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The madness begins


mark70

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Ok not a total success but nice all the same.  Cheese had dried out a bit too much.  It had cracks in coming off the smoker. Shall try a shorter smoke next time as hinted at by Wade.  

 

Saying that still nice smoked taste with Chilli jam and a nice glass of chilian Sauvignon 

smoked salmon a success though 

bacon should be cured by Friday and I will smoke half of it Sunday with a bit of luck

 

any suggestions welcome

159C3B4C-FBC3-4D15-BB64-FBC5F28CADF2.jpeg

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It will depend on what kind of salmon you are wanting to produce. Traditional smoked salmon sides will take about 18 hours to get the moisture content down sufficiently and the texture right, but smoked salmon fillets (that you will later cook or hot smoke) are fine with about 8 hours.

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  • 8 months later...

Couple of cool nights temps in single figures for most parts of the country forecast for tonight and tomorrow night.  Forecast dry here certainly in the Staffs from 11pm to 8am both nights ideal time for bacon overnight or cheese for a couple of hours early in the morning

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In Essex rain supposed to stop 9 tonight then 13 until 9amwhen it goes to 15.....so 5am  smoke for cheese.  No thanks.  to busy working during the day for that, pus late night playing darts tonight

 

Friday looks good 6 am 10 degs rising to 17 at 10am and not going above 17 all day, in fact at 4pm 16  degs so may do some cheese then maybe 6pm 

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You may already know this if you have the ProQ smoke generator? If I am just doing cheese I only fill 4 parts of the maze with wood dust following the path from the candle lighting part. as that will last 2-3 hours easily for me. I only fill it up completely if cold smoking through the night and lasts 10-12 hours, If I dry, the wood dust out in the microwave for 15-20 seconds before putting it in the maze, it burns better than just adding it straight to the maze out of the bag.

p.s. If you have a Morrisons by you, they are selling the Wykes Farm Mature at the Deli Counter not the big cheese displays for £5 a KG comes pre-wrapped in 1kg blocks, has a minimum of 2 months shelf life. I chop it up into 3 seperate pieces and cold smoke for 2.5 hours. One of the better Cheddar's I have smoked overall and a decent price. Apple or Silver Birch dust works well with it for my tastes. Got a Kg ready to do on Saturday morning, if the dry @  8 degrees forecast happens around 5-6am

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15 hours ago, sotv said:

Mature at the Deli Counter not the big cheese displays for £5 a KG comes pre-wrapped in 1kg blocks, has a minimum of 2 months shelf life.

Yes,that is great about the hard cheeses. Be careful though with some of the softer cheeses as they do have a "Use by" date.

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I always smoke mature when it comes to cheddar's personally, the bite is still there after smoking. 

Hoping to pop to Lidl today as it is Spanish week and they have a couple of good cheeses from Spain. The Manchego smokes well and does a lovely bit of Welsh Rarebit when grated and melted. There are a few other Spanish Cheeses on offer this week as well. Not tried them yet, but always looking to try new cheeses.

Got a Chunk of Gouda and Jarlsberg just ready for eating after being sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks after smoking. So looking forward to them on the cheeseboard the weekend to try.

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I have converted my sister. So she brings me a wider variety of cheeses (mainly from Costco) for us to try. Really enjoyed the Gruyere I did that they sell there, a few months ago.

The difficult part is working out the right wood dust./blend that suits your taste and to a certain degree the cheese. I tend to stick to the lighter ones like Apple/Silver Birch/Beech going to order some sweet chestnut dust to try when the weather cools down a bit,, as heard that works very well with cheese and fish for smoking

 

It is all good fun, cold smoking when the weather isn't conducive to Hot Smoking so much in the winter months

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