CAN you say CHEESE?

We have an amazing food storage, provident living guru in our ward. I love her dearly and she is so willing and eager to help others store food, preparing for hard times. One of her best qualities, is that she is amazingly practical. She looks at what her family needs, and finds ways to achieve the desired outcome within the limitations of short and long term food storage. She is who turned me on to TVP - love it! - amazing stuff! She discovered you can can butter or margarine - no hot water bath needed, no pressure cooker needed - and it doesn't have to be refrigerated after it's opened - amazing I tell you, amazing.

Her latest discovery is canning hard cheeses.

I have to say that while this ranks right up there in the category of weird home storage things with canning butter, the idea of having cheese that does not need to be refrigerated or frozen and will last ~2 years, and can be eaten straight from the jar or shredded on pizza or melted into a casserole, really appealed to me. And frankly, freezer and refrigerator space is at a premium here and it isn't going to get better as the kids get older. I figure if I can get this to work, it will be a benefit all around! So, on a Sunday afternoon, while the kids were playing with GR, I tested it out for myself, using some shredded mozzarella and cheddar I had in the freezer.

What you need:
wide mouth pint size jars
lids and rings
hard cheese, shredded or cubed.

1. Pack cheese into wide mouth pint jars. A 5 lb bag of shredded cheese filled 6 pt jars. You can also use cubes of cheese, but the shredded was cheaper when I purchased it at Sam’s/Costco.
   
   
   
   
2. Put jars into a pan of water. Bring the water to a slow boil, allowing the cheese to melt. Continue to pack and fill the jars till ¾ inch from the top. This took 20 minutes or more.
   
   
   
   
3. Put on hot new canning jar lids and rings.
4. Water bath the jars in gentle boiling water for 35 min.
   
   
   
   * I found that the mozzarella comes out of the water bath looking a bit burned - light brown on the bottom and around the sides. Denise said the same thing happened to her. The outer layer more than likely is burned. I personally don't think it needs as much time as the cheddar. On my second batch of 3 pints of mozzarella, I reduced the time to 30 and the cheese looks better. That being said, I haven't popped open a jar yet, so I may change my mind once I've opened a jar and tasted it.
   

Denise, let the jars set for a week before trying them. "I opened the lid on the mozzarella and it came right out onto the plate. It sliced great and tasted great. I can use this to shred onto a homemade pizza. This was easy to do and you don’t need a canner, just a deep enough pan for the water bath. "