Category Archives: Barbecue

Grilled Peaches

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If you like peaches and have never tried grilling them, then you are missing out on a simple, delicious treat!

Begin with 4 (more if you like) peaches and wash under cold water. Remove most of the peach “fuzz.” It’s okay if some is left on the peach. No need to remove the skin – it will get nice and soft in the grilling process.

Gather up some butter, cinnamon, chili powder, nutmeg, and some grated parmesan cheese.

Cut the peaches in half, and remove the pit. Lay the peaches on a plate. Add a bit of butter to the center of each peach. Then, as you like, add cinnamon to a few of the peaches, nutmeg to a few others, and chili powder to those remaining. I also like to add parmesan cheese, but not too much. It gives the peach the salty flavor, along with its natural sweetness.

Arrange the peaches on the grill cut side up. Use a low heat, about 300 – 350 degrees. Once they warm up a bit, poke each peach center so that the butter and spices get distributed into the peach.

They don’t take long to cook, approximately 15 minutes. Really you are just warming and softening them up.

Eat them right off the grill or add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to the warm peach – just like warmed peach pie alla mode. So good and so easy!

Smoked Cheddar Cheese

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This is my first attempt at smoking cheddar cheese. In fact, any type of cheese. I learned a lot and will share my experience.

First, pick a cool day or do it very early in the morning. When smoking cheese it’s important that the smoker does not get hotter than 80 or 85 degrees max. If it does, the cheese will begin to melt. I suppose that is why it is called “cold smoking.” I know that now – my cheese melted.

I use a Weber barbecue to smoke. Please refer to my post Smoking Set-Up on the Barbecue.

To keep the temperature low, use only 3 or 4 briquettes. That is all you need to begin. Heat is only needed to make smoke from the wood chips.

I used a thermometer to monitor the temperature. This one begins at 200 degrees. It’s all I had, so I just estimated – pretty useless.

Use a hard cheese. I used a small block of cheddar and placed it on a piece of aluminum foil. Once the briquettes are grayish-white, add some wood chips. I used hickory. Let the smoking begin!

The cheese should be smoked approximately 2 hours. At about 45 minutes into the process my cheese began to melt. The outside temperature was 82 degrees, inside temp was about 85 degrees. Too hot! So, I added some ice cubes on the edge of the foil.

I let the smoking go on for about 15 minutes more and removed the cheese. It now looked a bit like a tiny loaf of orange-colored bread.

I placed the smoked cheese into the refrigerator to chill. Then placed it into a plastic bag. I removed as much air as possible and sealed the bag.

The cheese needs to sit for two weeks to allow the smoke to permeate throughout the entire block.

I’m excited to give it a taste even though it only smoked for an hour. I plan to pair it with an inexpensive Cab wine and some sliced apples. I’ll let you know in two weeks!