Ingredients: Instructions: Canning group on Facebook shared this, has anyone tried it? Yep!! Canning Cheese « Oklahoma Pastry Cloth Image:
It's not safe enough for me to try knowing my luck. I just stick to buying canned ghee for long term storage. But, I suppose if one used a dash of vinegar and doesn't mind the risks, it's all good. Just be sure of the warnings associated and be careful.
So cheese ages in wheels coated with wax. Why would you can it? The aging process already has storage via waxing and aging
I'm guessing it would come in handy with store-bought block cheese. I don't know how well that lends itself to "re-waxing" (assuming that's a thing and the correct term). If you could simply use wax again then I would completely agree and very seriously consider doing that instead. Like Brokor said, knowing me I'd foul it up and end up with some sort of funky pathogen that would run amok. Then again, the peaches I canned 2 years ago are still "good". No issues aside from texture, but we're using them in cobblers at this point anyway so... ***ETA*** So, I did a quick search on the internet about "waxing commercial cheese" and the second or third link was actually to the same blog. Waxing Commercial Cheese « Oklahoma Pastry Cloth Doing a little research, however, revealed that waxed cheese should typically be stored at 70 degrees or lower. During the summer I can't guarantee the house would remain that cool and I don't have a cellar, basement or other subterranean area that is consistently cool enough so in that case, canning might be a better option for me.
What she said.....buy some candles and local made hard cheese. Wax'em in 1 lb+ bricks and use any extra wax mixed with laundry lint to make firestarter balls. No electricity? Bury the wax cheese a few feet down and it'll last years.
You just gotta dig a hole bro...thicker the brick - the longer it will last - even if you gotta carve a bit of funk off and only eat the middle - it's better than plastic. I wonder if "cold smoking" it would increase, decrease or no change the longevity...
Here's a nice little blurb on the subject, of which only the last part is quoted. Wood smoke components and functional properties | Bookstore | Alaska Sea Grant "...Among the functional components of smoke, phenols and acids have shown the most antimicrobial activity, although there are data that show that carbonyls and acids can also have a wide spectrum of antibacterial activity even at low levels of phenols. Staining ability of wood smoke is associated with the acids and phenols, while reaction-developed color produced during the heating of meat can be attributed primarily to the acids and carbonyl compounds." And here's one I REALLY like! Killing bacteria with cannabis I bet a couple of pounds of prime weed in the ole' smokehouse would do wonders for all kinds of cheese, not to mention all them people standin' around inhalin' that second-hand smoke. (Billy-Bob! Why is there twelve pieces of garden hose comin' out of the smokehouse chimney, and why are you sellin' tickets to 'em?) Oh, yeah! Cheese, venison, fish, beef, goat, gator--whatever! They'd probably all be better with that special tasty tang we know and love so well. The problem is, though, you'd probably get just as munchy eatin' it later as you did tryin' to smoke it in the first place. If there was any left, I mean. For later.
Cheese rounds are the way to buy for us . We buy 4-6 in wax , some are square also . cut off a huge chunk & reheat the cut off wax & reseal . Sloth
That's a very interesting article! Caught my fancy and I'm planning on canning some cheeses. To keep out the meeses!
I read an article on waxing cheese a few years ago and decided to test another way, vacuum sealing it. I sealed a small 14 lb. brick of cheese and put it in the lower crisper in my fridge. It has been there for almost 3 years and it looks like the day I put it in there. I might try some of it on the 3 year anniversary!
It's certainly an alternative. I just don't like over processing food. And to each his own method of survival
Cheerfully admitting that I know nothing, but seems to me that critter proofing a wax job would be as simple as putting it in a metal can. Seems to me that one might take the lump out, hack off a chunk, rewax and put it back in the can. O'course, you might get to the same sort of effect by canning smaller quantities. Like I said, just thinking in another direction for those that have access to metal cans, but not a canner, and saves a processing step.
Until you cut it. All bets are off unless you can seal the wheel. Seems, to me, that by canning in small jars you are pre-portioning the product, reducing the chances of mass spoilage later. I spent my formative years in very rural Nevada and we lived on home canned meats and vegetables. Do it right, it's all right!
I use the old cookie cans at Xmas . But Im not making cheese , Buying rounds @ 70-90 per round & they just fit in a large cookie / tin cans .in a root cellar I i built I did this way in the 70-80s living on a SAILBOAT travelling the 3rd rock , as Many do , try not to over think what has been proven & keep all wax , but ear !