• Hey mates,
    That cheese looks delicious.
    Cheese can be brined pretty much the same as meat can. I did a write up about it at my home cooking aussiecue forum. Basically you can use salt to infuse all manor of flavors into cheese.
    Good work , I love the thought you put into this. Massive congrats as its not something most would do.

  • Yes mate, However you do need to know the salt levels of the cheese prior to brining as you need to take that salt level up a bit for it to work.
    Of course its not the only way to skin a cat. Yours with Truffle is pretty dang cool.

    Too much to re- write so the link is the best I can do.
    [Admin Edit: It's easy to copy across and paste in this forum Smokey, so we've done that and removed the link for you]

    How to infuse flavour into standard cheese to take your smoked cheeses up a level.

    A few years ago I dabbled into the art of cheese making, Made some good ones and made some terrible ones, You really have to hold your mouth right with that hobby, But fun it is.
    One part of that hobby that I'd like to share here is that you can brine cheese just like you can with meat.
    And that means you can add flavour to a store bought cheese.
    It comes with some requirement of understanding how a brine works but if you have your head around Captain Cooks famous brined chicken your mostly there.
    So I will skip the basics and jump straight to cheese. For this demonstration I will be making an alcohol flavoured Vintage Cheddar, Colby and Havarti cheese from Coles and will be flavouring them with a Port and red wine brine. However anything can be used as long as its shelf stable. Stay clear of perishables such as garlic, Onion etc.
    The Cheeses;

    This brine will last you for years and you can add to it and tweak it as you use it season after season. Just freeze it and bring it out next cold smoking season. How cool is that?

    Now here is the important part that cannot be changed.
    You need to add Calcium Chloride to the brine and here is why,,
    The Calcium in cheese is a protein binder that holds cheese together and makes it what cheese is. A salt brine without Ca (Calcium) added will draw Ca from the cheese destroying its cheese integrity. Adding Ca in the first place negates this draw from the cheese by imposing a pre determined Ca equilibrium.
    Calcium Chloride is available for a few dollars at Home brew suppliers for a small bottle. You only need one table spoon to start a brine and it will stay like that as long as you use the brine.

    Next we look at the salt level in store bought cheese (What we all use), You will find it has a sodium content of around .6% - .7% We are going to up that to about 1.5%
    Remember that what we are making is an opulent food treat to eat in small quantities. As for your information, Fetta and Holumi is around 6-8% sodium and gets it salt from brining in up to 16% saturated salt solution. Salt is not added to the curds in the making of Fetta or Holumi cheese, Its brined and that is how we are going play this little game.

    The brine I made was set at around 3% salt, Also make at a ratio of at least 750ml per 250g block of cheese. The brine below is more than enough for 3 x 250g blocks

    1.5 Litres water
    2 cups port
    375 ml red wine
    3.5 Tablespoons table salt

    Bring to the boil then simmer off the alcohol, Let cool then chill
    Then add 1 tea spoon Calcium Chloride per litre of chilled brine (2.5 tsp in this case)

    Place the brine and cheeses into a non reactive container and weigh down with a bowl or plate to keep them submerged.
    Brine for 12-14 hours per inch thick in the fridge. If its a KG block, Allow 24 hours.
    Some less dense cheeses will take less time.

    After brining carefully place them on a drying rack in the fridge to dry out, About six hours.

    Then into your cold smoker for as long as you prefer, I did these around six hours as I wanted them well and truly smoked.

    Well and truly smoked

    From here on they need to be wrapped in glad wrap, zip bags or best,, Cryovac for the smoke and brine flavours to infuse and mellow out. At least a week for best results.
    They will keep up to twelve months in cryovac but only a few weeks in just glad or baggies.


    Its worth the wait.
    After a long week on the job, This is what I was waiting for.
    Home smoked Ocean trout & Port wine Havarti smoked cheese canapés with a strong pinot. I'm going to just eat and drink this all evening
    Could not be stuffed making dinner, I think I will get by on this


    The cheese is spectacular, Those that take it on will not be sorry.

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