Saffire kamados make great cheese smokers, you just have to know how to do it. After that, the process is pretty simple. So why bother buying cheese that costs up to twice the price when you can take your low-cost, ordinary block cheese and smoke it yourself?
Which Cheeses Can I Smoke?
You can smoke most cheeses, especially those that are hard cheeses. Medium cheeses with a higher moisture content will absorb the smoke flavor faster. That usually isn’t a good thing, as they’re easier to over smoke unless you’re extra careful. But any cheese that is medium or hard can be smoked. Here are some cheese suggestions to get you started.
- Cheddar
- Gouda
- Pepper Jack/Monterey Jack
- Parmesan
Which Smoke Flavors Can I Use to Smoke Cheese?
I would generally recommend a lighter flavor for smoking cheese. For example, apple and hickory wood has a nice, gentle flavor. Cherry is a sweet wood, but a little stronger. Hickory is another wood to use if you like a very strong smokey flavored cheese.
What Do You Need to Cold Smoke Cheese?
Before we get into how to cold smoke cheese, let’s quickly address the tools you will need.
- A Saffire smoker. I suggest a large Saffire smoker.
- A wood chip tray, smoker box, or smoker tube.
- Wood fuel. Wood chips or pellets are the most common.
- Fire starters. I use Rutland firestarter squares.
- Laser thermometer. Keep that cheese below 85° F!
- A vacuum sealer of some kind is suggested. Otherwise plastic baggies will work too.
- A knife or potato peeler. Removes excessively yellow rind from the cheese.
How to Cold Smoke Cheese in a Saffire Smoker
There are various ways to cold smoke cheese in a Saffire grill. Many use a smoker tube sold from Amazon with pellets. Others suggest using all-natural wood dust, as it produces less smoke than pellets do. You can also use wood chips in a smoker box.
Considerations Before Smoking Cheese
Make sure you are cold smoking your cheese at the right time of year. You will be leaving the cheese in your Saffire grill for about 2+ hours. The best time to smoke a cheese is in the spring or fall, when the ambient temperature is at or below 80° F. This ensures it doesn’t melt during the smoking process.
I used Cabot’s “Seriously Sharp” Cheddar Cheese, which I find quite delicious on it’s own. For hard cheeses like sharp cheddar, let the cheese sit out on the counter in its packaging for about 10-20 minutes before opening it. Warm cheese will absorb more smoke flavor.
Decide Placement Ahead of Time
If you are only smoking one or two portions of cheese, you could put the wood chip tray on one half of the grid, and the cheese on the other.
For smoking more cheese at once, I recommend removing the charcoal basket and placing the wood chip tray at the bottom of your firebox. Use a ceramic heat deflector above the smoking chip tray, to block the heat from hitting your cheese directly.
I put my cheese in a stainless steel tray with holes, and placed that next to the wood chip tray.
Prepare the Cheese Before It’s Smoked
Using gloves to prevent adding foreign bacteria to the cheese, open the cheese and slice it into portions you feel you could consume within a week. Make sure you use large enough portions, as we will be trimming off the outside of the cheese before eating it.
In the end we will be vacuum sealing each portion. Expect each portion to last for about two weeks in the refrigerator once opened.
Place the cheese on a clean, dry surface. You could theoretically place your cheese on the cooking grid directly, but putting it on a easily removable surface is better if you plan to smoke more than a single portion. Any tray will work, with or without slots in the bottom for air-flow.
Light the Smoking Chips
Place your wood chip tray where you want it. Take about three handfuls of wood chips and add it to your wood chip tray. Nestle a fire starter square inside of the wood chip pile, and light it. Give it a minute with the grill open to fully start.
Leave Your Cheese to Smoke Away
Once you see smoke, open the top and bottom vents on your grill part way to allow the wood to burn slowly. Close your Saffire smoker, and walk away.
Check back in ten minutes and adjust the top and bottom air vents. If you don’t see much smoke, open them up more and ensure the wood chips are still burning. If you see a lot of smoke coming out, close down the air vents more to ensure the wood chips burn slowly.
Come back and check on the wood chips in an hour. Add more smoking wood chips as needed for the remaining hour. Using a laser thermometer, check the outside temperature of the cheese. Remember that you want it to remain below 85° F.
Remove the cheese after about 1.5 to 2 hours. The outside of the cheese should have a slightly yellow rind around where the smoke hit it the most.
Don’t Eat It Yet!
Do not sample the cheese. It will taste very bitter from the smoke, and isn’t very healthy for you in it’s current state.
Smoked cheese needs to “rest” for weeks in order for that very bitter smoke flavor to transfer into the inside of the cheese as well. Resting smoked cheese also allows the outside of the cheese to mellow out a bit.
How to Store Smoked Cheese
When you are done smoking your cheese, you need to let the cheese rest so the smoke flavor is absorbed throughout the cheese block. Wearing gloves to prevent adding bacteria to the cheese, blot it dry with a clean rag, wrap it in parchment paper or beeswax wrap, and store it in the refrigerator for two days.
After two days, wrap it in new parchment paper and vacuum seal it for at least two-three weeks, to fully absorb that smoky flavor. As a rule of thumb, you should let your cheese rest for at least one week, for every hour you smoked it.
Once vacuum sealed, it can be stored for months until you cut it open or give it to a friend.
Remove the Yellow Rind
When you open up your smoked cheese for the first time to eat it, use a knife or potato peeler to trim off the most yellow parts. You should only need to remove the outer 1/16″ of cheese in some places, depending on your cheese and how long you smoked it.
Why take off the yellow rind? You don’t need it anymore. The smoked flavor has already absorbed into the rest of the cheese. In addition, cutting off the yellow rind makes it healthier to eat.
Did you know? If you want cheese with less yellow rind, don’t smoke it as long. If you want a stronger smoke flavor without smoking it for a long time, use a stronger-flavored wood, like hickory.
Enjoy Your Smoked Cheese!
Smoked cheese can be a delicious addition to any dish. Try it in soups, grilled cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes and tacos. Or just eat it out of the ‘fridge as a finger-food (that’s what I do). It makes a great gift, especially for the holidays.
