Edam, advice please (cold smoke)

[GUS]

Hey all,

Edam currently 55p per 100g on my local Tesco deli counter (way more pricey pre-packed elsewhere same store)

Brand Frico.. I purchased a 1/2 round last night.

Questions: Leave rind on or off.

& optimum thickness per slab (cos it's a proper melon wedge)

Can this be overdone?

Appreciate your time as ever, we will overcome the burden of the wonky cardboard box version smoker soon!

i'm a heavy smoke flavour fan so plan on 16 hrs? ..what do you think?

(currently got carpet tape holding the drier vent in place, bamboo supports for mesh trays... a glorious scrap-heap mess) & insect mesh over the smoke exit pipe.

#bodgineering

[onewheeler]

Edam smokes nicely. Rind off, I usually use standard supermarket chunks about 7 cm thick at the edge (300 - 400 g?). Four or five hours is fine. Let it rest wrapped for a few days afterwards. It keeps for ages, I daresay thanks to the smoke.

Martin/

[wheels]

If it's in the half round, I'd slice it horizontally in 1" - 1¼" slices. This'll give a good surface area without removing the rind. By rind, I mean the rind on the cheese, not the wax coating - I'd remove that!

Alternatively, I'd cut it into wedges as per Martin's post above (which crossed with this one )

HTH

Phil

[onewheeler]

Sorry, yes, the red wax layer was wot I meant by rind

Martin/

[GUS]

Thanks to you both, thought as much (it made sense).

Just finished off some brie i'd previously smoked for 20'ish hours & gave it another 10 yesterday, this mornings breakfast of smoked ham butter & brie on soda bread was sublime, ..too addictive.

The colour of the crust & the smokey goo was a point of fascination for me

I actually started the edam yesterday along with cheddar(s) & mozzerella, but the edam didn't seem to take too much smoke (full burn on a csg) so will fill & re-light later.

I'm putting part of it down to the outer atmospheric changes (the chimney didn't draw well) as well as slightly slanted positioning perhaps, however, no biggy!

If there is room trying 230g of Himalayan salt today too.
& a bag of Malden salt.

Whilst I normally decant salt into wee parfait jars is there any point in vac sealing the salts for flavour retention, it' not like it disappears in a hurry when you have 5+ varieties at any one time!

[GUS]

Realised the other day, that I haven't been trying any cheese grated.

Was in need of a bit of additional pizza topping & the cheese was a bit scant, so a wedge of smoked edam was sacrificed... almost superfine (no measurement available) grating which meant the smokiness was at it's peak.

Really made me re-assess the qualities of edam again.