Now smoking.. Paneer

Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby GUS » Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:43 pm

I can't remember whether I ever got past simply making & chowing some. :?

Therefore I have thrown a lump of the stuff on the smoker today, (along with a few camembert's edams, & a bit of red Liecester.

At least if I write I here i'll find it again & jog my memory.
Whilst very tasty in a curry it is blander than blan as a commercial block, but that is understandable bearing in mind what it ends up in & would otherwise have to jostle for space flavour wise.

just going to do a singular burn on a fully loaded Artisan CSG & cling wrap.
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby GUS » Thu Apr 30, 2015 2:56 pm

..oh & trying some cous-cous out for smoke as well.
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby Slarti » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:11 pm

Have you smoked any salt, Gus? I tried it with some Maldon when I first got my smoker - it went in with the first 2 or three batches of things I was smoking (same salt, each time) - and while it took the colour on well, the flavour wasn't terribly strong. Even less so with the raw sugar that I tried.

My plan was to smoke the salt and sugar and then make gravalax with it. That's been put on a back shelf, that idea.


I will be interested to hear about your various smoked cheeses. How large a container do you put your cold smoker and cheese into?
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby GUS » Fri May 01, 2015 7:19 am

I've smoked both Malden's & Himalayan pink hue crystals as far as I can remember just those two.

both (as listed here on the forum) were via the regular Mac's csg, the maldens was easiest (see smoked salt discussion) completely different to the himalayan which required many hours (as a side dish not the main) whenever I smoked anything, therefore easy to contemplate 90 hours of regular joe smoke time before maturation.

& that's the key, I try to leave everything along these lines for 6 months to a year (1yr ideal) sampling as we go so I have a vague idea how it is changing in flavour.

I have my various samples et al stored in parfait jars of all different sizes.

The Maldon's came good pretty quickly & is a delicious colour, the pink stuff was only just starting to change after 6 smokes (thinking back).

I decanted some pink stuff into a grinder just yesterday for a bbq'd lime chicken & cheese bagel, still nothing significant to report, much effort for little return, imho ...better off with the finer salt cells rather than rocks, the maldon's is a pleasure voth visually & in its pronounced flavour after maturation.

Wasn't impressed with my raw sugar, but it didn't sit long, tbh I think it might just be plain wrong tastes at odds (hours smoked & wood species dependent, naturally).

I use large tefal caveau's for storage, a combinaton of cling wrap & clip-seal bags to assist maturation, on the whole, but for things like flour the exterior bag can soak up some smoke too prior to being returned to the cupboard.

I have a barrel bbq (on it's side), a weber, & a pir foam wall construction "thing" that i'm playing with to check temp stabilisation which I may turn into a hot smoke unit when i'm happy.

Because I had it pre-loaded, I used the artisan in my small weber yesterday, (which is really too small for artisan unit, vent fully open).

At some point I will make a freezer room walled smoking shed all steel lined, just cash, space & life in the way.
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby Slarti » Fri May 01, 2015 10:21 am

Right, thanks.

I will have to search for the smoked salt thread.

I have a hot-smoker (dedicated, temp controlled - Hark) that I put the salt through while I was smoking other things. One of them was tomatoes, so that didn't take very long, and possibly the other was just chicken breast. Ditto.

A mate at work has a csg, I might have to borrow it to try cold smoking.

I have to agree with the weirdness of smoked sugar, but for something like gravalax, it might work out ok.
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer

Postby GUS » Fri May 01, 2015 1:39 pm

Well if you can get it into the salt the job is done & dusted (as the salt becomes a smoke carrier), sounds like you are being hard on yourself ( strangulated hernia type perfectionism :lol: not to mention making more work for yourself) trying to get the smoke into yet another ingredient, bearing in mind how well fine granular materials as salt & sugar intermingle when the need arises.

BUT, i'm always willing to learn, so if you find the right time, strength, species, & sugar variety that makes for an eye popping flavour changer... do share!

(my dust varieties are limited)
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Re: Now smoking.. Paneer / Pir

Postby GUS » Sat May 09, 2015 12:03 pm

Paneer is now 10 days in, will be prepping a bog standard supermarket jar of something mild & some spinach back half of next week to compare side by side the regular stuff & the smoked, cut from the same block, IF it has matured & lost enough naturally built up acridity from the smoke process. (dubious venting)

On a side note, I now have a local source for as much steel lined PIR foam wall as I can eat, will be popping down in the car & arranging for some decent sized panels to be delivered on an ad-hoc basis which means getting out & digging out an area for a supported insulated base, which in my back garden, might mean laying down a few panels to kill some weeds this summer :roll:

Anyone wishing to "play" with this material, rather than mess around with the guts of fridges & simply go for an all weather walk in shed smoker, a rip saw works well, & if you use walls of the same thickness they become fairly well self supporting (but need stabilisation via bracing for weather purposes) then the walls are interlockable from the outset, making construction very quick.

Likely you would want to clad over the structure or affix metal edging but again, fast via a variety of means.
Look for firms local to you who supply marquees / temporary structures, due to the nature of the business they will have plenty of write offs in there yard. For a small structure & going prepared with some idea of dimensions for an entire construct, you could fish enough steel lined out of a skip & cut it on the spot.
Go in, talk nicely, ..take edible samples :lol:

(& remember this stuff is light, so if thin panels are on offer simply double them up with a decent sealant in situ).

where you are creating ventilation for either air draw / exit I recommend either fitting a vermin resistant airbrick size hole (a single house brick sized airbrick) with a copper mesh embedded within, rodents dislike copper but stainless steel mesh is also a deterrent.

Single ventilator grill equivalent area:: 10,380 square millimetres- 77% free air flow (depending on how big & hard your smokehouse requires this should be upped accordingly)

While i'm listing odds & sods, ... Galvanized sheet metal: 24 gauge or heavier. Perforated sheet metal grills should be 14 gauge. if you wish to make any outdoor diy smoker project rodent proof long term.

Hardware cloth (wire mesh): 19 gauge, 1/2 x 1/2-inch mesh to exclude rats; 24 gauge, 1/4 x 1/4-inch mesh to exclude mice.

Aluminum: 22 gauge for frames and flashing; 20 gauge for kick plates; 18 gauge for guards.
Mac's ProQ CSG devotee.
Founder member of "Cheese club" ...it's like "Fight Club" only cheesier

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