How Is Cheese Smoked And What Are The Most Common Smoked Cheeses?

When you start exploring the range of artisanal cheeses available outside of your local supermarket, you will notice that many of them are smoked. This process of smoking is used to add flavor to the cheese, enhancing its taste. There are actually several different ways to create smoked cheese depending on the quality of it. In fact, the cheapest and worst quality “smoked” cheese isn’t smoked at all; they are just cured using liquid smoke or smoke flavoring so they taste like it.

How To Smoke Cheese

The most common method of making smoked cheese is to cold smoke it. This involves taking chunks of the cheese in question and placing them in a smoker for just several hours at a time. If you do this at home, you should stick to small chunks of cheese, a pound or less. You may also want to let the cheese go back to room temperature before you smoke it again.
During cold smoking, an ice tray is put inside the smoker and the cheese goes on top. That way, the smoke can penetrate the cheese completely, spreading its flavor but without overheating the cheese or causing melting. The alternative to cold smoking is to use a regular smoking method, just being sure to keep the cheese very separate from the heat. Ideally, only a vent will let the smoke into the area where the cheese is. Following the smoking itself, the cheese is wrapped up in the fridge for between two and four weeks. This way, the smokiness can mellow down and be delicious without being overpowering.

Adding Flavor Via Smoking

The most flavorful smoked cheese will be made with special chips. Hickory chips and apple chips are both common choices, each of which adds their own flavor.

Common Smoked Cheeses

Some of the most popular smoked cheeses are Cheddar and Gouda, which are among the easiest to find. Colby, mozzarella, provolone, and Gruyere are other common choices that can see their flavors enhanced with smoking.

You can use smoked cheese any way you want with many of the recipes being similar to those that call for un-smoked cheese. Because of the additional flavors in smoked cheese, you may want to keep things a bit simpler, such as with a smoked cheese quesadilla or a melt with cheese, ham, and some spinach. Of course, smoked cheese is also delicious by itself and with crackers or bread.