Those light golden brown colors on the edges of cheese you get when you smoke them are the best.
So here is a guide on how to smoke cheese on a Green Mountain Grill for you to follow.
There are many smokers or grills that you can use to smoke cheese.
However, if you want to smoke a lot of cheeses at once, then I recommend using a Green Mountain grill for that.
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These are not the largest grills but they do have a decent amount of space to place a lot of food in them.
This is especially true with the multiple racks that you can put inside the grill.
You can smoke four pounds of cheese or more at once with this grill. While it is easy to do and you do not need to do a lot of things while the cheese is smoking, you do need some guidance.
If you are a beginner, then it will be a little difficult, especially with controlling the temperature.
So here, we have a simple guide that teaches you how to deal with the more complicated parts.
Make sure you follow the specific steps as this guide is specifically made for using a Green Mountain grill.
That way, you do not have to adjust for other grills that you have around.
Setting Up The Green Mountain Grill
This is one of the simpler parts of the process but you need to make sure that you follow it so you get the most out of the process and make sure that you smoke the cheese properly.
First, you will need to fire up the grill by filling up the pellet hopper about 3/4 full.
You actually do not need a lot of wood pellets for this cooking process as it will only require a few to smoke.
Unlike smoking other foods such as meat, cheese does not need too much temperature when smoked since it can melt it. That is why you will not need a lot of pellets to finish smoking them.
For the Green Mountain grill, I recommend using balls of cotton soaked with alcohol as firestarters.
These are very effective at lighting the pellets in a milder way to keep them cool.
Once the cotton balls are burnt, there is also no aftertaste that comes from the alcohol.
From there, you can use the air compressor to adjust the amount of smoke that gets in the grill.
This is a feature attached to the outer pellet hopper which blows the smoke from the fire into the grill.
This is also where you can adjust the temperature to keep it low while smoking the cheese.
Smoking Cheese In A Green Mountain Grill
Step 1: Prepare The Cheeses
For this part, you will need to arrange the cheeses according to the texture.
If you have different types of cheese that you want to smoke, you need to arrange them in order of softness.
The harder types of cheese should be placed in one tray and then gradually go with softer ones before smoking them.
Depending on the model of the grill, there are multiple racks you can use.
This will also depend on the thickness of the cheese that you will smoke.
Just remember to put the hard cheeses on the lower racks and place soft cheeses like string cheese on the top rack.
Step 2: Preheat The Grill
Once you light up the pellets, blow the smoke into the grill, and then set the temperature to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
This will be pretty difficult especially if the weather outside is pretty hot.
In order to cold smoke the cheeses, you will need to resort to another trick.
For this, I usually use a gallon of ice and place it on the side of the grill farthest away from the pellet hopper.
This helps keep the temperature of the grill low for smoking the cheeses even if it is hot outside.
I even tried this technique with the weather over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside so it is effective.
If you go with 100 degrees Fahrenheit, you will need to adjust the smoke timer and smoke the cheeses for a shorter period of time. Make sure to always keep the temperature in check.
Step 3: Smoke The Cheese
Place the cheeses inside the smoker with the harder types of cheese on the bottom.
You can also do a trick where you add more flavors to the cheese by using cloves of garlic.
This will give your smoked cheese a more unique and nutty flavor.
If you want to use this, peel as much garlic as you want and then place them on the tray at the bottom of the grill.
For a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you will need to smoke the cheese for 4 hours to get a nice color and flavor in them. Two hours for 100 degrees Fahrenheit to adjust to the heat.
Check on the cheese every hour to see if it has enough color in the cheese.
The goal is to get a slightly orange and tough outer layer with the crust of the cheese having a golden brown color.
Step 4: Let The Cheese Rest
Once the cheese has reached the color that you want, remove them from the grill and then immediately wrap the cheeses individually with parchment paper until they cool down.
Place them in a zip-lock bag and get as much air out as you can.
This will be easier if you have a vacuum sealer to keep the moisture content of the cheese while they are resting.
Place them in the fridge to rest for two to three days.
Get the cheeses out of the fridge when they are ready, use them as garnish, sauce, or pizza toppings or on any recipe that you want.
What Cheese Should I Smoke?
There are a lot of cheeses that you can use when smoking cheese.
The harder types of cheese are the perfect ones to smoke since they do not melt that easily at a certain temperature.
An example of this is Mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese.
While cheddar cheese is at the softer type of cheese category, it absorbs the smoke so well and brings out a truly unique flavor.
Gouda and Brie cheeses are also great examples of cheese that you can smoke.
It is actually up to you which cheese you want to smoke as even string cheese can be smoked if careful.
Is It Healthy?
Smoked foods are great since the texture is soft and you get unique flavors.
However, they do put up some health threats especially with the nitrites and nitrates that come out of the smoke.
You need to be careful when smoking cheese or any food not to put any kind of chemical in the fuel.
Choose wood pellets or wood that are not processed to remove any unnatural parts.
The benefit you get from smoking cheese is that you get the additional flavor that makes the taste authentic and aromatic. There is also a lower fat content when you smoke cheeses.
Conclusion
There are many grills that you can use to smoke cheese on but there are not many that can match the Green Mountain Grills.
They are tall grills that you can use to smoke many kinds of cheese on.
The multiple rack system of the grill is perfect for smoking different types of cheese that are different in texture.
You can also add other flavors with the racks at the bottom of the grill.
It is pretty easy to do this but you do need to learn how to adjust the temperature and timer for smoking cheeses.
This can only be done by practicing more with the guide above!
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