As I've
already mentioned, last week I bought twenty pounds of lean ground beef and ten
pounds of grated cheese. Five pounds of
mozzarella blend and five pounds of cheddar.
I usually buy my ground beef and cheese this way at Cash &
Carry. I watch their semi monthly ads
and when it goes on sale I get down there and stock up.
Since it has
been awhile I thought I would share with you how I divide and package up my
bulk purchases and store them in the freezer.
For the
cheese I sandwich size Ziploc bags and with a sharpie marker I put the type of
cheese and the date on each bag. Then
I use a one cup measuring cup to scoop
out two heaping cups of cheese into each bag.
Carefully I squeeze out any extra air as I seal each bag. I then place the bags of cheese inside a
gallon size Ziploc bag.
To make it
easier to identify what is in the bag I cut the label off the bag the cheese
came in and slid it inside before squeezing out the air and sealing the gallon
size bag closed. I find this an
efficient and thrifty method to store grated cheese in the freezer and ward of
freezer burn.
The ground
beef is place on a cutting board and sliced into a variety of sizes. I like 10 oz sizes for recipes and larger
ones for taco meat and burger patties.
After everything is cut up I use sandwich size bags for the smaller
amounts and quart size for the larger. I
label the bags and slip the ground beef inside.
I also squeeze out extra air as I seal the bags closed and then put the
beef inside the big two gallon Ziploc bags and squeeze out extra air as I seal
those closed.
I usually buy
my bags at the dollar store and I wash and reuse the larger bags. I always toss the meat and cheese bags as I'm
not as crazy about reusing those and they are cheap enough anyway.
That is pretty
much all there is to it. For me this
system of double bagging work really well.
Not only does it help ward off freezer burn but it helps me keep
everything neatly organized too.
I'd never thought to double bag cheese. I will do that now. I usually buy the block cheese and grate it.
ReplyDeleteI used to grate my own too, but after comparing the cost of the grated cheese on sale it was less money and saved me a big chore. :)
DeleteI freeze my meat & cheese just like you. Good minds think alike ;)
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
DeleteI double bag, too.
ReplyDeletepparsimony
It works really well, doesn't it?
Delete