Yes, I said canning cheese, no, not cutting the cheese, canning cheese, LOL. Did you know you can actual can cheese for the winter months? There are a variety of ways to store cheese for later use but I am going to talk about canning it.
It is possible to can both hard and soft cheese. And you can use either a boiling water bath or a pressure canner. Please make sure all your jars, lids and utensils are sterilized first. The boiling water bath method seems to have a little better taste and texture with the finished product than the pressure canner but both are acceptable.
Cut your cheese into cubes for easier melting and place in canning jars. I prefer wide mouth jars for ease in removing the cheese when I want to open a jar.
Use whatever size jars you need to best suit your family's needs. I typically use 1/2 pint jars because I simply do not eat that much cheese at one time and I don't want to open a large jar and have it sit in the fridge for weeks before I eat it all. That sort of defeats the purpose, don't you think?
Place the jars in a shallow pan on the stove and fill with water to about half way up the jar being careful not to get water in the jars. If you do, then carefully drain the water out before proceeding. You don't want any water in your cheese!
Turn the heat on very low. You do not want to cook or burn your cheese, just melt it. As it is melting and settling down in the jar add more cubes of cheese but be sure to leave 1/2 inch of head space. While you are melting the cheese you can pre-heat your canner. A hot ingredient goes into a hot canner and a cold ingredient into a cold canner.
Now that they are all melted, wipe the rims clean from any food particles, place your lids and rings in the usual manner and put the prepared jars in your canner. Process 1/2 pints and pints for 30 minutes or quarts for 45 minutes in a boiling water bath. If you choose to use a pressure canner you need to process 1/2 pints and pints for 5 minutes and quarts for 10 minutes, using 10 lbs of pressure under 1000' elevation and 15 lbs of pressure over 1000'. Cool in a draft free area. Check to make sure each jar is sealed properly before moving to your storage pantry. Storage pantries should be in a cool and dark environment.
Cheese will re-firm up when cooled completely. Your hard cheeses will have just about the same texture as before as will your soft cheeses. Wide mouth jars makes it easier for removing from the jar and slicing.
Thank you for reading my blog!! If you found this article interesting and informative please up-vote and re-steem as it will help me out and others might want to see it too. :-) As always, if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them!! Happy Canning!!
