Does anyone Freeze their smoked cheese?

[rbranstner]

There seem to be a lot of smoked cheese threads going on lately and I have jumped on the bandwagon and want to load up the smoker again with cheese. I wanted to do a big load and kind of stock up but I can't eat it fast enough if I do a full load. My question is do any of you freeze your cheese? I remember a while back I froze some cheese from the store and when I thawed it to use it the stuff just crumbled all over. I have never tried it with smoked cheese though. And I am sure that it depends on what kind of cheese you are freezing as well. Just wanted to see what everyone else does. I would be vacuum sealing it and and resting it then freezing it. But then again maybe it could be sealed then go right into the freezer????? I'm not sure. Your thoughts?

 

[pops6927]

Vaccuum seal it and refrigerate it, but I wouldn't freeze it, it would denegrate it too much.  

 

[venture]

Freezing is not a good idea for most types of cheese.  No need. Vacu seal it and put it in the fridge.  It will disappear long before it goes bad.  We have had folks who kept cheese this way for unbelievable lengths of time.  It never lasts that long at my house.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[SmokinAl]

Well I guess I have to be the fly in the ointment, but I freeze smoked cheese all the time & find no difference in the quality when I thaw it out. Now I have not smoked all kinds of cheese, but the one's that I have are just as good frozen & thawed as they were right out of the fridge. I feel real bad not agreeing with Pops, but this has been my personal experience and I do it all the time.

 

[rbranstner]

Hey Al can you give a few examples of what kind of cheese you have froze in the past?

 

[Bearcarver]

LOL---I feel bad not agreeing with Al too, but I had bad results from freezing cheese.

I have already put my smoked cheese in the fridge for 2 weeks to mellow out.

Then we sampled a little of each.

Then we vacuum packed it & froze it.

Each time I got a pack out, over the next 6 months, most of them were very crumbly, not enough to make me throw it away (it would have to be a lot worse), but it definitely did not make me happy.

From then on, it has been fridge only.

My 2¢

Bear

 

[venture]

Yep.  Many cheeses get crumbly when frozen.  Ruins the texture for me.  One exception is shredded cheese which will be used melted. I can tell no difference there.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[venture]

From Tillamook:

http://www.tillamook.com/faqs.html#faq60

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[SmokinAl]

Hey Al can you give a few examples of what kind of cheese you have froze in the past?

We only smoke 1 cheese, that is Muenster. It freezes very well. After hearing what the others say, I think it may be because it's a soft cheese. It could be that the hard cheeses like cheddar would not freeze well. I have never tried to freeze anything other than Muenster.

 

[alelover]

Nope. It just ain't the same after freezing.