With Seasoning And Tin Foil, Cream Cheese Can Be An Appetizer On Its Own
When it comes to appetizers and snacks, many recipes focus on snacks that are aesthetically pleasing, ingredients that are expensive, or large-scale food to feed a crowd. While those are no doubt delicious, what about the snack attack that hits at 5:30 pm as you're making dinner? Or the late-night craving for something tasty?
One or two-person snacks deserve the same attention (and maybe a smaller budget) than the yearly formal holiday party. Cream cheese, arguably a delicious fixation unto itself, enters an entirely new dimension when it is highlighted as a stand-alone snack instead of just an ingredient. When doused in sweet and spicy pepper jelly (a la Tabasco's version), it's already an ideal food for dipping. But when you season and smoke it? Welcome to gustatory heaven. Even better, it's just two ingredients: seasoning and cream cheese. How good could two ingredients be? Just think of bread and butter. Or coffee and cream. It can be that good.
Season and Smoke
The Takeout took advice from an enthusiastic group on Facebook that calls itself Smokers n Grillers on how to make this legendary (within the group, anyway) dish. The Takeout details how to cook the cream cheese low and slow on a smoker (The Takeout used a 24-inch pellet smoker), which gives the cream cheese a delicate smokey taste.
First, generously season the block (don't get a tub of the whipped stuff for this application) cream cheese. The Takeout used Everything but the Bagel seasoning and a McCormick barbecue rub. Then, place the seasoned blocks in tinfoil "nests" and smoke low and slow for between two and three hours undisturbed. That's it. That's the whole recipe. The Takeout says the result is more than the sum of its parts: "I could see how two people could easily crush one block of smoked cream cheese as a snack. I kept eating more until I finally had to stop myself."
The Taste Test: It's Complicated
Interestingly, the head-to-head smoked and seasoned cream cheese taste test the Takeout enjoyed had different winners when it was served hot versus cold. The barbecue seasoned block won the first round, with notes of sugar and salt working especially well with the warm, melty, smoky cream cheese. However, when eaten cold the next day, the cream cheese with the garlicky everything seasoning won the blue ribbon taste prize.
Even better, you're not limited to savory here. Apparently, members of the Facebook group have made versions with cinnamon and cream cheese to great success. Though you could dig into this as is, great dippers could include cucumbers, bagel chips, crostini, raw carrots, hard salami, and celery. If that is, you can get to procuring the dipping ingredients before you dig right into the good stuff with a spoon. Also, a worthwhile way to go. It's okay, we won't tell anyone.