Set up the grill for a low and slow indirect heating. For gas grills, turn off the center burners. For Kamado-style grills, add the plate setter.
Light the grill, but keep the temperature below 225 degrees
Add the smoking chips of your choice. For gas grills, use a smoker box. For Kamado-style grills, add large chunks of wood to the coals.
When the smoke is billowy, place the hard cheese in a disposable pan and add it to the grill.
After 20 minutes, remove the cheese. If the temperature gets too warm, the cheese will start to melt, so watch it carefully.
Let the cheese cool completely and wrap in butcher paper. Store in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, vacuum seal the cheese or wrap it tightly with Press-N-Seal. Store back in the refrigerator for at least one week. This will give the smoke-flavor a chance to work its way through the whole block of cheese.
Notes
Don't skip the last steps: It is tempting to slice the cheese and eat it right away, but the waiting period allows the smoke to permeate the whole block of cheese and it will reduce the acrid taste of the smoked exterior. There are several different techniques to smoke cheese in the grill:
Use a second Kamado-style grill to create the smoke, and use a dryer vent to force the smoke into the inlet of the second grill. While I would love to try that, I couldn’t convince Ginny to let me buy a second Big Green Egg just for this recipe. What the heck?!? The benefit of this is it will keep the cheese much cooler and you can smoke them a lot longer without having to worry about them melting.
Use a Smoker Box. I thought about adding some wood chips in to the smoker box and giving a light smoke to the cheese. I didn’t want to spend the money to buy one, and really didn’t want to wait. If you are using a gas grill, the smoker box is the best option.
Use a low and slow smoking. I emptied out most of the charcoal and added two hickory wood chunks. The key here is to closely monitor the temperature inside the grill to make sure the cheese doesn’t melt. This is the route I chose.
Cheese Choice: Any kind of hard cheese will do. For this recipe, I used cheddar and added it to my smoked cheese and beer dip. Seriously - it was to-die-for! I couldn’t tell if I liked the pretzel bites or the cheese dip better! The cheese had that awesome smoky, earthy flavor and it added a special kick to the dip.Storage + Freezer Friendly: If you keep it refrigerated, a nice smoked cheese will last around three to four weeks. If you freeze it, it will last another three to six months. Vacuum seal it to extend the life even longer.