Hey SMOKERS!!!!!!!

So I spent a good few hours perusing through this thread and not even close to halfway through, LOL. I'm loving all the recipes and pics and tips!!! I haven't seen any cheeses! I started doing this last winter, and absolutely love it, my friends at work are loving being my guinea pigs, LOL. I use an AMAZ'N pellet tube for smoke and put it on one side of my gas grill, place cheese on the other side and vóila! This is easy when the outside temps are under 40 °F (I haven't done it much with temps under 15°F so i can't vouch for that, if the cheese freezes or not). With outside temps around 50 - 75 °F, I put the cheese on a grate over a pan of ice to help keep the cheese to cool. The goal is to keep the cheese under 80 F, or it starts to melt depending on how soft or the tyoe of cheese. The pellet tube seems to bump the temp inside the grill up about 10 - 20 °F. With the tube pretty full it'll smoke around 6 hrs +/- an hour. Works great! So far I've done Cheddar, pepper Jack, Colby Jack, Monterey Jack, Mozarella, and blocks of Provolone that were pre-sliced without the papers in between. All have been awesome.

Pretty easy too, just let it smoke, turn/rotate the cheese maybe after 2-3 hours. The smoke flavor is really strong when the cheese comes right off. The hardest thing to do is let it sit for a few days before eating it. The longer the cheese sits after smoking the better the smoke penetrates, and blends in and smooths out making it taste even better. For storage just vacuum seal and stash in a fridge. Some people freeze it too, but from what I've read that messes with the texture if the cheese. My plan has been to smoke a bunch over the winter, build up a stash to last through the summer and fall. It gets up in the 100s here in the summer so it's too hot to try to smoke the cheese with my current method. So far there's only 3 hunks of cheese left in my stash, it either gets given away or eaten before I can build up a stash, LOL. I think I need to figure out how to rig up the AMAZ'N pellet smoker with the mailbox and then pipe it into an old cooler where the bottom is filled with ice, and the cheese is above it on a grate. That should hopefully let me smoke cheese over the summer even when it's hot as hell outside.

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More queso on the smoke! Should be done in around 4 to 5 hrs. I've been letting the last couple batches go 6 hrs plus and I think it's just a bit too much especially with some of the softer cheeses like Colby Jack and pepper jack. At least the smoke flavor mellows and blends over time so letting them sit vacuum sealed for a couple months will help out.

I have mild cheddar, Monterey Jack and pepper jack this time around. The smoke pepper jack seems to be a hit with every one that's tried it. I call it Chipotle Jack The temp outside is in the mid 60's so I have a full tray of ice under the cheese to help keep it cool.

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I have the Maverick ET-732 and absolutely love it. Never have any problems. The reception is better than I thought for the receiver. Every now and then I lose signal but it's because I'm on the other end of the house out in the yard or something, and I've been there for a while.

Saved me so much trouble when I smoke with my Weber kettle grill. If my temp starts to drop a little just open the bottom vent slightly. If it starts to rise just close the bottom vent slightly. Easy peasy. If the temp drops and the vent is all the way open, time to add more coals or maybe shake some of the ash off them.

Before I was using a cheap dial oven thermometer (I know I know, bad Tbone), and had to open the lid to check on the temp, plus the dial would get so covered in smoke residue it was hard to read. Then I started reading up on Amazingribs.com about the different thermometers and the Maverick was just right in the price range and I saw one in store at the local Ace Hardware store. Makes a huge difference.

Just a question for pbuck, what do the ThermoPro and the Thermo works offer to make them better than the Maverick?

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The bottom vent does the temperature control. I usually leave the top vent about half open. Think about the air current in the bbq. Cold air from the below the bbq enter through the bottom vent. The oxygen in the air reacts with the charcoal in a combustion reaction, the air gets hot and rises, leaving through the top vent. By adjusting the bottom vent you are letting more or less oxygen go to the coals to burn. Open the bottom vent and more oxygen goes to the coals to make them burn more and hotter. Close the vent and less oxygen get to the coals causing them to burn slower and cool down. You might think that by leaving the bottom vent open and using the top to control the airflow by allowing more or less exhausted air to leave the bbq might work in the same way. It doesn't do it nearly as well for a few reasons I've noticed. If you have the bottom vent half open or wide open, and the top closed, smoke will just come out the edges of the lid because it isn't a great seal. The the hot air has to get out someway and it will find it's way out any holes or cracks it can. By closing the top vent it's like putting your thumb over a garden hose, the water or air will pressurize and come out anyways.

