Size of cheese blocks for smoking?

[Michael_in_TX]

So we're going to get some cheese-smoking-friendly weather here in a few days so I think I'm going to give this a go. I'll start with some basics: cheddar, monterrey jack, and swiss.

Has anyone experimented with carved up blocks when smoking in an attempt to get more smoke flavor, like we might cut a pork butt in two to get more bark? At my local store, they sell the bins of 1" cut of swiss cheese cubes.....has anyone got that far with smoking?

[captainlee]

I just cut them in half. The 1 inch blocks that I get are about 4 x 6. It's nice to have the smaller pieces to vacuum seal.

[Skip]

I've always bought the 2.5 x 6 x 1" bricks of cheese and smoked them as is w/o cutting smaller.

[mrteddyprincess]

I am not saying this from a superior perspective with regard to smoking cheese. But I do love my smoked cheese.

I cut big blocks (2 lbs) into smaller blocks and I tend to get 2 x 2 inch portions. That seems to get good smoke penetration.

And I'm likely to cold smoke cheese longer (4-6 hrs) than shorter (2-3 hrs). B

[Michael_in_TX]

I will cut each block in half, possibly in thirds. As usual, I got a bit ahead of myself. I don't eat that much cheese, so the smaller blocks will make it more pragmatic with the vac seal situation.

It looks like Sunday is the day! We'll be in the upper 30s all day!

[texastweeter]

I keep em whole smoke the whole dang thing, let age.

[Michael_in_TX]

I guess I could do that....then cut them in half after they've aged and then re-vac seal the half of a portion I'm going to immediately eat.

[texastweeter]

Zactly what I do.