Cheese - Home Smoked Cold

By á-1590

I love smoked cheese. I found plans to make a "cold smoker" on the internet. There are lots of video's on you tube. This process uses cold smoke and works very well.

Ingredients

• Any Cheese that you like smoked
• Wood chips such as Pecan, apple, hickory, mesquite, etc.
• Your grill
• Cooling racks from the dollar store
• See below for further parts

Preparation

Step 1

DO NOT USE GALVANIZED STEEL IN ANY PORTION OF THIS SMOKER. Galvanized steel, when heated, produces toxic/poisonous gases.

I bought a 9 quart stainless steel pot with a lid at the dollar store.
I bought a 3/4" black pipe (gas pipe) tee, and (1) 6" black pipe, and (2) 4" black pipes, all 3/4" in size. Also a 3/4" to 1" threaded reducer. The pipes are assembled with the 4" pipe on left side of tee, and the 6" on the right side of the tee. The other 4" pipe is screwed into the bottom of the tee.
I drilled a 3/4" hole in the top of the lid of the pot. A thin 3/4" nut was used on top of the lid, with the reducer used on the bottom of the lid to tighten the pipe down to the lid.
On the left side of the tee, a washer was welded to the pipe with an opening large enough to insert a 3/8" or 1/4" copper pipe approximately 8" long. The copper pipe must extend beyond the center of the tee into the 6" pipe. Also the copper pipe must fit tight through the washer (to prevent air from entering here). Air line is connected to this copper pipe.
At the end of the 6" pipe, I inserted a copper pipe to run from the end of the 6" black pipe into the grill. (approximately 2 feet of pipe was used...depends on how close you can get the pot to the grill) Go through a vent hole in the grill with this copper pipe.
A small compressor (airbrush) or an aquarium pump works great connected by tubing to the left side of the tee (4" pipe)into the copper pipe. You can also use a regular sized compressor as long as you have a valve to lower the air flow down considerably.
5 holes, approximately 1/4" in size, are drilled into the side bottom of the pot for vent holes.
Inside the pot, I made a chute out of sheet metal (making sure that it is not galvanized), so the wood chips could slide down into the coals.
Using some newspaper in the bottom of the chute/pot, I add a small amount of charcoal, then wood chips. Place the lid on the pot, start the compressor/air pump, and light the newspaper through the vent holes. A propane torch works good for this. Make sure there is enough newspaper to get the charcoal to light.
I let mine run for about 20 minutes to make sure the wood chips are lit and smoking.
Depending on how strong you want your cheese to taste (of the smoke), leave the cheese on the grill for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Longer if you like it really smoky. I then vacuum pack the cheese and let it set in refrigerator for 3 days. You can also wrap in plastic wrap.
I use the cheap cooling racks at the dollar store to place the cheese on inside the grill.
This can be used with any size enclosed grill.
Outside temperature is a factor in cold smoking cheese. Works better in cooler outside temperatures or early/late time of day.
Copper pipe can be used instead of the black (gas) pipe.
Make sure pot is placed on concrete or other safe area. Pot and pipe become very hot.