Will freezing American cheese adversely affect it?
Yes, you can, but no, you shouldn’t
N.b.: I have made the wholly unfair assumption that you’re talking about process cheese.
Thanks.
I’ve been the social chair for my rugby club for three years. For teams we don’t particularly care to entertain, we keep it simple, and just make burgers. I buy the cheese in bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club, and if there is any at the end of the season, I’ll toss it in the freezer. I’ve never had any problems the next season, and the off-season is three to six months long. Of course, we melt them over the burgers, so the mealy texture could have been resolved by the flame. I never noticed any crumbly, though, and wonder why that cite states the individually wrapped slices fare better?
[quote=“Santo_Rugger, post:4, topic:479150”]
I’ve been the social chair for my rugby club for three years. For teams we don’t particularly care to entertain, we keep it simple, and just make burgers. I buy the cheese in bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club, and if there is any at the end of the season, I’ll toss it in the freezer. I’ve never had any problems the next season, and the off-season is three to six months long. Of course, we melt them over the burgers, so the mealy texture could have been resolved by the flame. I never noticed any crumbly, though, and wonder why that cite states the individually wrapped slices fare better?[/QUOTE
If you never noticed the wrapped slices will reform if unwrapped and put together. A slice on a sandwich from the day before will ooze across the sandwich. There is more of whatever they adulterate cheese with to make it cheaper (most likely oil) in wrapped slices as opposed to stacked slices that have to be firm enough to not reform into a single mass. Processed cheese is heated into a homogeneous form for the purpose of removing the firm texture of a cheese and making it creamier and softer. Many cheese spreads are processed cheese. I always try to get cold packed cheese spread which means it is not a processed cheese.
Once you freeze cheese it’s texture is terrible and I describe it as grainy. This doesn’t mean that some people won’t know the difference. Sour cream is grainy after it freezes too.
We buy American cheese by the 5 pound package, pre-sliced. We found over the years, that wrapping the cheese in foil, then putting in a freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as possible before sealing works really well. The cheese doesn’t take on that “grainy, hard texture” with this method.
Why this works, I could not explain…but it does.
Sour cream is definitely grainy, as is ice cream if allowed to thaw and refreeze. Maybe I’m actually using cheddar and not American cheese, I’ll have to check in March.
Yeah, I’ve recently discovered Cash & Carry stores. Ninety-six slices. That’s 3/4-slice a day, every day, until the expiry date in May. I didn’t think ahead on this one.