How to smoke cheese in a home smoker
The cheese is good on its own, but after the smoking process, its taste and aroma are revealed in a completely different way. How to smoke cheese at home?
Usually, hard or semi-hard cheese varieties are used for smoking, but there are no special restrictions, if you follow all the rules of the process. So, soft varieties need to be cooked in packaging so as not to spoil the product. Before being placed in a home smokehouse, the pack is pierced in several places. This will allow the haze to do its job.
It is dangerous to smoke brine cheese varieties: the result is quite specific and not everyone will like it. If you want to experiment, the product should be wrapped in foil. You can keep soft cheese in the smokehouse for no more than a minute, while there should be as little smoke as possible.
Not all types of cheese can be smoked. Each variety requires a different approach.
Small cheese heads are placed entirely in the smokehouse; it is enough to remove the packaging from them. Large pieces must be cut: the smoking process takes minutes, large cheese will not receive sufficient processing, and the desired effect will only reach the edges. Before smoking homemade cheese, it must be properly salted and dried in an open draft for at least 12 hours. A ripe head weighing up to 500 g can be smoked in a smokehouse for more than an hour.
How to smoke cheese in a smokehouse
Home-smoked cheese differs from store-bought cheese not only in a more intense aroma, but also in density: it turns out to be softer. Hot smoking prolongs its shelf life, but cold smoking shortens it.
How to smoke cheese? You will need:
- 400 g cheese;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- grass;
- olive oil;
- Apple vinegar.
Preparation:
To obtain a rich aroma, it is advisable to marinate the cheese. Oil and vinegar are mixed with herbs, chopped garlic is added. The cheese is poured with the mixture and stored in the refrigerator for at least one day.
The smaller the cheese pieces are, the more intense the smoked flavor will be after the process.
It is advisable to cover the grill of the smokehouse with foil, and put the cheese on an iron plate. In order for the smoking to be uniform, the pieces must be turned over periodically.
The average duration of smoking hard varieties is no more than 5 minutes. Immediately after cooking, the cheese must be transferred to an airtight container and sent to the refrigerator for a day so that the aroma opens correctly. You can serve the finished product with nuts and grapes.
It is important to control the amount of smoke and the duration of smoking during cooking. It is not worth keeping the cheese in the smokehouse for too long: it can only spoil the product.