If any of you do this frequently, please post a thread in the how to section that includes type of cheese, size of pieces you smoke after cutting up, temp, time, process after pulling from smoker, length of time to rest in fridge or freezer, when to freeze, etc.  I am thinking of smoking some this weekend in my side cabinet on my MAK 2 so that it is ready for a mid October Oktoberfest party my buddy is having.

Where are all of the people who have smoked cheese that can help me out?

I just sent an email to one that's my cheese smoking tutor.  Be patient grasshopper.

I have done it, but not frequently.  If it comes down to you needing some pointers, I can give a few and show some pictures.

I thought some of the guys that have joined up here already had done it frequently.  I will go back to the other board and search if I have to, but was hoping to have someone document it so it was alive on here for everyone.

Just something to maybe get you going...till the experienced ones show up!

Cold Smokin Cheese

I don't recall what pit you have.  I can give you an idea of what I do but it's specific to the Fast eddy line.

I don't recall what pit you have.  I can give you an idea of what I do but it's specific to the Fast eddy line.

I plan to use the smoking chamber on the side of my MAK 2 Star.

Ok, you asked...

Let me preface this by stating I'm no expert at smoking cheese. I've only been doing it for about 40 years. Please take my comments as ideas rather than gospel.

1st of all, that smoke box on the side of yer smoker is of little use for 'cold' smoking anything. It's bolted onto your grill and will achieve grill temp in short order.

One cannot hot smoke cheese. Cheese (depending) will start to sweat at 90 degrees F. If you hit that mark after a couple hrs, you'd be ok. If you hit it in 30-60 minutes, you wasted your time.

I have a bottom dwelling Traeger Jr. It will smoke all day long at 120-180 deg, ambient temp depending. As you can see, those temps are far above the sweat point of most cheeses that would benefit from smoking. Sure, you could throw a brick of parmesan in there and be ok as its a hard cheese with little moisture. What you would gain is a bitter tasting outer layer. The inverse is trying to smoke a soft cheese. Forget I even mentioned that.

I'm a cheeseaholic, and about the only one I never tried is the one with maggots crawling about it inside. 

Back to topic...

Most firm/semi-firm cheeses can benefit from a cold smoke if that's yer choice. I'm a fan Of WSU Cougar cheeses. They come in a 22 oz can. Yes... a can.
I'd not smoke the Cougar Gold as it's too good as is. Many other varieties, I smoke at will with very good success.

The fact that just about all pellet smokers just can't operate at the temps required, means you have but a few choices.

Many smokers have a 'chimney'. They look cute I guess, but really don't serve any useful purpose other than being the exhaust. Should you have one, you'd need to adapt it to a hose that ran 10' or so away from the smoker. Doing so would help cool the smoke. My Jr has ports on the back so this is not an option.

The most useful option is smoke tube/pan/gadget that allows you to use pellets without turning on the fire of the grill. Yes, it's dirty smoke. Some have adapted their pits to limit fan flow without engaging the heat. The fan may blow, but it's still dirty smoke. So why bother? The only advantage I see would be if you added a pan of ice to the rack and thereby keep the temp lower than ambient. For a bit.

I smoke my cheeses when it's COLD outside. A 10" tube will raise the temp from 32 to 100 in a couple hours, so I'm diligent in the process.

After smoking, I pat off the sweat if there is any, and let sit overnite in the fridge lightly draped with plastic wrap. The next day, I vacuum seal and let rest for 3-4 weeks. You can then freeze if you like, but my cheeses will easily last 12 months in the fridge.

I'm tired now....

I think I can get the smoker chamber to stay below 90 degrees on a cold day if I put the MAK on smoke setting which is 160 degrees.  I will test it will grate probes on of these days.  Good information to know.  How long would you smoke the cheese below 90 degrees?

Below 90 would be a personal choice. Mild cheeses would require less time, while sharper would be longer.

Its all about preference. Smoke and learn.

Below 90 would be a personal choice. Mild cheeses would require less time, while sharper would be longer.

Its all about preference. Smoke and learn.

Mild = 1 hour
Sharper = 2 hour

Give me a little direction please.  I can figure it out from there.

I have smoked sharp cheddar twice on my Pg 500 now, it's a simple process on this unit that consists of setting the HHT/LHT to 10/10 and using a 9" by 13" pan of ice on the indirect zone 4 rack and placing the cheese below in the warming drawer on one of my bread cooling racks.

Using those LHT/HHT settings the unit is right at 150* most of the time where the ice pan sits and the drawer temp never got over 60* in three hours time of smoking, next time I make some I'll take pics and do a smoked cheese thread.