Cold-Smoking: Almonds and Cheese

Time has gotten away from me and I have not posted anything for a while. I had started this post shortly after my last post on the cold-smoked pork chops and am finally getting around to finishing it up.

So, anyhow, along with those garlic sage pork chops that we smoked a few weeks ago, we also threw some almonds and a block of sharp cheddar cheese in the smokehouse. We have tried smoking both in the past, but were disappointed with the overpowering smoke flavor.

This time around we smoked the cheese for about 1.5 hours and the almonds for about 2.5 hours. Once again, the cheese was still too smokey and overwhelming for my taste. I think we will cut back to an hour next time and see if that does the trick.

The almonds, however, turned out just perfect! Unlike commercially “smoked” nuts that are commonly flavored with liquid smoke, the smokey flavor of these almonds was fresh and subtle. You can see in the picture that we put them in a wire strainer basket to allow the smoke to circulate around the almonds.

After cold-smoking, we followed the recipe below to finish the flavoring process.

Spicy Smoked Almonds

1 pound unblanched raw smoked almonds
2 T. olive oil
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 T. kosher salt finely ground (coarse salt doesn’t stick to the almonds very well)
2 t. chili powder
1 t. fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 deg F.

Combine the olive oil and seasonings, then mix in the almonds until they are well coated. Spread them evenly on a cookie sheet (one with sides works best).

Bake the coated almonds for 15 minutes stirring them a couple of times to roast them evenly. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet.