Smoked cheese is made by exposing cheese to smoke flavoring or real smoke, using hot or cold smoking processes. Liquid smoke can also be used. Many types of cheese can be smoked, but soft cheeses should only be smoked with liquid smoke.
Smoked cheese is any type of cheese that has been infused with the flavor of smoke. The cheeses used in smoked cheese can come from cows, sheep, goats, or any other type of milk that is typically fermented in cheese. Usually, the cheeses are allowed to form and then exposed to hot or hot smoke so that the flavor permeates the outside of the cheese. Alternatively, smoke flavoring can be added to the cheese during fermentation.
One process that can be used to make smoked cheeses is known as hot smoking. This process is not typically used for cheese because the temperatures used, which are between 130 and 175 degrees Fahrenheit (55 and 80 degrees Celsius), can be high enough to partially cook the cheese. The process does, however, allow the cheese to smoke quickly.
The other process used to make smoked cheese, and the one that is preferred, is called cold smoking. In this process, the cheese is exposed to smoke between 85 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit (29 to 32 degrees Celsius). These low temperatures may allow the cheeses to soften, especially if they weren’t solid to begin with, but they won’t cook them. Smoking a cheese at these temperatures can take anywhere from a few days to three to four weeks, depending on the strength of the smoky flavor desired.
It is also possible to produce smoked cheeses without the use of real smoke. Liquid smoke, created and refined from real smoke, can be dipped into cheese via brine or mixed directly into milk while a cheese is fermenting. The flavor created by the liquid fumes is nearly indistinguishable from that of real smoke and leaves fewer undesirable chemicals, such as tar, on the cheese. Additionally, the use of liquid smoke during the fermentation of the cheese allows the flavor to fully permeate the cheese, which is usually not achieved through hot or cold smoking.
Several cheeses can be made into smoked cheese. Rauchkase and apple tree are two cheeses that only come in a smoked variety. Cheddars, goudas and gruyeres, while not always smoked, go well with the smoke flavor and are often made into smoked varieties. While you can smoke any type of cheese, soft cheeses that melt at room temperature don’t stand up well to the hot or cold smoking process and should only be smoked with liquid smoke.
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