T.T.: DIY Shredded Cheese

There are many foods that I don't buy. Bread. Yogurt. Pasta sauce. And shredded cheese.

Let's talk about that last one, shall we?

I have never in my life purchased shredded cheese. There are a couple of reasons for this. 

One is that it has added ingredients that are meant to keep it from molding and sticking together. While these ingredients are not necessarily harmful, I also don't really need them in my cheese.

The other is that shredded cheese costs a lot more. And we eat a LOT of cheese, so the price difference would make a very big difference in how much I spend at the grocery store.

I get that it's convenient, though, which is why I am here to make home-shredded cheese just as convenient!

Okay, no. You do still have to do the shredding, so it's not just as convenient as buying those little flat bags of pre-shredded cheese, but it's more convenient than having a block of cheese in the refrigerator mocking you for not having shredded it.

Does your cheese not do that? Weird.

Anyway.

Tip one: If you have it, use a food processor. Mine has a shredding disc that goes on top of the turning thingie, so I can feed small blocks of cheese down the tube and the machine shreds it for me. 

If you don't have a food processor, you're stuck with a grater. Box graters are sturdier and work better for grating a lot of cheese at once, in my opinion.

Once the cheese is grated, it's on to step two: Store it flat in the freezer.

If you only have a small amount, you can put it in a quart-size zip-top freezer bag. I usually use a gallon-size bag, because I'm dealing with a lot of cheese. Either way, after it's in the bag, distribute the cheese evenly in the bag so the bag is flat.

You require a visual? So happy to oblige!

Look! Flat cheese! (This is asadero cheese.)

The reason this is crucial is that you want to be able to remove just some of the cheese when you need it. Even we, prodigious cheese-eaters that we are, do not use a gallon of shredded cheese at a time. And if I were to freeze it in a big lump, I couldn't easily remove just part of it. It's not as if you can quick-defrost in the microwave, since cheese has that tendency to, well, melt.

If it's flat, though, you can just whack the flat bag of cheese on the edge of the counter to break it up a bit and remove what you want. 

It's fun. Releases aggression, you know.

You can also freeze the shredded cheese in a flat layer on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and then transfer it to the bag, but I try to avoid extra steps like that whenever possible.

So! Next time you're at the store and find a good price on block cheese, just take it home and shred it yourself, store it flat in the freezer, and pat yourself on the back for your thrifty ways every time you take your very own shredded cheese out of the freezer.