Brie is a delicious French cheese that is a great addition to almost any dish you can think of. I use slices of it on pizza, in soups, and to make mac and cheese – my boys absolutely love it!
It’s a shame I didn’t discover this cheese earlier in my life, and it’s an even greater shame that I can’t buy a lot of it since it costs so much!
I’d love to experiment more with it and see what I could cook up. I bet I could use it in potato and cheese pierogi, and my husband would just adore it!
Well, when there was a sale of brie cheese at my local supermarket, I rushed to buy as much as I can – only to realize I can’t use it all before it spoils. But I certainly didn’t want to throw it all away, so I started wondering – can you freeze brie cheese? No, that rhyming wasn’t intentional on my part.
So, I looked around and found out as much as I could about it to save my precious haul of brie! I found out a lot, and today I want to share it with you so you can get the most out of your brie cheese as well!
Can You Freeze Brie?
Brie cheese is best when it’s as fresh as it can be, so you wouldn’t be amiss if you wondered if it’s viable to freeze it at all! The truth is that you can, and it will extend the shelf life of the cheese, but the taste and texture will suffer regardless of how you do it.
It’s sad, and it would probably make my husband cry, considering how much he hates frozen food and likes brie, but it’s just how it is.
The taste becomes worse because the brie is quite watery and full of fat. When all of this water and fat freeze, they expand and ruin the consistency and texture of the cheese. Once it’s thawed, it becomes even more watery, diluting the taste.
Luckily, if you take good care of your brie when you freeze it, you can minimize this and retain as much of the delicious flavor as possible.
When I freeze it the right way, my husband can’t even tell the difference, and he is quite a picky eater, I’ll tell you that! He won’t even touch his favorite foods if he knows they’ve been in a freezer!
Take Care – Brie cheese can stay in the freezer for only up to three months, but it’s better not to push it that far so don’t keep it in there for more than two. Some people suggest it can keep up to six months, but that’s pushing it. The longer it stays in there, the worse the texture and taste get.
How to Freeze Brie Cheese Without Ruining It?
To freeze brie without impacting the taste or the texture too much, you only need to follow a few simple steps. No one will know it was even frozen!
- Use a knife or a cheese cutter to cut your brie cheese into slices. Don’t make them too thin but also keep them on the smaller side. This is done so you can always take out as much brie as you need instead of taking out too much.
- Double wrap each piece in two plastic bags or double wrap them in one. This is to prevent the cheese from losing its flavor or absorbing flavors and smells from other foods in your freezer. Get all the air out of the plastic bag to prevent the cheese from getting the freezer burned.
- Seal the bags and label each one with the date you froze it on, so you know if it’s still safe to eat. Place it in the area of the freezer where it’s not likely to get squashed in any way, and don’t place anything on top of it since that will ruin the cheese.
Pro Tip: If you’re afraid that your cheese might get freezer burns or you’re running your freezer on a lower setting, make sure to wrap it in foil as well since that will provide the additional protection it needs.
So, now you know how to get your brie cheese safely into the freezer. Well, I have an extra step, number 4, that involves checking when my husband won’t be home and doing all of the other steps then, since he wouldn’t eat the food if he knew it came from the freezer, but don’t tell him that. He doesn’t know it’s even been in there, and the same will go for anyone you serve your brie cheese too. 🙂
However, there’s another thing you need to do to ensure that your cheese remains delicious – thawing it.
You May Need: The Most Recommended Freezer Containers
Defrosting Your Brie Cheese
As with other frozen foods, the trick to keeping them in good shape is not just freezing them properly but also thawing them with care. If you don’t do that, the taste will suffer, and with something as delicate as brie cheese, or most frozen cheeses, for that matter, it goes double.
For optimum results, you need to thaw the brie cheese gradually instead of quickly. If you thaw it too quickly, the texture will be completely ruined, and it will come out too crumbly.
That can be really grating. Because of that, the best thing to do is to thaw it in the fridge. It should be thawed for around 24 hours before you intend to use it.
I like to stash my brie away in a part of the fridge where my husband and kids never look. That way, I avoid them eating it before it’s properly thawed. You can never be too careful!
Related: Learn To Find The Most Delicious Frozen Hamburger Patty
Pro Tip: Even if your brie cheese comes out crumbly or too watery, don’t be too miffed! You can still use stuff like sauces, soups, and casseroles, and no one will be able to tell the difference. It will still taste delicious.
Once it’s completely thawed, take it out of the fridge and give it 30 minutes to an hour for it to reach room temperature before it serving it or using it in any dishes.
It’s okay if you don’t want to use it right away, but you must use it within two days of it being defrosted otherwise you may just toss it out!
What You Should Never Do: Avoid refreezing previously thawed brie! It will be utterly ruined, and you could even develop an illness or food poisoning as a result! Throw away thawed-out brie if you don’t intend to use it.
Other methods of defrosting brie exist, including as in a microwave or the sink with cold water, but I never advise doing any of them. Everyone would notice that it had frozen and thawed, even my beloved spouse.
It would lose too much of its taste and texture that way. Even so, you can utilize such techniques if you must and if you plan to use them in a meal where the taste change won’t be too noticeable.
Conclusion
So, now you know that you can freeze brie cheese – but not without sacrificing a bit of the taste and texture in the process.
It’s a bit like freezing any other type of cheese.
Still, if you follow these instructions, you will be able to minimize that, and hardly anyone will notice that it was frozen.
You can now buy a ton of brie in a sale without worrying about what you’re going to do with all that cheese! 😉