Storage rules for cottage cheese in the refrigerator and freezer. How much can you keep cottage cheese in the cold?

When purchasing a tasty and healthy dairy product packaged in unlabeled packaging without specifying expiration dates, many housewives are lost - how much cottage cheese is stored without additives and preservatives? Many simply put the product in a suitable compartment in the refrigerator and focus on its smell and taste. This is a very dangerous approach, which can lead, if not poisoning, then digestive upset.

A spoiled composition does not immediately give an acidic aroma and gives off bitterness, these are signs of far-reaching decomposition processes. The best option is to purchase a small amount of cottage cheese, which is eaten during the day. For those who prefer to buy a product in significant quantities, there are recommendations that will help maintain its freshness.

Basic rules for storing cottage cheese in the refrigerator

The shelf life of cottage cheese cooked at home is about two days. After this, the product can continue to be consumed, but the amount of useful components in it will already be minimal. Such cottage cheese is ideal for making cottage cheese pancakes, cheesecakes, dumplings and other tasty products.

In addition, there are several recommendations on how to store cottage cheese, which can increase the shelf life of the composition in the refrigerator, albeit slightly:

1. A fresh product is best stored in food foil rather than in a bag. In extreme cases, you can use a fabric bag, previously moistened in cool boiled water and squeezed carefully.

Tip: Before placing the product in the refrigerator, it must be carefully crumbled. If you do not break up the dense clods, then the coolness will not reach their inner layers, and they will quickly deteriorate from the inside.

1. The resulting design cannot be laid directly on the shelf. It must be removed in a plastic container or enameled container. We do not cover the lid very tightly, put a piece of sugar on the bottom.
2. To store cottage cheese, you need to use the zone with the lowest temperature.
3. The optimal indicator for storing fresh product is considered to be a range from 0 to + 2ºС.

Even under such conditions, cottage cheese is not recommended to be stored for more than 3-4 days. In addition, there is a very old approach, which, although it does not extend the shelf life of the product, will allow it to remain very fresh throughout the entire period. We take the clay pots covered with glaze, washing and drying. Pour a layer of coarse salt to the bottom, lay the cottage cheese laid on a linen rag on top, crush. We moisten a flap of cotton fabric in a weak concentration of saline, cover the structure, poke the edges. On top you can put a plate with a little oppression.

How to store cottage cheese in the freezer?

Not everyone knows that cottage cheese can be frozen. It is recommended to resort to the method in the most extreme cases, because after such processing the composition loses at least a third of all its useful components. Another minus of the approach is that after thawing the mass, it becomes much drier than before processing. Most often, she is allowed to prepare desserts and pastries.

The procedure itself is carried out according to the following scheme:

• We take a plastic food container, line it with a thin, lint-free cloth, you can replace it with a paper towel. Spread the crumbled cottage cheese on top, the smaller the lumps, the easier it will be to unfreeze.
• We make sure that the walls of the container are not covered with moisture, tightly cover it with a lid and send it to the appropriate chamber to freeze.
• You can use another method in which bundles with cottage cheese wrapped in foil or cloth are simply laid out in the freezer. So the product will freeze very quickly, but its texture after defrosting will noticeably worsen.

The shelf life of the composition depends on the temperature at which it should be frozen. Within -2ºС it is not recommended to keep it for more than a week. If the temperature is from -12 to -18ºС, then the period increases to two weeks. In a freezer that can provide a temperature of about -25 ° C, the mass will remain for three weeks. In modern powerful household appliances, producing a temperature of -35ºС, cottage cheese can be kept for a month or even a little more.

The specifics of defrosting cottage cheese

Mistresses who prefer to freeze the composition must remember the important points of its preparation for further use. To defrost the mass correctly, it is necessary to place it in the refrigerator on one of the shelves in the common chamber. The entire manipulation will take at least 10-12 hours, so you need to take care of the manipulation in advance. Any options for additional thermal exposure are strictly prohibited.

The composition can not even be laid out at room temperature. The only thing that is allowed to additionally influence the process is a wet rag, which needs to be wrapped up after removing it from the freezer.

If you adhere to these rules, you can regularly use a nutritious product with health benefits and without any risk. If you suspect a spoilage of the product, you must immediately discard it and not try to use it even as an addition to the filling of pie, cheesecakes or dumplings.