Over here I talked about unwrapping a chunk of cheese I'd bought last year and discovering that it was much too hard to use as it was. It wasn't inexpensive, either! It had been an impulse purchase for a luxury dinner, and then I'd waited too long.
This is how hard it was. I couldn't even get a cleaver into it, except to make the slight scratches you see at the lower right below.
Okay, then. I wrapped it in wet paper towel and microwaved it. 5 minutes at 20% power made promising softness around the edges. I could cut off the desiccated wrapping that looks like potato peelings here:
I repeated the process more aggressively then: another 10 minutes at 20% power. By golly, now I could cut it. If you look carefully at the cross-sections you can see discoloration where the cheese was starting to cook. The microwave really does have to be used judiciously, but it works with that wet wrapping.
I doubt it was decently shreddable even then, but the flavor was good. The firm cubes should work well enough for the panade that's cooking as I type. There was quite a bit of oil in the wrapping, and I squeezed that into the assembled dish.
I'll add a link to the finished dish when it's done.
Edited to add: here's the dish, and the process. This was well worth the effort of revival!
