How to Smoke Cheese the Cool Way

When most people think of smoked foods they think of barbecue — brisket, ribs, etc. However, limiting smoky flavors to barbecue is like limiting the use of lemons to lemonade. Can you imagine a world without lox and bagels? We can't. Smoked salmon, chicken, tofu, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, nuts, even ice can be cold smoked! Hot Smoke v. Cold Smoke The secret that unlocks the ability to smoke almost anything is cold smoking. Unlike traditional hot smoke, cold smoke does not always intend to cook the food as it’s smoking it. Cold smoke can be used to cure foods that need to be cooked, but it also can simply add a gentle, smoky flavor to the surface of your ingredient. Cold smoking must keep the food cold during the smoking process. This can be achieved by distance from the heat source and an insulating barrier between the ingredient and the heat, a cold layer for the smoke to pass through before it gets to the food for example, or, by keeping a very, very low heat.

"You want your smoke to be a very thin, grey (almost bluish), wispy kind of smoke. If your smoke is thick and heavy, the combustion levels of your fire may be too cold." -Ryan Crafts, Grill Master

Options for Cold Smoking If you don’t have a traditional smoker, and even if you do, you may not know your options as far as cold smoking. Here are a few easy ones:

Smoking Gun A smoking gun sounds a little suspicious, but it’s actually the simplest, quickest, and cleanest way to smoke foods at home. All you do is insert the tube into a sealed space with your food, put wood chips in your gun, turn it on, and start smokin'. In a matter of minutes you can add that smoky flavor to almost anything.

Here’s one we recommend:

Here's how we use a similar smoking gun and a glass chamber to flavor a beverage:

Here we're using them at a Smoke themed station at our YouTube Channel launch party:

Smoking Maze or Cylinder This would probably be your most versatile option for cold smoking. Simply fill the chamber with sawdust or pellets and light it from one end. All you need is an enclosed, outdoor container. A gas or kettle grill would work just fine! Our favorite is the A-MAZE-N Smoker, it comes in a maze or cylinder form! Kettle or Gas Grill When cold smoking in a kettle or gas grill one must utilize space and temperature to create enough heat to smoke, but not enough to cook. For easily melting foods like cheese, you might want to place your food on top of a container filled with ice. Keep the heat very low and off to one side to ensure for the lowest heat possible. Wood chips can be put directly on top of the charcoal or, in a gas grill, the wood chip drawer or box. Here's a graphic of what that would look like in a charcoal grill: Traditional Smoker Much like the kettle grill, in order to cold smoke in a traditional smoker you must create a barrier between the heat source and your food. Ice in a tin could work (above), or filling up your drip tray with ice every 20 minutes or so will also do the trick. Many traditional smokers also have attachments for cold smoking, like this one for a Bradley Smoker:

Yes, that's right, you can smoke pretty much anything, and we do! Have a Happy Forth of July weekend, and this year enjoy smokin' as well as grillin' --

Warm wishes,

Ryan and the Culinary Crafts Team

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How to Smoke Cheese the Cool Way

"You want your smoke to be a very thin, grey (almost bluish), wispy kind of smoke. If your smoke is thick and heavy, the combustion levels of your fire may be too cold." -Ryan Crafts, Grill Master