Canning Cheese Instructions.

Several people have asked for the instructions for canning cheese. I've taken pictures and will try and give coherent instructions.

Of course the first step is to have clean, sterilized bottles and lids. I find that if I start the cheese first, I forget and have to 'catch up', especially with the lids.

Before I put the lids in the water to boil them, I like to write on the lids with a 'sharpie' while they are dry. All I write is the month and year. If the cheese is white, I write the type of cheese; swiss, Monterey Jake, or provolone. I have also canned pepper jack, yum.

Cheese, processed properly, will last forever, it just gets sharper.

If possible, it is nice to have two people working on things. Stan is great at helping me. He cuts the cheese into little cubes. I use my pampered chef crinkle cutter. It makes the cutting process SO much easier. Small half inch cubes are a great size, they melt well.

You have to use wide mouth pints or 1/2 pts., or the cheese will not come out. I noticed that the small jelly jar half pints with the regular lids should work well, the jars have to have a straight shot out. If you use a regular pint, the only way you will get the cheese out is to spoon it out. The cheese is a little difficult to get out of the bottle because it does become a hard cheese again.

Put the cubed cheese into the jars, avoiding getting any cheese on the top edge.

Your jars will float and get water into the cheese, which you DO NOT want to happen. So, don't have as much water in as you will eventually need.

You don't want the water to even come to a simmer. We found that between 160 and 170 degrees is perfect. If you don't have a thermometer, just don't let it come to a simmer. The slower the cheese melts, the better the texture of the final product.

As the cheese melts, add more cubes. As the jars get heavier, with the added weight, add water to the kettle to the bottom of the rings. That gives you about an inch of head space. If you click on the picture, it will show you the melted cheese, with the cubes on top. Add the cubes until you feel that it will melt down to the bottom of the rings, estimate.

It will only melt to the line of the water. You will see in these pictures that there is still some unmelted cheese on the top.

These are Nicole's beautiful hands, she wanted to learn how to can cheese.

With a clean, wet cloth, wipe the rims of the bottles, put the lids and rings on. You will then process them in a water bath for 10 minutes. Take them out and cool them.

We have found that the cheese slices, grates, etc, almost like before it was canned. Swiss is exactly the same, without the holes! The cheddar had a little bit of a grainy texture.

We have started processing all of our cheese and eating it from the jars. That way we ensure rotation.

DO NOT TRY AND CAN PROCESSED CHEESE like velvetta. We have been told that it doesn't work at all and is gross.