WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[moolie]

Cheese has been used as a way to store dairy and some of the hard cheeses keep very well on their own. There are other methods of preserving cheese. Besides, the best way to ensure a cheese supply is to keep it on the hoof.

The food safety issues aside (and I totally agree on that score FWIW)...

I personally don't understand why someone would can cheese?

Most kinds last pretty much forever (as evidenced by the occasional piece of cheese we find shoved to the back of the fridge that has been there up to a year ) I just went and checked my fridge and I've got an unopened package of cream cheese that I know I bought in August and a package of Gouda from September that I know are absolutely just fine to use--they are in clear wrapping and show no signs of mold, which is pretty much all that can happen to cheese (to my knowledge).

Many hard cheeses don't even require refrigeration in the rind, just a cool place, and soft cheeses might as well be eaten when they are ripe and ready to go

But then again we only eat real cheese, not processed, that we buy from a local artisanal cheese company (Sylvan Star Cheese). Processed cheese is dead food with no food value (and no taste IMHO).

edited to add: Not meaning to be offensive in the slightest, just don't get the "why" here

 

[cheepo]

well done moolie!!!
my hubs..is wonderfully suportive..of my ways...but not completely capable in the kitchen..but he .unloads the canner for me...somehow i find the repetive jar lifting..a bit straining...and he is happy to do his part...but it takes reminding...

SSDreamin i had been intregued, buy a utube posting to can cheese...but then learned if you dry, your cheese outovenight on the counter and dip twice in cheese wax it will last indefinately...dosen't even have to be refridgerated...but i do mine..and cleaned of course the cheese wax can be reused again and again...
but the same issue as canning you want to get mild because it ages sharp..
was the easiest way to go for me..

 

[ORChick]

Cheese has been used as a way to store dairy and some of the hard cheeses keep very well on their own. There are other methods of preserving cheese. Besides, the best way to ensure a cheese supply is to keep it on the hoof.

The food safety issues aside (and I totally agree on that score FWIW)...

I personally don't understand why someone would can cheese?

Most kinds last pretty much forever (as evidenced by the occasional piece of cheese we find shoved to the back of the fridge that has been there up to a year ) I just went and checked my fridge and I've got an unopened package of cream cheese that I know I bought in August and a package of Gouda from September that I know are absolutely just fine to use--they are in clear wrapping and show no signs of mold, which is pretty much all that can happen to cheese (to my knowledge).

Many hard cheeses don't even require refrigeration in the rind, just a cool place, and soft cheeses might as well be eaten when they are ripe and ready to go

But then again we only eat real cheese, not processed, that we buy from a local artisanal cheese company (Sylvan Star Cheese). Processed cheese is dead food with no food value (and no taste IMHO).

I agree 100%. I love cheese, and find it stores quite nicely just as it is, for the most part. As K15n1 points out, cheese is the way the ancients found to store milk. I suppose it wouldn't last indefinitely (but then, I don't require it to), but I've never felt that cheese was a short term keeper at all.

One thing I have found is that bricks of cheddar, for example, will stay good a lot longer if I keep my grubby fingers off of them . Once I cut into the packaging I do not touch the cut surface of the remaining cheese; just cover it with a piece of plastic wrap, and then a plastic bag. If I do touch it (even with clean hands) that is invariably when mold forms. No problem, I just cut it off, but avoidable.

(I am looking for an appropriate sized glass container, with lid, so that I can avoid the plastic wrap, but haven't found one yet. A piece of muslin or cheesecloth dipped in vinegar would also be a good thing - but DH would be quite unhappy if I were to stink up the 'fridge with vinegar)

 

[k15n1]

Oh, and you should consider the example of canning butter. Sure, it can be done, but even Enola Gay, advocate of various un-tested canning procedures, pointed out that it eventually deteriorated. Many cheeses contain significant fat content (same molecules as butter) and may go bad/rancid in the same way as canned butter.

I hope this isn't offensive. I'm only writing all of this because I've researched the topic for myself and some people may not have time or interest to dig into the details.

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, ask and you shall receive.

I was not sure what type of cheeses Ssdreamin was actually canning.

I agree cream cheese and most blocks will stay good in the fridge forever. Someday I hope to have a milking animal and be able to craft my own.

Then waxing will definitely be good.

g

 

[ORChick]

If you do find odd little nubbins of cheese left over in the back of the fridge, that have got too old, strong, dry, or what have you, this is a way to make use of them: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/fromage-fort

 

[SSDreamin]

Oh yes, you've guessed it - I'm attempting to poison my family! k15n1, Please don't use Enola Gay to make your point, in a March 2012 post on her blog, she points out the following: Her canned butter turned after 6 months. Cream cheese did the same after 6 months, but HARD CHEESE was a success and she planned to continue doing it. As far as waxing cheese is concerned, been there done that - epic fail for me. I have 5 pounds of cheese wax sitting on a shelf waiting for me to decide what to do with it! The canning recipes I use are out of a book with a 2009 copyright date. I think I'll continue with my choices, and just stop posting on this thread, as narrow minded know it all's irritate me no end!

 

[Wannabefree]

5 pounds of cheese wax....do you slaughter your own birds? It would be useful in plucking, or you could wax your legs OR can ya make emergency tapers out of that kind of wax? I would think it would be similar to other candle waxes. I dunno though...

 

[moolie]

Hang on SSDreamin, no one is accusing you of anything here. Please don't take any of this personally, it's so not meant that way--your comments have merely sparked a discussion, and that's a good thing.

For me at least, I'm just trying to express my sincere wonderment why. I really don't get it. Cheese was "discovered/created" as a preservation method for milk, along with other dairy products like yogurt and kefir--none of it "needs" refrigeration or any other extra kind of "preservation". The discussion has even spawned another thread about preserving food without too much modification, which is just another discussion.

We don't all have to agree about everything each of us does, and we never will--and I think the discussion has been very polite despite our differences in opinion.

 

[ORChick]

I second moolie's comments. I'm sorry, I didn't add on to my comments that everything I wrote was MY opinion, and the way that I operate. My fault entirely, and I apologize. What you do, and what you have found useful and beneficial for your family is great ... for YOU. We are all different, and have different values, needs, abilities, whatever. If it works for YOU (SSdreamin, or anybody) then that is wonderful, and the way it should be. I do things differently, but that in no way means that other ways are wrong. Please don't stop posting here; we all can only learn from one another, and that can't be a bad thing.