How to Smoke Cheese

How to smoke cheese  - A basic beginners guide to follow for those wanting to learn how to smoke cheese for the first time.

Smoked cheese is a process that requires cold smoking and smoking cheese gives much more flavor to cheese than any store bought cheese. Smoked cheese is very overpriced at the grocery store and it is so easy and fun to make smoked cheese at home. I had never smoked cheese in my life before and it was quite a fun learning process. I watched many videos on Youtube on how to smoke cheese and learned a lot.

The types of cheese I used were blocks of cheddar, swiss, and pepper jack but you can use whatever you like. I wouldn’t suggest smoking cheese that is already shredded. Whenever the grocery store has bricks of cheese on sale use those and cold smoke them. You can wrap them up in fancy butcher paper or parchment paper, give the smoked cheese away as gifts for Christmas, use the cheese on charcuterie boards, or shred the cheese to make your dishes even more flavorful.

My Traeger does not cold smoke and the smoke setting on it is less than 200 degrees. This is when a smoker tube comes in handy and you can find them at Hardware stores. My hardware store has a grilling and smoking section and that is where I found them at or you can purchase one on Amazon. They are only $20.00. You don’t really even need a smoker for this and you can use a grill instead. With smoker tubes, you just fill the tube up with pellets (whatever type of wood pellets you have on hand) and use a heat gun to set the pellets on fire. They eventually start smoking. I set the smoker tube inside my smoker and set the cheese on a wire rack and placed the smoker tube next to cheese. Close the lid and let the cheese smoke for an hour and voila! You have smoked cheese.

Ingredients for Smoked Cheese

Blocks of cheese (any kind)

Tools Needed for Smoked Cheese

An outdoor grill or smoker

Smoke Tube

Wood Pellets

Parchment Paper or Butcher Paper

Heat Gun

How to make Smoked Cheese

In order to smoke cheese the first thing to do is set up your smoker or grill. You don’t need to turn it on or anything.

Fill your smoke tube with whatever wood pellets or chips you have on hand to the top. I used applewood because that is my favorite. Take out your heat gun and set it against the pellets on the smoker tube. It is best to set the smoke tube with pellets directly on the grill first because of the flames. Do this on your grill or smoker.

Turn the heat gun on and let it start the pellets on fire. The pellets must flame in order to get them pellets going.

Place your cheese blocks on a wire rack inside your smoker and close the lid. Let the cheese smoke for 2 hours. After an hour is up flip the cheese over and let it continue smoking for another hour.

After the smoking process is done take the cheese off the grill. The flame should be out and the pellets should be done smoking.

Wrap the cheese up in some parchment paper or butcher paper and let the cheese rest in your fridge for up to 2 weeks. The longer the cheese rests in the fridge the better it gets. If you try eating the cheese right away it can be kind of gritty.

Tips for Smoking Cheese

Smoking cheese is best done on a cooler day and your smoker or grill needs to maintain a temperature under 90 degrees. This is easiest to accomplish if the air temperature is no higher than 60 °F (16 °C), even with the methods we'll use to keep temperatures low. 

Equipment Needed: 

Smoker Tube: this can be found at Hardware stores or on Amazon.

Smoker: I have had my Traeger smoker for a very long time and I would recommend that brand to anyone wanting to learn how to smoke food. There are some very reasonably priced smokers out there for under $100.

• Masterbuilt Charcoal Bullet Smoker. Amazon. ...
• Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker. Amazon. ...
• Char-Griller 2-2424 Table Top Charcoal Grill and Side Fire Box. Amazon. ...

Wood Chips: It is my understanding that you can only buy Traeger wood chips where they sell Traeger Grills at. The only place I can get their wood chips in town is at my local Ace Hardware store.

Thermometers: These are so important to have around when cooking any type of meat on an outdoor grill or smoker. They are even great for checking to see if a potato is done.