Smoked cheese is an amazing flavor boost to your charcuterie board, a sandwich, or any pasta dish. Learn how to cold-smoke cheese at home!
This recipe, while extremely easy, does require some planning on your part. Once it’s smoked, you need to allow it to chill in parchment paper for 24 hours and then rest vacuum-sealed for 2 weeks.
If you don’t do this, the cheese will taste excessively smoky, almost acrid. This is NORMAL. When you cold smoke cheese you need to allow it time to rest and mellow out so the smokiness is evenly distributed. This is why, when I smoke cheese, I fill up the entire smoker and smoke a ‘season’ worth at a time!
More Cheese Please
As someone who has an entire fridge drawer dedicated to cheese, I am over the moon excited to share how to make this with you! Cold-smoking cheese at home is super easy and something the whole family can do!
Smoked cheese in the market is CRAZY expensive but with my recipe, you’ll be amazed by how cheap it is to make at home AND how amazingly delicious it is!
Grab Your Ingredients
The beauty of this recipe is you only need your favorite hard/semi-hard cheese, a smoker tube, and pellets.
Now I will say this is where the beauty of having a Yoder Smokers YS640 pellet smoker grill comes in handy. I’ll explain more later
- Cheese – you want to go with a hard or semi-hard cheese. Soft cheeses can take on too much smoke
- I went with Sharp Yellow Cheddar, Gouda, Balsamic Onion Parmesan, American Grana, White Cheddar
Equipment Needed
- Smoker (preferably a Yoder Smokers YS640)
- Vacuum Sealer (or super tight plastic wrap)
Outside Temperature Matters
Living in Arizona I’m limited to when I can smoke cheese. Since this is a cold smoke, you need your ambient outside temperature to be cooler.
Smoke your cheeses when the outside temperature is between 40F-60/65F. Those are your sweet spots. Anything warmer and your cheese taste and texture can greatly be affected.
Prepare the Yoder Smokers YS640
- Line the top rack with 1-2 heat-safe mesh perforated baking liners. This allows the smoke to hit all sides of the cheese without the cheese sticking to the grates. Place the cheeses on the racks leaving about a 1″ space between each.
- Fill up a Pellet smoker tube about 1/3-3/4 full with your favorite pellet mix (I went with fruit blend). Set it on the bottom rack closest to the fan.
- Turn on the unit but do NOT press start. You only want the fan to run.
- With the smoker fan running, light the pellets inside the tube smoker until they all catch. Allow to burn for about a minute and then blow them out completely.
- Close the smoker lid and allow to smoke for 1-2 hours. *I left my damper 75% closed as I didn’t want an overly smoky cheese. Also, the time all depends on how hard the cheese is and how smoky you want it.
Store The Cheese
So learn from my mistake and do not eat the cheese straight off of the smoker. It’s unbelievably smoky, almost acrid, at first to the point it’s almost off-putting. You didn’t do anything wrong but the cheese needs to mellow and allow the smoke to permeate evenly through it. Thus it has to rest.
- Place the cheese on a paper towel-lined pan. You’ll notice that the cheese has some liquid or condensation to it. Make sure to wipe it completely dry.
- Wrap the cheese in parchment paper and place it in the fridge for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, remove it from the fridge, wipe it again if needed, and then vacuum seal each piece. Place these pieces in the fridge for 2 weeks. Yes, 2 weeks. You need it to truly rest, mellow out, and age. Yes, you can let it go longer if you want. I’ve cheese that I smoked in January (10 months ago and it’s still not opened as I want to age it for a full year!).
Recipe Substitutions & Additions
The only real substitutions here are the types of cheese you use and the length of time you want to go.
More time = smokier taste
The other thing you could do is season your cheese with your favorite BBQ rub and try that! I would advise coating it on all sides well!
How To Cold Smoke Cheese
Smoked cheese is an amazing flavor boost to your charcuterie board, a sandwich, or any pasta dish. Learn how to cold smoke cheese at home!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1-2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 4-6 ounces per person (varies on how much you make)
- Category: artisan cheese at home, cheese lover, cold smoked cheese, smoked cheddar, smoked gouda
- Method: smoker
- Cuisine: artisan cheese at home, cheese lover, cold smoked cheese, smoked cheddar, smoked gouda
Ingredients
- Hard or semi-hard cheese
- Yoder Smokers YS640
- 1–2 heat-safe mesh perforated baking liners
- Pellet smoker tube
- Vacuum Sealer (or super tight plastic wrap)
- Pellets (fruit is my favorite)
Instructions
- Line the top rack with 1-2 heat-safe mesh perforated baking liners. This allows the smoke to hit all sides of the cheese without the cheese sticking to the grates. Place the cheeses on the racks leaving about a 1″ space between each.
- Fill up a Pellet smoker tube about 1/3-3/4 full with your favorite pellet mix (I went with fruit blend). Set it on the bottom rack closest to the fan.
- Turn on the unit but do NOT press start. You only want the fan to run.
- With the smoker fan running, light the pellets inside the tube smoker until they all catch. Allow to burn for about a minute and then blow them out completely.
- Close the smoker lid and allow to smoke for 1-2 hours. *I left my damper 75% closed as I didn’t want an overly smoky cheese. Also, the time all depends on how hard the cheese is and how smoky you want it.
- Place the cheese onto a paper towel-lined pan. You’ll notice that the cheese has some liquid or condensation to it. Make sure to wipe it completely dry.
- Wrap the cheese in parchment paper and place it in the fridge for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, remove it from the fridge, wipe it again if needed, and then vacuum seal each piece. Place these pieces in the fridge for 2 weeks.
- Once fully rested, enjoy!
Notes
*Time does not include the 24 hour fridge rest or the 2 week vacuum seal rest
Nutrition based on 5 pounds of smoked sharp cheddar as an example. This will naturally vary based on the type of cheese you use
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