Looks good Rick! I need to smoke some. My smoked cheese stock is depleted.
I'm still kind of new to smoking, but I've read that 90F is not too bad when you want the cheese to take up good smoke.
Like Muebe said, the problem with 90° or higher is it will start sweating oil, and that creates two potential problems.
1) The oil can take on a kerosene-like taste.
2) If too much oil sweats out, the cheese can start to crystallize and take on a grainy unpleasant texture after it sits a while.
It's best to keep it at around 80° or below.
Another trick that really helps a lot is to let the cheese sit on a rack at room temp for at least an hour or so to let the outside dry a bit and form a thin rind before smoking it.
