoked each batch for two hours this time. I then wrapped each piece in butcher paper and put them in the refrigerator for 48 hours. Then I removed the butcher paper and wrapped each piece in plastic cling wrap and put the two batches in large zip lock bags to age for two more weeks. This looked much better.

I used cheese from Costco – a two-pound wedge of Dutch Tradition gouda and a two-pound block of Coastal cheddar. I made eight pieces of each for four-ounce packages. I made a third batch and Donna will add them to Christmas gift bags.

These are good quality cheeses from Costco at less than $7/pound. Smoked cheese costs more than double the price of plain cheese – plus it’s a fun process to make it yourself.

Here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort, many of the snowbird residents went home for the Christmas holiday, so it’s a little quieter around here. Donna had her Christmas performance with the Viewpoint Concert Band Sunday night. They had a full house despite the missing snowbirds. Their next concert will be on January 19th.

Donna has been working with her Good Neighbors organization to provide Christmas meals and some gifts for residents of Viewpoint that do not have relatives nearby. I’m planning on making a double-smoked pineapple-bourbon glazed spiral ham and we will share it with neighbors.

We couldn’t ask for nicer weather – it’s been great. The forecast calls for daily highs in the mid-70s to 80 degrees from now until Christmas. With that, I’ll wish a Merry Christmas to all.