How To Smoke Cheese With The Big Green Egg

Here is a guide on how to smoke cheese with the Big Green Egg that you can follow easily to make the best cold-smoked cheese. It is very easy and will get you to cook more.

 Although some grills you can use, Big Green Egg is one of the easiest grills to use. It has many features that you can take advantage of for smoking cheese.

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 It is also the best-built Kamado Grill on the market that can evenly distribute heat. It has great insulation so it is one of the most consistent grills in keeping the temperature.

The best way to smoke cheese is by cold smoking.

This is a process where you use temperatures lower than 90 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent melting the cheese.

 There are also some tricks that you can do to attain this temperature.

The Big Green Egg is a very powerful grill and you cannot reach temperatures that low with it.

 So with this guide, we hope to give you the best steps, techniques, tips, and tricks that you can use to properly smoke the cheese that you have. So read on and let’s get smoking.

 

The Setup

 The Big Green Egg is a very powerful grill which means it is known for its high temperatures.

\You can sear meat and other foods with it so you have to set it up in a very different way.

 Instead of using the usual fuel of this grill which is charcoal, you will need wood pellets. 

These are better at producing smoke and they do not need a lot of heat to produce thick smoke.

 I can advise you to use the cold smoke technique if the temperature or weather outside is 70 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

That way, the grill will not heat up from the outside.

So cold smoking is best when you do it during the winter months.

You can use some tricks to cool the grill down, and we will also be talking about those later on.

 It is also important to make sure the grill itself is perfectly clean before using it to smoke cheese.

There might be some food residuals in the grill grate so make sure to remove them.

The first trick you can do from the setup process alone is to ensure that the grill is under a shade.

That way, it will not gather too much heat from the sun or other factors.

 

How to Smoke Cheese on A Big Green Egg

 

Step 1: Prepare The Tools You Need

For this part, you will need to get everything you need as the setup is pretty easy.

You need some things that you do not usually find or use when using the grill.

First, the tool that will hold the wood pellets since the firebox of the Big Green Egg has holes that are too large for the pellets.

You can use a mesh or a smoker tube for this.

I recommend this great product like the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker, a mesh-like object that holds the pellets and lights them up in a pattern for slow smoking.

You will also need the flame guard of the Big Green Egg as it is where you will put the pellets on.

Get a grill mat or mesh wire grill grate so that you can place the cheese on it properly. 

If you are planning to smoke many cheese blocks, then you need more than one rack. I usually get cheese from my cheese of the month subscription, giving me a lot of room to explore smoking different kinds of cheese.

 Make sure that you get layers of racks so that the cheeses will not end up sticking to each other.

You will also need a tray that is filled with ice to moderate the temperature inside.

Get parchment paper or a zip-lock bag later on for letting the cheese rest after smoking it.

 

Step 2: Preheat The Big Green Egg

 Place the tray of ice under the firebox and open the vents at the bottom all the way.

Fill up the pellet smoker mesh with wood pellets you like and then light them up with a torch. 

Place them on top of the flame guard and then let them catch fire for at least 5 minutes.

 This will prompt the pellets to produce smoke so make sure that you do not extinguish them too soon.

Close the grill lid for 15 minutes to distribute the heat evenly.

After that, you can open the grill’s top vent to cool it down before you put the cheese in the grill to prevent melting.

 

Step 3: Prepare The Cheese

While the grill is preheating, prepare the cheese by cutting them into smaller or thinner pieces. 

This is only optional and you can smoke the cheese as a whole large block instead of slices.

 The advantage of slicing the cheese into thinner pieces is that they will get more of the smoky flavor and the texture that you want on the outside.

Arrange them on the mesh grill grate.

 Make sure that you leave at least half of an inch of space between each slice of cheese.

This helps the smoke get through the cheese and smoke all sides of the block or cheese slices.

 

Step 4: Smoke The Cheese

 Place the blocks of cheese on the racks once the Big Green Egg cools down to a temperature of less than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

This will be easy to track as the grill has a lid thermometer.

 Most people will recommend smoking the cheese for 2 hours.

 This is good as the cheese would have some beautiful aroma from the smoke after such time.

 However, you can improve the flavor and texture of the cheese by smoking it for longer.

My recommendation is to always keep track of the temperature and check the cheese after 2 hours. 

If you have achieved the color you want on the cheese, you can remove them from the grill.

If not, continue cold smoking the cheese until they get a golden brown color on the outside.

Step 5: Let Them Rest

 Once the cheeses have got the color that you want and you think they have enough of the smoky flavor in them, remove the cheeses from the grill and let them rest. 

Do this by wrapping the cheeses with parchment paper but do not completely close the parchment paper.

Let them breathe and release the moisture from them for at least 10 minutes.

 Close the parchment paper and then place the smoked cheeses in the refrigerator.

You can also use vacuum sealing with zip-lock bags as it will preserve the cheese better. 

Let them rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before consumption to make the smoky flavor milder.

The flavor will also improve if you let them stay in the fridge for two weeks or more.

 

Conclusion 

Cold smoking cheese is one of the best and most rewarding cooking methods.

You get to enjoy the recipe weeks and months after you have cooked it as it gets better with time.

 The best way to cold smoke cheese is to make sure that you do not go too hot.

That is a problem with a Big Green Egg as such grill can get up to very high temperatures. 

So you will need to follow the guide above to create a cheese-friendly environment inside the grill and make sure that it does not melt or go beyond what you want.

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