# Cheese



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

If you like cheddar cheese and have wondered where you would find when the SHTF, I have an answer for you. It can be dehydrated and it comes out pretty good. Its not like slicing a piece of fresh off a block in the fridge but it works well for Mac and Cheese, Scalloped Potatoes, Cassaroles and even Omlets. If you run it through a flour mill, it even tastes good sprinkled on popcorn.

Low fat cheddar is easier to dehydrate and rehydrates better but regular tastes better. You can grate the cheese and put it on fruit leather trays in your dehydrator, set the temperature at about 130-140 and let it go. Every hour or so you will have to clean the oil off the fruit leather trays until no more seeps out. The grated low/non fat cheese will dry pretty quickly and the regular will take about twice as long, it will appear to be dry in about the same amount of time as the nonfat but keep it in the dehydrator until the oil stops seeping. Vacuum seal it or pack it with O2 absorbers for long term storage. To rehydrate, pour hot water-from the tap, onto it, just enough to cover all the pieces and let it sit until it gets soft. If it soaks up all the water and is still curnchy, add more hot tap water.

NOTE: If you set the temp to high on your dehydrator, the grated cheese will melt into a mass and take forever to dehydrate.

For those of you who like Velveta, it can be easily canned, it comes out like the cheeze-whiz in the jars. I pack it into 10 oz jelly jars leaving about 1/2 inch of head space and pressure it for about 30 minutes at no more than 5 pounds. If it is pressured too long or at too high a pressure, it will turn brown and hard. While getting the times and pressures down, I over cooked several batches. I opened a jar to empty it out and throw it away and decieded to taste it first and it was edible, tasted kind of like the cheese that runs onto a skillet when making a grilled cheese sandwich. I ate the contents, sliced on crackers and didn't die or get sick so I guessed it was safe to put rest of the over done jars on the shelf.

Since the Velveta Cheese was pasturized during production, I decieded to try hot water bathing several jars and set them on my "watch shelf". I will keep an eye on them for a year or so and if they dont break seal and I am feeling adventurous or desperate, will try them.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Dehydrate cheese ... hmmm

Thanks for the tip ...


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

If you're less adventurous, or just want some cheese to add to a BOB in an unbreakable container, try Bega Canned Processed Cheese. It's surprisingly good. We bought a case just to back up our home storage and fresh cheese. Most of the preparedness stores carry it.


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

Another Cheesy note on cheese;
I have seen in posts somewhere on here or another forum that the blocks you get at the store can be waxed and put into cold storage. I looked for the posts but was unable to locate it this morning. For those with basements and or root cellars this would be easy enough. 
(I really need to finish the root cellar.)


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

JustCliff said:


> Another Cheesy note on cheese;
> I have seen in posts somewhere on here or another forum that the blocks you get at the store can be waxed and put into cold storage. I looked for the posts but was unable to locate it this morning. For those with basements and or root cellars this would be easy enough.
> (I really need to finish the root cellar.)


While in the military, spent 3 years in Northern Italy - very educational, it was not uncommon for someone to find a round of cheese or proschuto that had been stuck back and forgotten about for many years(in one case a 100 year old proschuto - which was eaten) and were still very edible.

Can be done, if someone can figure it out or relearn how to do it.


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