Can You Freeze Goat Cheese

Goat cheese is one of the most delicious of the sour cheeses, widely known and loved for its flavor and versatility.

Goats cheese is the perfect ingredient. It can be crumbled up and used in a salad, sliced and put in a sandwich, as a main or supplementary ingredient. It can be eaten raw, toasted or melted.

You can also serve it on your platter at a dinner party, being the ideal sour accompaniment to your milder cheddars and pungent blue cheeses.

However, goats cheese is often sold in large quantities. How best to store this pungent cheese for future consumption?

Luckily, goat cheese contains a lot of moisture, which makes it perfectly amenable to freezing, although ice crystals can dry out the internal structure of the cheese and cause it to lose some of its tangy flavors.

But how can you freeze goat cheese and is it recommended? How much longer will your goat cheese last in the freezer than it will in the fridge? What are the positive and negatives effects on the cheese in terms of flavor and nutrition?

Well, don’t fear, goat cheese lovers, because we’ve got an in-depth article of freezing tips and tricks for prolonging the life of your goat cheese.

How Do You Make Goats Cheese?

The process of making goats cheese is very similar to cheddar cheeses that are made with cow’s milk, although it has a much more unique flavor.

Goat cheese has a very zesty and tangy flavor, which makes it a perfect complement for ingredients such as tomato, lettuce, and rocket. The flavor profile of goat cheese also works well with pecans, apples, oranges, spinach and kale.

You can also have goat cheese on a pizza to complement other cheeses such as mozzarella and cheddar cheese. In fact, you can swap out the mozzarella for goats cheese entirely, if you want to enjoy a pizza that has slightly less calories. You can also use goat cheese instead of parmesan cheese in salads.

You can also use goats cheese as a substitute for the cream cheese that you might find in cheesecake, owing to its similar sour flavor profile.

You can make goat cheese very easily by curdling your milk and pressing the curds into drain liquid. Once these curds have been flavored and shaped correctly, they are then ready for maturing and ripening.

Why Is Goat Cheese Better?

Aside from the delicious sour taste, there are many reasons that people opt for goat milk and cheese instead of the standard milk that you can get from a cow.

Goat milk and cheese have fewer calories than a lot of other milk and cheese varieties out there.

Goat cheese comes at 75 calories per ounce, which is significantly less than mozzarella, which contains 85 calories per ounce, brie, which comes at 95 calories per ounce, Swiss cheese, which contains 108 calories per ounce and cheddar cheese which comes at 115 calories per ounce.

Goat cheese is also brimming with a lot more vitamins than cow’s milk. It is very high in Vitamin A, Vitamin B, riboflavin, calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium, which makes it ideal for those that love dairy but want to improve their health.

Goat milk is also much easier for people who are lactose intolerant to consume, as it contains far less of the harmful lactose that can upset their stomachs. People who are allergic to dairy also have a much easier time digesting goat products.

Goats are also easier to manage during the farming stage of milk production, as they take up a lot less space than cows and, being smaller animals, require a lot less food.

Goats are also hardier than cows and can withstand harsher grazing environments. Cows often need specific conditions to produce milk. Goats also consume the plants, shrubs and weeds that other livestock won’t eat.

Finally, goats are also much more productive when creating vast quantities of milk. If you gave the same amount of food and space to a goat as you would a cow, the goat would produce over a gallon more milk. Now that’s impressive for such a small farm animal!

How To Freeze Spreadable Goat Cheese

Spreadable goats cheese is a popular item to have at sophisticated dinner parties, often served as a dessert for those people who prefer savory snacks to something sweet. You can serve this kind of goat cheese with dry or salted crackers.

But often you’ll find that you have a lot of leftover goat cheese at the end of your party. There is a simple way of keeping this type of cheese in your freezer for a few months.

• If you have a pre-existing container for your cheese, you can remove it into a separate sterile container or wrap it in plastic wrapping to reduce contaminants and bacteria. This will also help avoid freezer burn.

• Then before you place it in your freezer, make sure you label it with the date that you put it in the freezer. This will enable you to keep track of it and let you know when to remove it before it loses too much of its flavor, which will be anywhere between 4 and 6 months.

How To Freeze Solid Goat Cheese

Here are a few easy steps to freeze your solid goat cheese and avoid the unnecessary freeze burn and excess flavor loss that comes with prolonged freezing.

• Take your vacuum-sealed log of goat cheese and place it on a chopping board. You’ll ideally need a very sharp knife.

• Slice the log into quarters with the wrapping still on. A quarter is just the right size for use with most recipes including pizza, sandwiches or salads. Plus, it will be easier to store in the freezer.

• Wrap each piece in saran wrap.

• Place these individual slices in an airtight plastic bag that can be stored in the freezer. Remember to remove the air first.

• Label the bag with the date you put it in the freezer.