freeze dried eggs and dairy Freeze Drying

Freeze dried cheese

by |Published

I like cheese, so I’m guessing I’ll like freeze dried cheese, lol.

Freeze dried cheese is one I’ve wanted to do for a while…

Simply because it has so many uses! I have learned a lot about it on X (formerly Twitter). Some of the uses I’ve heard of include:

  • ready to go pizza toppings – store the cheese with other FD items for your pizza
  • making your own powdered cheese – store bought ones often have anti-caking products added, which are.. well, I don’t know, which is the problem, haha
  • snacks – this is mainly what the cut up cheese is for – snacking on
  • have cheesy eggs and other things while camping – since it’s lightweight and requires no refrigeration, this is a great way to get cheese on the go

For this batch, I had one tray of shredded Parmesan, one tray of shredded mozzarella, and three trays of sliced cheese, some of cheddar and some of pepper jack. I did slice these myself from blocks of cheese. After the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) did her 15 minute cooldown to start, I started the batch.

sliced cheese on freeze dryer trays before freezing
shredded cheese on freeze dryer trays before freezing
cheese on freeze dryer trays in the freezer
Freeze dryer trays stacked in freezer - each separated by a piece of parchment paper.

Of course this turned out awesome!

First one we tried was the sliced pepper jack. Hubby ate one, then another, then said “Hmm.. I’m not sure if I like it. Think I need more to decide.” So that means these are a win, woohoo!

Since the cheeses are just for us and I plan to use it all up fairly quickly, I didn’t do anything super special for storage. Some went into baggies for quick snacks, all the shredded went into quart sized jars that I put by the stove so I can use them as needed. Glad this turned out good!

How long did the freeze dried cheeses take?

One other thing I forgot to mention I did… I put parchment paper on top of the two shredded cheese trays while they freeze drying. Someone online told me the small pieces can end up flying around in the drum after they’re mostly dried, since they’re so lightweight. I didn’t want that to happen, lol.

In total, this batch took 19 hours, 15 minutes, and 16 seconds 🙂

Needed the defrost after this, but not the full two hours. It was finished defrosting, zero ice left after about 90 minutes.

Happy freeze drying!!

freeze dried cheese

Shredded cheddar & parm

Sliced pepper jack

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