COOKING TIPS AND HINTS SECTION

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See Also: Cheddar Cheese;   Cheese Trivia;   Blue Cheeses; Cheese Quotes etc.

CHEESE KITCHEN TIPS

Chill cheese for easy grating and shredding. It'll make the job much easier. Chill hard cheeses in the freezer for 30 minutes and soft cheeses for 15 to 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch. If you want to crumble hard cheese, freeze it longer.

High heat and extended cooking time tend to make cheese stringy and tough. When melting and blending cheese into a recipe, use a low temperature for a short period of time - just enough to get the job done.

To prevent cheeses such as Swiss and Mozzarella from becoming stringy during cooking, add a little wine or lemon juice before melting them.

Cheese is best stored in the refrigerator as close to the bottom of the appliance as possible - the vegetable compartment is ideal.

Cheeses should be wrapped for storage individually, preferably in tight-fitting plastic wrap. Don't store different flavors together in the same package.

Freezing Cheese: If necessary, hard or semi-hard cheese can be frozen if cut in 1/2- to 1-pound sizes and packaged in moisture-vapor resistant material. This cheese may become crumbly and mealy when frozen, but will retain its flavor. Cream cheese and cottage cheese do not freeze well. However, if combined with heavy cream, cream cheese can be frozen for later use in dips or as icing on frozen sandwich loaves.
National Center for Home Food Preservation  www.uga.edu/nchfp
 

MOLD ON CHEESE:
Preventing mold - To prevent mold on cheese, wrap it in a cloth dampened with saltwater before refrigerating.

Some molds are used to make certain kinds of cheeses including Roquefort, blue, Gorgonzola, Stilton, Camembert, and Brie. The mold on these cheeses is safe to eat. Mold on other types of cheeses should not be there. Discard any soft cheese showing mold. For hard cheese, such as Cheddar, cut off at least 1-inch around and below the mold spot (keep the knife out of the mold itself). After trimming off the mold, the remaining cheese should be safe to eat. Re-cover the cheese in fresh wrap and keep refrigerated.

Most people that are allergic to cow milk products or who are lactose intolerant can use goat and sheep milk products. The lactose or protein in the milk is what usually causes the allergic reaction or intolerance. Goat & sheep milk both have lactose and protein but it is of a different make up that doesn't bother most people.

The proteins in cow's milk are huge, fit for an animal that will one day weigh in over 500 lbs. The proteins in humans, sheep, and goats, are very short, which is why babies (the infirm, and arthritics) will often thrive on goat's milk, and raw goat's milk also is loaded with the enzymes that enable the metabolizing of the calcium.