Purchasing pre-shredded packages of cheese is expense, contains added chemicals and is not very tasty.
But, I do it.
Because itâs convenient.
Please. Itâs not that hard to shred some cheese.
And then I had the great (no pun intended) idea to get the gargantuan block of cheddar from Costco and grate up the whole thing and store it.
And actually grating that much cheese is sort of a chore, but in the long run itâs worth it.
Hereâs how I grated and stored my cheese.
Use a Sharp Grate
I am so lucky to have the Pampered Chef grate. Itâs really sharp and it comes with a doohickey that allows you hold and press down small amounts of food.
That means that when you get down to the end of the cheese, you donât add any of your finger skin to the pile of cheese. Score!
I think if you have a grating blade on a food processor that is even better, but I donât, so I did it the old fashioned way.
Divide the Cheese
I cut the huge block (2.5 pounds!) into quarters and grated the cheese in batches. After each batch was grated I placed it into a large bowl.
Prevent Clumping
Now, this is the reason prepackaged shredded cheese contains added chemicals. Because that grated cheese wonât stay separated.
Cornstarch to the rescue!
After each batch of cheese was shredded, I added about 1 œ teaspoons of cornstarch and tossed it well.
Store
If you have super-duper airtight food storage containers (such as the Rubbermaid I love) itâs best to store your cheese in that.
But when you have a household of two people and have enough cheese for the entire town, itâs going to need to go in the freezer.
And I donât have enough room or containers to store cheese that way.
Freezer Ziplocs for the win.
Each batch now goes into its own baggie, gets dated and stacked into the freezer. The baggies stack nicely and hardly take up any room at all.
Wrap Up
It took me about 30 minutes to grate, process and store the entire brick of cheese. Oh, and clean up the mess. You know I made a mess.
I hope this motivates you to do your own grating and storing of cheese. Once I got off my keester, I could admit this is tastier and healthier. And cheaper!
Follow Up
If you caught my post on refreshing a wood finish, I wanted to share a couple of good comments I got. Jann let me know that she uses a food-friendly oil, and not Old English, on a serving board they have. Very good point!
Connie agreed that the dark Old English is scary, so they use multiple coats of the light wood finish and it works great.
Weekend
Are you doing anything fun or interesting this weekend? I mostly likely will be eating tacos or something with shredded cheese on it. Ha!
Seriously I am chomping at the bit to switch out spring décor for summer décor. I feel like tulip season has passed and I need switch things up.
Ideas about that? Pottery Barn keeps beckoning me and Iâm finding it hard to resist.
God bless you and yours and catch you next week!