The Man and I lived in Burbank for almost thirty years, spending many lunches, dinners and brunches at The Smokehouse, an iconic steakhouse across from Warner Brothers Studios. Since 1946, The Smokehouse has been serving up “fine food at fair prices”. Situated along the scenic “LA River” – a concrete flood channel built to navigate the flood waters through the Valley, downtown and to the Pacific. Hardly a view restaurant but the food and service more than make up for the location. It’s a warren of rooms filled with roomy red leather booths reminiscent of mid-century design.
Besides sublime Prime Rib, the Smokehouse is known for its garlic cheese bread, a must to accompany every meal. I could go to Vegas and lay down a bet that we never had a meal that didn’t include an order of the garlic cheese bread.
Time passes; we move to the PNW and retire to NE Georgia. I forgot about The Smokehouse.
Recently The Man and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. As a gift I created a digital slideshow of our life from the day we met in 1978 to 2020. (750+ slides). As I re-constructed our life, I remembered The Smokehouse and BAM!!! I found myself craving their garlic cheese bread…
I googled “Smokehouse Cheese Bread” and found their “secret”… imagine my surprise…
Kraft Mac n Cheese Powder – every recipe I found included Kraft Mac n Cheese Powder… and then to multiple my surprise I discovered you can buy containers of it on amazon… who knew???
Dilemma… could I re-create The Smokehouse garlic cheese bread without using Kraft Mac n Cheese Powder? Or do I bite the bullet and go against everything I have professed for the past decade and a half?
I couldn’t do it… I simply couldn’t do it… so I toyed with a lot of different shredded cheddars mixed with butter and garlic, but none of them satisfied my craving. With each version, The Man would sadly shake his head in disappointment. Let me assure you the cheese breads were delicious. I was using quality cheeses but none of them recreated The Smokehouse garlic cheese bread.
I almost broke down to buy the Kraft powder but before I hit the “place order” a light went off and I searched amazon for “Cheese Powder”. I found a Vermont Cheddar Powder produced by King Arthur’s Flour; the same flour I use at The Manse. That’s when I hit the “place order” button.
I ordered the King Arthur brand of cheese powder and created my own recipe after studying the various versions on the internet.
Here’s the “jumpoff” recipe I chose. This is how I adapted it:
Ingredients:
Baguette
4 ounces Kerrygold Salted Butter (Room temperature)
1 Teaspoon Granulated Garlic
1/4 cup Vermont Cheddar Cheese Powder
1/4 cup grated Parmigiana Reggiano
Paprika (optional, for color)
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients. Schmear it on the baguette and broil for 3-5 minutes until it reaches the golden color you desire. Serve immediately.
The leftover mixture can be refrigerated. Stores indefinitely.
The Man swooned; now we can have our version of The Smokehouse garlic cheese bread and reminiscence about when California was still California…
I served the garlic cheese bread with goat cheese that I marinated in EVOO, fresh herbs (from my garden) and peppercorns. This goat cheese will be available for purchase starting September 9th at both Blue Haven Bee and Sweet Combs of Honey.
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