One teaspoon of cornflour per 200 g of grated cheese. That is the
difference between a bag of loose shreds you can scoop from all winter and a single frozen
brick you have to chip apart.
Hard cheese itself freezes for six months without complaint. It comes out crumbly rather
than sliceable, which rules out a cheese board and rules in everything cooked.
Why the starch is needed
Grated cheese carries surface moisture, and in the freezer that moisture welds the shreds
together. Starch absorbs it before it can. It is the same reason commercially bagged
grated cheese has starch in the ingredients list — not a filler, a function.
What happens with less
Clumping, in proportion. Half the starch gives you a bag of loose shreds with a few
welded lumps, which is workable. None at all gives you one lump.
What happens with more
Nothing useful, and past about double you start to taste it — a faint chalkiness
in a sauce, and cheese that resists melting smoothly.
Why grate at all
Because crumbliness stops mattering once the cheese is already in shreds. A frozen block
has to be sliced, and that is exactly where the texture change shows. Grated cheese is also
the form you actually reach for: onto pasta, pizza, a gratin, straight from the freezer
with no thawing.
When the rule does not apply
Freezing in a block. Then there is no starch and no grating —
cut into 150–200 g pieces, wrap tightly in film, then bag, and thaw slowly in the fridge.
Rushing it makes the crumbling worse.
Soft and brined cheeses. Mozzarella in brine turns to rubber and blue
cheeses fall apart; starch will not save either. The rule of thumb is that the drier and
harder the cheese, the better it freezes — parmesan barely changes at all.
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