NDKoze
Moderator
After 76 degrees last Sunday, it was only about 26 degrees today, so I thought I would take advantage of the cooler day to smoke some more cheese as my current supply is running low.
I had a block of Tillamook Medium Cheddar, Cabot Classic Vermont Seriously Sharp Cheddar, Gouda, and some String Cheese.
I fired up the ANMPS with one row of Apple wood pellets and smoked the block cheeses for 3 hours, rested for an hour, and then vacuum-packed.
The water bottles really did the trick. I had tested the ANMPS with the pellets before with similar ambient temps without the bottles and the temps rose and stayed in the 120-130 range. It was 26-30 degrees ambient temp, but my smoker was on the sunny side of the deck and the sun had heated it up pretty good. So the smoker temp when I added the cheese was 54 degrees. Surprisingly the smoker temp stayed around 55 degrees for most of the smoke. It briefly rose to as high as 57, but a range of 54-57 is pretty dang tight. You would think I had an Auber hooked up.
There was plenty of pellets left after 3 hours of smoking when I took the block cheese out and replaced with the string cheese. My Intention was to run the string cheese for 2 hours. But about an hour into the smoke the ANMPS went out, so I had to relight. Because of this, I added 30 minutes to the smoke.
I got some nice color on the cheese, but you can see from some of the pictures that the tops got more color than the bottoms. I think I may have had the water bottles a little too close to the bottom of the cheese and they got sheltered from some of the smoke. So, next time, I am going to lower the bottles a bit.
All in all, I think it was a pretty successful smoke. Now to mellow in the fridge for a couple of weeks. If the weather stays cool, I may have to do one more smoke yet to last through the hot summer months.
I had a block of Tillamook Medium Cheddar, Cabot Classic Vermont Seriously Sharp Cheddar, Gouda, and some String Cheese.
I fired up the ANMPS with one row of Apple wood pellets and smoked the block cheeses for 3 hours, rested for an hour, and then vacuum-packed.
The water bottles really did the trick. I had tested the ANMPS with the pellets before with similar ambient temps without the bottles and the temps rose and stayed in the 120-130 range. It was 26-30 degrees ambient temp, but my smoker was on the sunny side of the deck and the sun had heated it up pretty good. So the smoker temp when I added the cheese was 54 degrees. Surprisingly the smoker temp stayed around 55 degrees for most of the smoke. It briefly rose to as high as 57, but a range of 54-57 is pretty dang tight. You would think I had an Auber hooked up.
There was plenty of pellets left after 3 hours of smoking when I took the block cheese out and replaced with the string cheese. My Intention was to run the string cheese for 2 hours. But about an hour into the smoke the ANMPS went out, so I had to relight. Because of this, I added 30 minutes to the smoke.
I got some nice color on the cheese, but you can see from some of the pictures that the tops got more color than the bottoms. I think I may have had the water bottles a little too close to the bottom of the cheese and they got sheltered from some of the smoke. So, next time, I am going to lower the bottles a bit.
All in all, I think it was a pretty successful smoke. Now to mellow in the fridge for a couple of weeks. If the weather stays cool, I may have to do one more smoke yet to last through the hot summer months.
Attachments
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1. Tillamook Medium Cheddar - Cabot Classic Vermont Seriously Sharp Cheddar - Gouda - String ...jpg86.6 KB · Views: 409
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2. Pre-Smoke Sharp Cheddar-Extra Sharp Cheddar-Gouda.jpg97.7 KB · Views: 422
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3. Post-Smoke Sharp Cheddar-Extra Sharp Cheddar.jpg61.8 KB · Views: 435
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4. In the smoker.jpg52.3 KB · Views: 461
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5. String Cheese.jpg86.1 KB · Views: 442
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6. Lighting some Apple Wood Pellets in the AMNPS.jpg76.3 KB · Views: 428
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7. AMNPS Doing its thing.jpg68.2 KB · Views: 463
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8. Nice Heavy Apple Wood Smoke.jpg28.2 KB · Views: 456
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9. Heavier Smoke on the Top.jpg47.7 KB · Views: 444
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10. All Packaged Up.jpg412.6 KB · Views: 442