Pre-Shredded Cheese, Friend or Foe? You Decide.

On Saturdays I usually have PBS cooking shows going on in the background while I catch up on housework. Last weekend one of the experts caught my attention when he introduced a segment on pre-shredded cheese. “Oh, boy,” I thought. “Here we go again with the cheese shaming.” I guessed right.

To be clear, my dedication to cheese is the stuff of legend. I’ve seriously never met one I didn’t like. On a once in a lifetime trip to France, the souvenirs I shipped home weren’t tourist keepsakes, but cheeses. (My mail carrier said it was the smelliest package she’d ever delivered.) And when we replaced our refrigerator with a model that had an exterior drawer, it was quickly dubbed the cheese drawer. It’s always well-stocked with a variety of options. Some are gourmet, others are common, and yes, at the risk of being banned from the culinary cool kids’ table, some are pre-shredded.

I agree that there’s a significant quality difference. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with anti-caking agents such as potato starch and powdered cellulose. This keeps the strands from clumping together in the bag, but it also keeps them from melting together nicely during cooking. It gives the shreds a drier texture when served cold. And although the proportion of coating to cheese is miniscule, I believe it creates a barrier to flavor.

Clearly, using freshly grated cheese is important in a lot of applications. But for most of us there are times in life when speed and convenience trump quality. If I’m making a quesadilla for a hangry kid, being completely done in less than five minutes holds a lot of appeal. And for busy families rushing to squeeze in piano lessons and ball games, tapping into kitchen shortcuts may mean the difference between a home cooked meal and something McJunky from the drive thru.

Now get ready to clutch your pearls. There are a few dishes that I think turn out better with pre-shredded cheese. A certain Spinach Pesto recipe comes to mind. I’ve made it countless times with both freshly grated parmesan and the pine needle type shreds from a jar and the latter version is better. For batters or doughs where you want to showcase distinct bits of cheese, the powdered coating can help keep them suspended and separated. It’s similar to the technique of tossing blueberries in a bit of flour before adding them to muffins to keep them from sinking.

 My point is that it’s all about making informed decisions. I wish the experts could just give the facts without communicating a moral imperative. If you’ve got the time to shred on demand you should do so, especially since the cost savings really add up. But if cutting a corner here or there improves your quality of life more than achieving perfect results, don’t feel like you have to wear a disguise in the dairy aisle.