I opened up the "cheese cave" (an old freezer with external digital thermostat control) this afternoon for the daily cheese check up, and found 6 months of cheese was frozen hard. Evidently, the temp sensor from the temp control fell out of the freezer box about 24 hours earlier, so it cooled down based on room temp rather than "cave" temp freezing everything. I propped open the freezer box for a slow defrost. Does anyone know the biology on this? Are the cheeses "toast" or will they resume aging on thaw? Does it make a difference that they were only frozen for 24 hours? I have varying ages of cheese from a week to six months old--all hard tommes, lancashire, sharp provolones. Most all of the cheeses were vacuum sealed. Thanks for the info! Mike.
I think they should be allright. May be the texture will be a bit crumbly.
They should continue aging upon thawing. freezing should not kill all the lactic acid bacteria in your cheeses.
I'm sorry that happened! But I also think they will be fine. Cultures can be frozen so would expect them to get back to work when they thaw. I have intentionally frozen cheese in the past. I agree, it maybe changes the texture a little. But was fine.
Susan