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Just a quick one if any of you have thoughts.

I notice when smoking an essentially white(ish) cheese such as brie, that using purely beech results in some pretty vivid Orange(ish) hues upon the cheese, & therefore appears less smoked than when A mix of oak & beech is used resulting in a good ole brownish yellow.
So much so that when I smoke (daily) with just beech I surrender to my lack of experience & top it up with either a mix of 50/50 beech & oak dust or finish with a purely oak smoke.

dumb?

Can therefore I expect similar (such as yellow hues of smoke) uptake from different woods? & if so can anyone give me an inkling by species please?

I'm aware that smoke is like a "wash" of watercolour & builds in layers but it's got me thinking, would this also be a reason for smoking salmon with a mix to therefore improve on the perceived correct colour?

cheers all.

GUS, the problem is it's a balance between aesthetics and flavour, what is most important? The purpose of smoking originally was preservation of foodstuffs so flavour and colour didn't much matter, now, I personally believe it is about flavour first and how it looks second, there is the problem of maybe it looks insipid or unpalatable but tastes great which if you are smoking for yourself doesn't matter too much but if you are smoking for others or commercially it has to look good so that in trying to find a balance you may have to compromise on both/either flavour and/or colour!! Or maybe not!....what looks or tastes good to one may be the opposite to another.

You maybe misunderstand, i'm for the flavour.
However I wish to understand IF there is a theme of colouration (or lack thereof) within the wood varieties merely because I have run across it, general knowledge & understanding colour / strength of smoke.

If I ran purely beech i'd have some very orange white mould cheese, & am enjoying watching it develop, I also simply like the mix of the two woods as they are clearly very different once you get beneath the surface.

Also helps me undestand that appearance doesn't necessarily mean minimally smoked, more a form of regulation & knowledge gained thus, think of it if you will the difference between 2 "small" whisky distilleries within a few hundred metres of each other drawing water from the same burn & the contrasting appearance / flavour of the end products.

next up is to run purely one whole brie cheese on beech (will have to remind myself) & get to understand air moisture levels a bit better, seems to really affect the uptake & depth of colour of my beech smoke, presenting some very vivid orange runs in the cheese's "trough" over multiple smokes, akin to a very dubious orange squash concentrate.

As you say, humidity will play a big part in smoke take up. There's plenty of info out there of the flavours of wood when hot smoking but I have no idea as to how good that info is when translating to cold smoking but there must be some correlation, as for colour ??