A couple other tips I've learned with bbq'ing on a Weber kettle grill.

I like to use wood chunks because they burn/smolder longer than chips so you don't have to add them or open the grill as often. Also there are a bunch of cherry and apple orchards near my place and it's easy to get wood, that I can cut up into chunks myself. I love using apple wood since it is good all around.

I put the charcoal on one side and use as big of a water pan as I can fit. Then fill the water pan as full as possible. I use a cheap 13×9" metal baking pan. This may seem like a ton of water, but ive noticed the more water i have, the more stable the temperature in the bbq is. The water acts as a heat sink and helps store the heat energy to regulate temperature changes. It keeps the temperature from jumping up and down in the bbq. If you open the lid to check things or move or add charcoal or wood, then close it the water will help give off heat to help the temp in the bbq recover quicker. If the charcoal starts taking off or burning hotter the water will help absorb some of that extra heat to slow down the rise in temperature. Think about how long it takes a big pot of hot water to boil compared to a small pot. The big pot takes longer because it takes more heat energy to heat up the larger mass of water. What about cooling down. The larger pot has more heat energy in its water and therefore takes longer to cool down.

Another trick Is to have a pile of unlit charcoal with a few wood chunks on top in the bbq, next to where you put the lit charcoal. As you add the lit charcoal (usually done in a chimney starter) and it touches the unlit charcoal it will slowly ignite ignite and burn like a trail from our to unlit. Think of it like a line of gunpowder that is put on one side, just in really slow motion.

Hope these tips help. An awesome resource for learning some of the science about bbq'ing and some great recipes is www.AmazingRibs.com

This page shows some of the tips I mentioned.
https://amazingribs.com/more-techni...-and-firing/how-set-charcoal-grill-smoking-or

Good luck and have fun with it!

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-Sorry i just realized you were replying to Tauntohawk's question specifically for electric smokers. Still good info for people with charcoal grills


I dont know a lot about the electric smokers or the pellet smokers, but I do use a water pan. As big as I can fit. Although I'm using a charcoal set up. My Weber kettle grill. I've found out that the larger or more water i can put in there, the more steady my temperatures stay. The water helps to act as a heat sink. It absorbs excess heat when the temp starts to rise, and it helps give off heat as the temperature starts to lower. Also I live in a very dry climate, Eastern WA. Yes WA is the "Evergreen" state, but it's only green year round on the Western half, and in some of the mountains in the corners. So being as it's so dry out here, the water pan helps keep it somewhat humid in the charcoal grill, and keeps the meat from drying out too much. I seem to get decent bark and don't have problems with smoke. Now if I'm doing jerky then I don't use any water, LOL.

TauntoHawk said:

Well that might be a my problem why I dont get good bark and it's tough to keep a decent level of smoke rolling.

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Some New York Strips and taters on the grill for the night. See if I can get pics of the finished product. The taters usually come out tasting like French fries. Lightly coat oil (preferably olive oil), sprinkle on some salt, cover with foil and place over coals for around a half hour, rotating now and then.

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Turned out pretty good. The kids' piece was just perfect for them, a bit thinner, and had just barely a bit of pink, but still tender. It's the one that's cut into small pieces.

Ours were a bit more done than I was hoping. I was shooting for medium for mine and got medium well. Was shooting for medium rare for the wife rand she got medium. I need a better meat thermometer, I had to shove this cheap one halfway up the shaft of the thermometer through the side of the meat to get an accurate reading.

Oh well, still tasted amazing though!!! Seasoned the wife and kids steaks with a sprinkling of Johnny's Seasoning Salt on both sides to keep it simple. My wife's a purest and just wants to taste the meat not seasonings. I like to have a bit more fun with mine. I seasoned mine with a light coating of olive oil followed by rubbing in lots of Montreal steak seasoning. Love that garlic and peppery flavor.




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