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Let it mellow
. Nuts and especially cheese, can benefit from a rest just like meat. With cheese, one trick is to smoke it and then leave it, wrapped in plastic, in the refrigerator overnight to allow for the smoke flavors to continue to seep into the cheese. It will mellow and taste even better with a bit of time.
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Spoiler alert.
If you want to extend the life of cheese, you can store it in the refrigerator and prevent mold by placing a paper towel dampened with a bit of white vinegar in the bottom of a sealable plastic container. You can also add a few cubes of sugar to the bottom of the container, so if there is the slightest infiltration of mold, it will feed on the sugar before the cheese.
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Think small.
When smoking smaller bites like nuts or fruit pieces, you can use a grill mat or tray to suspend the bits from falling through the grate. These screens allow for smoke and air circulation to the bottom of your food and also keeps everything portable to move on and off the smoker. I like using inexpensive perforated pizza pans to do the job.
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Worth its salt.
Here is the easiest recipe in this book: Smoked Salt. You can simply keep a pie pan filled with coarse kosher or sea salt in the smoker chamber when you do your next brisket or butt. A few hours will infuse the granules with a subtle smoke flavor that can be a secret ingredient on popcorn.
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Flipping for fruit.
Fruit is another one of those foods that will spin on kebabs when you try to flip them on the grill. Double skewer your fruit with two sticks to help maneuverability.
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Put the squeeze on lemons.
Your long-handled barbecue tongs can do more than just flip fajita meat. Insert half lemons or limes inside the joint of the tongs, then use the leverage of the tong handles to easily squeeze out more juice than you could with
your bare hand. Great for a flourish over a pan of sizzling fajitas.
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Fruit flavor.
Fruits work best on the grill when you take advantage of their sweetness. Brush fruit pieces with brown sugar, cinnamon or lemon juice to highlight the fruit’s inherent flavors.
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Make cheese grate again.
You can make hard cheeses easier to grate by spraying your grater with a sheen of cooking or butter spray. This will keep the cheese from sticking stubbornly to the grater and make cleanup easier. Same for the blades in your food processor.
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Sliced and diced.
Soft smoked cheeses like mozzarella can be difficult to slice cleanly with a kitchen knife. One trick is to use dental floss (unflavored, no mint) or a typical hard-boiled egg slicer to breeze through the thinnest slices.
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Roll your own.
You can turn any regular grill into a cold smoker. Keep the heat off and just add slow smoke from a smoker tube or a smoker pouch with wood chips. Check out the stainless-steel perforated tubes made by A-maze-n Products on the resources page at BarbecueTricks.com.com or roll your own tube or pouch and fill it with wood pellets. Ignite it from the ends and add plenty of holes, to help keep it smoldering slowly.