Gorgonzola is a unique cheese, with the flavour profile being a favourite worldwide. If youād like to have some in your kitchen, you might be inclined to get a large chunk – perhaps too much. If thatās the case, you may wonder how best to freeze gorgonzola in your home.
Can You Freeze Gorgonzola?
Yes, you can freeze gorgonzola for around 6 months. Ensure that the gorgonzola is entirely removed from the original packaging, then wrap that piece of gorgonzola in a layer of baking paper then a layer of cling film then freeze.
Do Does Gorgonzola freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Gorgonzola? Yes
How to Freeze Gorgonzola
Before you toss a wedge of gorgonzola into your freezer, there is a proper method you’ll want to follow if you want your gorgonzola to freeze as well as possible:
- Remove Packaging: To get started when freezing gorgonzola, remove any packaging that the cheese may be in – that style of tight plastic wrapping leads to condensation, which is a poor way to freeze anything, including cheese.
- Dry: If the cheese is moist, pat it dry with kitchen paper.
- Wrap Once: Wrap the gorgonzola in a primary layer of baking paper or butchersā paper. Either of those options will work, as they have the core tenet that we need – permeability.
- Wrap Again: Follow this layer with a layer of cling film, pressing gently with your hands to create a seal.
- Freeze: Once the double-layer is constructed and well-sealed, transfer the cheese to the freezer, where it will keep very well for around six months.
3 Tips for Freezing Gorgonzola
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing gorgonzola to have the best results:
Use Double Layers
When wrapping the cheese to place it in your freezer, we would always recommend opting for a double-layer of wrappings. Start with a layer of permeable paper, such as baking paper or butcherās paper, before wrapping that package in cling film. The cheese is ready for freezing when the entire package is completely sealed.
Thaw Long and Slow
Gorgonzola is a very dense cheese, meaning that few bubbles or holes are running through it, as there would be with Swiss cheese. Therefore, thawing the cheese in your fridge will take quite a while, but itās the best way to prevent bacterial growth and spoilage.Ā
Don’t Panic at Freezer Burn
For high-protein and high-fat options, freezer burn isnāt the worst thing. The reason for this is that freezer burn negatively affects foods with a lot of water within them. Cheese has an exceptionally small amount of water, meaning that freezer burn will be less impactful overall than it could be in other foodstuffs.
How Long Can You Freeze Gorgonzola?
You can freeze gorgonzola for up to 6 months to preserve the quality of the cheese as much as possible.
Beyond that six-month deadline, the cheese will still be safe to eat. The main difference will likely be that the cheese is crumblier – some of the protein molecules in the cheese will have denatured over continued exposure to freezer burn.
When properly stored, wrapped in greaseproof paper and cling film, gorgonzola will last in the fridge for between 3 and 4 weeks.
How Do You Defrost Gorgonzola?
The best way to defrost gorgonzola is in your fridge for around two days.
This is because dense cheese like gorgonzola cannot be kept at room temperature for long enough to thaw without the outer layer beginning to spoil and becoming food unsafe.
Therefore, keeping the cheese in the fridge is safer, though it does take longer to entirely thaw.
Can You Refreeze Gorgonzola?
Yes, you can refreeze gorgonzola. The main barrier to refreezing is damage done to food through the continued damage that water molecules may sustain through freezing.
However, since gorgonzola has very low water content, it is perfectly fine to refreeze the cheese several times over – it wonāt damage it.
Does Gorgonzola Freeze Well?
Yes, gorgonzola does freeze well. When we talk about food freezing well, weāre asking how much it degrades over time.
Gorgonzola barely degrades at all in the freezer, and even then, it only degrades after six months or more of storage. Therefore, gorgonzola freezes very well.
The best way to ensure that your gorgonzola freezes well is to wrap it in a layer of baking paper, followed by a layer of cling film, as described above.
Related FAQs
If youāve still got questions about freezing gorgonzola or gorgonzola in general, then these may help:
Crumbled gorgonzola can be frozen for around 3 months. They will not freeze as well as a wedge of gorgonzola. Portion the crumbled pieces into a freezer bag, seal tightly, and freeze.
Yes, a blue cheese sauce made with gorgonzola can be frozen in small Tupperware containers or an ice cube tray but, when defrosted, it will split a little.
