So a month ago, I was smoking a bunch of gouda in order to give it away to my coworkers/neighbors for the holidays. I decided to also do a little experience with some personal blocks of cheese.
With few exemptions, I've always wrapped my cheese in butcher paper or parchment paper for a day or so *before* vac-sealing it. Everywhere online that says to do this says that it lets the cheese breathe a little, mellow out some, etc. Likewise, they say that if you vac-seal it immediately, all the smoke flavor will be trapped in and it'll taste way smokier, and even bitter or acrid. Makes sense, right?
ANYWAY, so that led to the "experiment". I did a couple of blocks of gouda side by side. Same pit, same pellets, identical amount of time, etc. They literally sat side by side on the wire rack. When they came off, within ~10-15 minutes, I vac-sealed one of them using my chamber sealer, and I wrapped the other in parchment paper. Both went into the fridge.
A day later down to the hour, I pulled the one in parchment paper out, and vac-sealed that one as well. So one was smoked and sealed on 3 Nov 2025. The other was smoked on 3 Nov, and sealed on 4 Nov after a parchment paper "rest".
Well… The results were surprising. In a *blind taste test* with a handful of coworkers (16 people not including myself), *every single one of them* agreed that the cheese that rested in parchment paper for 24 hours before sealing **was the smokier one**. And 14/16 of them agreed that it was also the better tasting (the other 2 preferred the more subtle/milder cheese, to each their own of course).
Anyway… that baffled me, personally. I've always done the butcher/parchment paper rest, but thought this year maybe I'd try to save a step (wrapping) on 100+ blocks of cheese, so I did this little experiment… Turns out I can't skip it, lol. One person "hypothesized" that the cheese in the parchment paper got to "keep smoking" (despite no smoke) for those 24 hours, whereas the one that was sealed right away was halted right away.
I have no idea the actual science behind it, but yea… Food for thought if you're smoking cheese!
by TheSteelPhantom
8 Comments
**TL;DR** cause I can’t edit the post’s body:
— Smoked two blocks of gouda *identically*.
— Vac-sealed one right away. Parchment-paper-wrapped the other for 24 hours to “rest”/”breathe”, then vac-sealed it.
— Blind taste test with 16 people.
— *All* of them agreed the one that got to rest/breathe was smokier. 14/16 also agreed it was the better of the two.
To me it seems like there has to be some interaction with oxygen after smoking that helps the flavor sink in? Cause vacuuming it right away steals all the oxygen away and smoke it left on a more surface level and can’t penetrate due to no oxygen. Makes sense to me though I have nothing to back it up 🤷♂️
Did people hear each other’s comments or did they write it down without knowing what other think? Herding is a major problem with this sort of thing; one person says something and others agree even though if you follow up with them individually, they’d say that they actually don’t agree.
Looks like you were using a smoke tube and just doing a “cold smoke” correct? Why the tub of ice under the cheese then?
I cold smoke and just put on a rack in the smoker and never use ice. Not meant as a criticism, just a curious inquiry.
can I work with you for smoked cheese?
I should verify your experiment, send me a block of each. Lmao. Looks good, and interesting to see the results. Definitely related to oxidation vs immediately sealing.
I’m curious if the parchment rested one seemed at all drier. Perhaps the immediately vacuum sealed one retained more moisture and that kind of diluted the smokiness, while the parchment one became more concentrated by shedding some moisture through the porous parchment?
Make sure you guys check all your cheeses that are shredded. There’s a giant recall going on. I actually had a bag of it in my refrigerator. The Italian blend.