On a recent firewood collecting weekend, the old man came along to get a load of redgum to last to the end of winter. In exchange for my help he slung me a brand new smoker that he picked up at a lawn sale. Perfect for smaller projects (than the time to fire up the wood oven), I figured it would be ideal for making a Scamorza – smoked mozzarella.
As it seems to happen in my life of late, Ive recently partnered up with a local cheese manufacturer who was in need of some packaging and web work. What a partnership and what timing! Over some conversations one evening during a wine and cheese matching event, I suggested that I’d like to smoke their cheese and see what results I could get. Turns out they were curious on the smoked variety as well and happily agreed to supply me a box of cheese for the weekend.
The next challenge was to find the right fuel to smoke with. Ive read that chips from fruit trees work well, but I was looking for something a little special. A phone call to a buddy of mine lead me to another mate of whom I worked with many years ago. He is an operations guy now at Langhorne Creek Winery. He explained to us that he has bags of wine soaked oak chips used in the wine making process and would I like them. Mmmm ok then! Needing only 5kgs of them, I arrived at home to see 120kg of oak chips on my door step, all neatly bagged and best of all, free. I think this is one of the better aspects of the small town ‘thing’ that Adelaide is famous for. So many intricate connections across the multiple lifetimes I’ve lived here in the past 16 years.
As well as the oak chips Ive also tried a Tasmanian Mountain Ash smoke. After the process was complete (1hr each style of smoke), the cheeses were vac-packed complete with labels and ready to be enjoyed. On tasting the Oak version, I can say that it was very smokey – almost bitter. Im looking forward to seeing how the Tasmanian version worked in a future post.
To truly see how it worked, was to melt it on some dough in a 500º furnace. I did this with some beetroot, garlic, house-made chorizo and rocket (finished with some La Casa Goat Cheese). It was good, the bitterness was gone and replaced with an earthy rich taste that still had the required melt and creaminess that Ive come to expect from La Casa’s fantastic product!
