Smoked Cheese

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Hello! I am Oblivion and today we will talk about smoked cheese! Grab your favourite smoothie and enjoy!

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Table of contents

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◈ What it is

◈ Types of smoked cheese

◈ History

◈ How to store

◈ Health benefits

◈ Smoked Cheddar Cheese

◈ Sources

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Smoked cheese is basically any cheese that has been smoked (specially treated by smoke-curing). It usually has a yellowish-brown skin as a result of the smoking process.

There are two ways to turn ordinary cheese into smoked cheese. Those ways are called cold-smoking and hot-smoking. The cold-smoking method smokes the cheese at lower temperatures for about a month and hot-smoking is done at high temperatures for a shorter period of time.

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Chopped smoked cheese

This is smoked cheese that is chopped into small pieces.

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Grated smoked cheese

This requires grating the cheese SLABS in a hand held grater. This cheese is fine in texture and is used for making various baked dishes.

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Shredded smoked cheese

This is basically the cheese ed through a shredder and separated into shreds with fingers. You can also buy packaged shredded cheese, but the shreds will be much drier than when freshly made.

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Sliced smoked cheese

This is smoked cheese that is sliced into thin or thick slices with a sharp knife, as per the recipe requirement.

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Smoked cheese cubes

Smoked cheese cut into cubes.

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Smoked cheese strips

Cut the cheese block into thin or thick strips as per the recipe requirement.

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Early humans had an open fire in their huts and shelters and when they made cheese, in some time it became smoked whether they liked it or not. After a few years or centuries when people started to store cheese somewhere where there were no fire, smoking cheese became just one of the ways you could alter the flavour of cheeses. One of the first people to write about smoked cheese was the poet Martial. He said that the smoked cheese from Valebrum is one of his four favourites and commented on the popularity of smoked cheeses from Rome, especially those made with goats' milk. It happened in 1AD.

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Since then the idea has either spread or just developed independently - because there are smoked versions of all sorts of cheeses - and they come from all over Europe.

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You have to keep your cheese in the refrigerator. It is suggested to wrap it well, regardless of variety, and put it in the warmest section of the refrigerator - the refrigerator door.

Please, that soft cheeses can't be kept for a long time. If the cheese hasn't got a lot of moisture in it, like Parmesan, for example, it can be kept longer.

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Smoked cheese has a lot of health benefits. I will list the two most important ones:

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• Nutrients

It doesn't matter what type of milk you use, smoked cheese is a concentrated source of the nutrients naturally found in milk, including calcium.

The smoked cheese also contains a large amount of other essential nutrients such as phosphorous, zinc, riboflavin, vitamin B12 and vitamin A.

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• Protein

I guess, this one isn't such a big surprise. Smoked cheese is a dense source of high quality protein.

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Have you ever wondered how to make smoke cheddar cheese? Here's the recipe!

It will take you about 4 hours and you will need apple / alder / cherry wood chunks or chips and 2 (227-g) blocks of cheddar cheese. With this recipe you will be able to serve 16 people with your own smoked cheddar cheese!

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Let's get down to it:

1. Freeze the cheese for 2 hours before smoking, so that the cheese melts less quickly.

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2. Set up your smoker to maintain a temperature of less than 85°F (29°C). Please, make sure it's not higher. The cheese starts to melt at 90°F (32°C)

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3. To create cold smoke, place the cheese on the grate of your smoker. Set three lit charcoal briquettes flat in the charcoal pan or firebox of your smoker. Place a flat wood chunk on top of the charcoal to create smoke. Provide a little airflow and replace the charcoal and/or wood chunks as needed to keep the smoke going for the desired period of time.

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4. Place the grill grate above the lower grate.

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5. Place the blocks of cheese directly on the grate and smoke for about 4 hours.

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6. Remove the cheese from the grate and place it in a plastic bag. Store the smoked cheese in the refrigerator for 2 weeks before taking it out of the plastic bag.

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Sources

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Wikipedia

Smoked cheese glossary

History

Smoked cheddar cheese

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