I am a fairly experienced backyard warrior. My new challenge is cold smoking. I am a rookie at this. I understand the concepts but still trying to figure out how to use what I have equipment wise to produce nice smoked cheeses. Please any info will be helpful. I have a 26 inch and a 22 inch weber kettles as well as an ECB (El Cheapo Brinkmann) smoker and a Charbroil Professional series 4 burner grill. I am thinking my 22 inch would be the place to start. If there are any articles on this site please direct me to them.
This topic is OK as long as we stick to cheese, nuts, or any other food that doesn't actually need to be cooked to be safe to eat. Please keep Meathead's cautionary article on cold smoking in mind. We don't cold smoke meat in The Pit.
I bought a cheap, one burner, electric hot plate, put some wood chips in a small cast iron frying pan, tossed that on the hot plate, then used it in place of charcoal in my Brinkmann R2D2 to smoke jalapenos. Worked fine and stayed plenty cool. If temperature gets to be an issue in any way, fill the water pan with ice. It'd probably be easy to do some thing similar in a Weber kettle--or a garbage can, or...
Based on your lineup I would use the 26 not the 22 - the extra space inside of the kettle will result in a cooler fire. Light 3 or 4 coals and that's it. Have all vents wide open and then add a wood chunk and then the cheese and put the cheese as far away from the fire as possible. I've cold-smoked cheese on a handful of occasions in my Bradley electric. I can tell you this, a little smoke goes a LONG way when it comes to cheese. I would cut more cheese chunks than you need and taste every 3-4 minutes. I found that 20 minutes in my Bradley produced cheese that had too much smoke.
Thanks guys I will have to try these suggestions this weekend. We are supposed to have good weather (read: not pouring rain) and I need to tend to my back yard a bit. So checking on this will give me a nice "break" in the backyard project.
Karon Adams Consort of the Flame Cooking is a Sacred Endeavour
Big Poppa's Drum conversion
Maverick wireless meat & grill thermometers
Thermopen Instant Read Thermometer
Pit IQ blower
I'm planning to do some cold smoke tomorrow. Also, if there is extra space, planning to fill whatever space available with shallow dishes of salt. I have a chunk of Gouda and another of Cheddar. planning to cut them into smaller sizes and put them in the smoke.
as for meats, I wouldn't trust meat which was only cold smoked. I wouldn't mind cold smoking before or after an actual COOK but would only do so under supervision of someone with significant experience I have enough trouble. I don't need food born illness to go with it.
Cold smoked products are great for gifts, as well. a basket of really nice cheeses which you have cold smoked would find favor with folks. it would also be a great thing to bring to an office Christmas party.
I have an inexpensive hot plate and I will be using that to smoulder my pellets in a cast iron skillet and it will be covered with aluminum foil with just enough slits in it to allow the smoke to escape. I will put the hot plate in the bottom of the barrel, in the coal basket and the skillet on it. that should give it plenty of space for the smoke to cool before reaching the food.
OK, Cheese & salt. what else would you guys toss in?
Comment