Can i freeze feta cheese

Fresh feta is tastier and has a more pleasant texture than frozen and thawed one, so using it fresh is the best solution here. And feta with brine has a pretty long shelf life in the fridge, so before you jump the gun with freezing, it makes sense to talk a bit about storage. Feta, like pretty much all dairy products, comes with a sell-by date on the label. And that date is a pretty good estimate on how long the cheese will retain quality. That being said, you can often get away with storing it unopened for a week or even longer past that date.

When it comes to opened feta cheese and any leftovers that you might have, it all depends on whether or not the cheese is in brine. Feta in brine can retain good quality for even up to 4 weeks after opening. Leftovers without brine last up to a week. All of that means if you keep your opened feta in brine, you have quite some time to use it up. You can, of course, go ahead with freezing it, but you should know that the process alters the feta.

If you have crumbled feta cheese, place it directly into a heavy-duty freezer bag, and vacuum seal it.

It is especially important to remove as much air as possible with crumbled feta, as it has a greater surface area exposed.

Use your marker to write down the date on the bag and then place your bags of feta cheese in the freezer. It is also essential to know when it is time to throw out your feta. Use frozen feta within three months of storing. The last thing you want to do is thaw your frozen feta cheese at room temperature. Doing so can lead to contamination. Do not take off the plastic wrap off as it will dry out the cheese. Allow it to defrost for a few hours. After removing the cheese from plastic, give it a taste test.

Unfortunately, freezing feta cheese may take away some of the flavors, but this is an easy fix. If it needs a little flavor boost, place the cheese in a container with some salt water brine or some olive oil. Leave it in there for a few hours. You may wonder if you can store other types of foods for later use. The same applies to many other food products. Many fruits and vegetables preserve well by pressure or water bath canning.

Some of this same produce can be frozen, too. Learn how to freeze tomatoes , beans, mushrooms, peaches, and more with our recipes. Once the cheese thaws, you can store it in the brine or olive oil in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Feta cheese in the freezer will retain its best qualities for about a month. However, it will be good to use for 2 to 3 months. Keep in mind that how well the cheese will keep in the freezer depends on how good of a job you have done when preparing and packaging it for the cold storage.

Even if you think you have managed to provide all the right conditions for the feta cheese to keep well, it may still go bad for whatever reason. Thus, you should know how to detect the signs that indicate that feta cheese has gone bad. With feta cheese, this is not the case. It is a very soft cheese and the mold spreads rather quickly through it. If you need to use feta cheese in a recipe, transfer it from the cold storage to the refrigerator a few hours before cooking.

It may take the cheese anywhere from 3 to 12 hours to thaw depending on the size of the cheese pieces. A good rule of thumb is leaving the cheese to thaw in the fridge overnight. If you need the cheese as soon as possible, there is a method to speed up the defrosting process.

Take out feta cheese from the freezer and put it in a bowl of cold water. This way the cheese will thaw in hours. Everyone loves a delicious Greek salad with creamy feta cubes. Defrosted feta cheese, however, may not be the best fit for this salad or any kind of salad in general. There is nothing wrong in using it in salads. But take into account that the cheese may be watery. If you do decide to use defrosted feta to make a salad, strain the cheese well and try making a small amount first.

Previously frozen feta cheese will perform best in cooked meals. Here are some ideas on how to use frozen and defrosted feta cheese:. Doing this comes with serious health risks, such as food poisoning. Freezing and defrosting feta cheese alters the texture and taste of the cheese. However, there are ways of bringing these changes to the minimum or restoring the lost flavor properties once the cheese is thawed.

When freezing crumbled feta cheese or feta cut in cubes, removing the air out of the plastic bag is a relatively more difficult task. This way of freezing feta is more preferable if you have a vacuum sealer. The latter certainly does a better job of removing the air from the plastic bag filled with crumbled feta or feta cubes.

Cheese prepared in these ways is more exposed to air which is hard to remove by hand. As we have already mentioned, defrosted feta cheese loses some of its flavor properties, including saltiness. If you like feta that is not salty, it may taste right for you. But if you want to bring back the saltiness, keeping defrosted feta cheese in brine for hours will improve the taste. To make it yourself, mix 2 teaspoons of kosher salt in 2 cups of water.

The oil will give feta cheese a pungent taste. You can add dried herbs for extra hues of flavor. If your feta cheese was initially very salty, it may remain salty even after being frozen and defrosted. In this case, the solution is to submerge the cheese into water in order to balance out the taste. Milk is also used to submerge feta in to make the cheese a little less salty and much creamier.