Freezing Dairy Produce

orchid-96

I have noticed a few people mentioning freezing milk/cheese, I have never done this. Is it ok to freeze this stuff? and if so, does it defrost well? I often see big lumps of cheese on offer, but don't buy it as it is expensive to get and it wouldn't all get eaten quickly enough...but it would be good if I could cut it up into smaller pieces to freeze..

Also am always running out of whole milk for my twins so it would be good if I could get at least a weeks worth in and freeze it..

davetrousers

I always freeze milk with no problems. It can take a while to defrost (depending on the size of the bottle) so you need to plan ahead a bit.

Don't freeze glass bottles of course!

csarinaknight

When we had the big freezer I always froze milk, I used to buy the big plastic bottles, just take out some from the top to allow for expension and then freeze, if you take it out the night before you need it and leave it in the sink, by morning it will have defrosted, just give it a shake to mix in the cream. I also freeze cheese and butter. There are also some margarines you can freeze but check on the pack see what it says.

boo81

They actually tell you on sainsburys milk that it can be frozen so its definately fine, as is double cream. Though be careful as some cream cant as my brother found out when he bought about 4 pints at christmas, I think it was the extra thick stuff which must have a different consistency.

Magpye

Cheese freezes really well, particularly if you grate it first so you can just take what you need for cheese sauce etc. I buy the stuff that's going out of date really cheaply and just freeze it in a plastic freezer bag, and it's fine.

Ishtar

I've always frozen milk - despite the ongoing battle with my mother-in-law who says it is wrong and is very bad for the digestion. (Doesn't seem to stop her drinking gallons of tea when she's here though). I defrost it overnight on the draining board and it's absolutely fine - lasts as long as it would if it hadn't been frozen.

I have tried freezing cheese, but haven't found it so successful as it made the cheese very crumbly - although I didn't think about grating it first. Might give that a try.

I've read on the back of butter packets that you can freeze that too, but haven't tried yet.

D.

dannahaz

You can definitely freeze butter. I do it all the time. I used to do it when I bought butter, and now I do it with my own hm butter.

WIth milk, I think it's homogenised milk that can be frozen.

Double cream, definitely. Single cream, definitely not. Yoghurt yes.

tealady

I find if I grate cheese 1st it goes further and can be used from frozen. It means there is never any waste.

kazmeister

I freeze 4 pt cartons of milk all the time but somewhere along the line was told that you cant freeze full fat milk but others say you can. It looks a bit like orange juice when frozen so dont think it hasnt worked! I always remove the cap and stand upright to allow for expansion and when I defrost I stand it in a large jug as sometimes freezing does split the plastic. If this happens I just wash the container I've finished and decant the milk from the jug and split one into it.

Cheddare cheese is best frozen pregrated - get the kids to grate it, either into plastic bags or into a tub. If I use bags I usually leave the bag inflated quite a bit to keep the cheese from compacting. If its loose then you can easily sprinkle into a sandwich (it defrosts really quickly), sprinkle it onto gratin dishes or cheese on toast. Its really handy.

Cream I have only frozen once its been whipped up.

orchid-96

Thanks for all your replies on this one, seems quite a varied subject...I would be freezing big cartons of full fat milk, so better make sure I have something for it to stand in first...glad someone mentioned that otherwise I might have come down in the morning to a dog lapping up the dripping milk :rotfl:

Will definitely try with the cheese and grate it first...

pigpen

I stand huge 6pint cartons in the sink to defrost I have NEVER in all the years I've fozen milk had one split.. nor have I ever removed the lid when freezing it.. it does however take moisture from the air and it seems to be that which makes everything wet.. Also it takes about 36 hours to defrost one this size so you have to be pretty on the ball about when it will be needed.

I've frozen butter and cheese (ungrated) before too.. it just gets used way too quickly to bother now!!