Big sale on cheddar cheese in wrapped plastic today. I’d like to buy several months’ worth, and freeze them–can I just throw them into the freezer? Or do I have do some culinary voodoo first? Or am I going to be opening up packages of inedible cheese this spring no matter what I do?
Just toss it in the freezer after placing it in a freezer bag. You will sacrifice some texture by freezing it, but it will be just fine to cook with.
We have successfully frozen cheddar cheese. The only difference I notice is that when thawed it seems to crumble much more easily. So if you value those neat slices you may want to reconsider.
Thirded – you can do it, though the texture gets less smooth. It kind of falls apart into its constituent curds. Freezer burn makes it pretty nasty, so consider consulting this thread for preventative procedures.
Why do you need a freezer bag if it’s in its original air-tight packaging?
The OP doesn’t say “air-tight.” It just says “plastic.” Better safe than sorry. Cheap grocery store wrapping is insufficient for freezing, IMO.
Ah. The grocery-store cheddar I buy is vacuum-wrapped in heavy plastic. I think I’d just do it “nekkid” if I were to do it. Which I might, next time it’s on sale.
I don’t know how air-tight this packing is, but it’s pretty tight. You know what I mean? This is clear thick plastic (much thicker than the bags for packing loose fruits in, for example) a 10 oz. rectangular block of cheese, NYS extra-sharp cheddar, and it usually keeps for a few weeks unopened in the fridge just fine. If that’s air-tight, then so much the better.
I’m going out to pick up a shopping-cart full of such blocks, and I’ll look for your advice on re-packaging them when I return.
I’ve done this a lot with cheese in that type of packaging. The trick is to thaw it out(still wrapped) to room temperature. Then it won’t be crumbly, and you can return it to the fridge after.
Slice it first, then freeze. Problem solved.
I’m curious about freezing cream cheese. I can get it pretty cheap sometimes and it’s a great thing to have on hand for many dishes.
I bought a big block of it at Costco and thought I was being so thrifty cutting it up in useable chunks and putting it in freezer bags. But thawing it out turned it into an unuseable mess…almost like it was curdled.
Did I not put it in airtight enough bags? Or are soft cheeses excempt from being able to be frozen?
The texture changes really mess up soft cheeses. You can dump thawed cream cheese in a bowl and hit it with a mixer for a few minutes to reconstitute it into something speadable, but it really sin’t worth the effort.
Processed cheeses do seem to freeze well.