Normal
Everyone has different ways of smoking things. Cheese is sensitive, slow absorbing at the cool temps you have to do it at. If you are going to do a large brick, it needs very little smoke for a long smoke time to slowly absorb or the smoke will collect on the surface and be bitter to me also.Myself, I was never very successful at doing it that way. i like a lot of smoky stuff, prob average smoking something every week, just took a pork butt out this morning. Everything is bitter with too much smoke for me. For that reason is why I take several standard store 1lb bricks of cheese and slice it into about 3/8 inch slices and cold smoke as much as will fit on my rack space at a time for about 15-20 min max for small serving sizes that people are going to cut off anyway. I could then stack them back together if I want, but usually I just lay flat in quart zip bags (air sucked out with a straw) and refrigerate till ready for use. That gives me a light smoky flavor on many sides of each bite. Every piece of equipment will be different as to how much time you need to expose it to the smoke, what kind of wood you use (I prefer hickory but have used pecan which is lighter and sweeter) which will take some experimenting. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com World wide smoking site, created by a Tulsa guy has been my go to site for smoking and learning how to smoke anything and why to do it that way for 15 years or so. But I have to adjust for which device I use for what food. PM me if I might be of help.Good luck to you.
Everyone has different ways of smoking things. Cheese is sensitive, slow absorbing at the cool temps you have to do it at. If you are going to do a large brick, it needs very little smoke for a long smoke time to slowly absorb or the smoke will collect on the surface and be bitter to me also.
Myself, I was never very successful at doing it that way. i like a lot of smoky stuff, prob average smoking something every week, just took a pork butt out this morning. Everything is bitter with too much smoke for me. For that reason is why I take several standard store 1lb bricks of cheese and slice it into about 3/8 inch slices and cold smoke as much as will fit on my rack space at a time for about 15-20 min max for small serving sizes that people are going to cut off anyway. I could then stack them back together if I want, but usually I just lay flat in quart zip bags (air sucked out with a straw) and refrigerate till ready for use. That gives me a light smoky flavor on many sides of each bite. Every piece of equipment will be different as to how much time you need to expose it to the smoke, what kind of wood you use (I prefer hickory but have used pecan which is lighter and sweeter) which will take some experimenting.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com World wide smoking site, created by a Tulsa guy has been my go to site for smoking and learning how to smoke anything and why to do it that way for 15 years or so. But I have to adjust for which device I use for what food. PM me if I might be of help.
Good luck to you.
