Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Smoked cheese - how long to age?

I've never been a cheese lover, but put some mild cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, and Kerrygold in the smoker in November 2019. It's now March, 2020, and four months of aging has been interesting. The Kerrygold is pretty amazing. Actually, it was nice to eat right after the smoke.

Anyway, it's been fun to sample these cheeses along the way but I am wondering if there's a minimum amount of aging that you feel is necessary? At four months, I think all of it is pretty good and won't last much longer

Cheese made the Roman army great... it allowed them to carry durable, calorie dense food.

I think 2 weeks is minimum when I smoke cheese and have not had any issues with much longer.

Interesting fact of history, Sitka. I had no idea that cheese was part of the standard rations for Roman soldiers. I guess it makes sense.

J

I'm with Sitka. Two weeks minimum, four is better if you can wait.

Cheese would be the last thing I’d put in my smoker, nasty stuff

I leave it for a month

No experience as it always gets eaten quickly. I think a number of things have a peak aging time and then change very slowly after the peak, not sure if that applies to cheese though. I also think a larger hunk ages better so it would be difficult to age for different lengths of time to tell if they were small pieces.

If I had to put numbers on it, I'd agree with the others that 2 - 4 weeks for a minimum. After that, I'd say 3 months was worth the wait.

I have some pre-9/2016. Better go for it!