Showerthought: My first attempt at cold smoking cheese ended up tasting like a campfire.

I set up my Weber kettle with a smoke tube and some apple wood pellets for a few hours last Saturday. The cheese came out with such a strong, bitter smoke flavor that it's almost inedible. Did I leave it in too long, or is there a trick to mellowing out that harsh taste? In my experience, cold smoking is tricky, but I'd love to hear how you pitmasters handle it.

3 comments

3 Comments

piper17518d ago

Used to smoke mine for hours too until it tasted like an ashtray... now I never go over two hours and it comes out perfect.

noah_williams6618d ago

Two hours seems to be the sweet spot for a lot of cuts. After that it just starts turning bitter no matter what you do. Learned that the hard way myself, now I set a timer. Makes it easy to wrap up the leftovers for later instead of forcing yourself to finish it.

black.margaret10d ago

My uncle smoked his for five hours last weekend and it was still amazing. Maybe it depends on the meat more than the clock.