Store Cheese Successfully at Home

The result of 4 years of research, trial and error, and talking with cheese-makers to find the best way to handle cheese at home.

Steps

  1. Before buying, make sure the package is properly wrapped and sealed, and that the cheese inside looks appealing. Avoid any cheese that looks dry or discolored, as the seal may be broken or buy from a service counter from people who know their cheese. Check the freshness date on the package for fresh cheeses. When you get them home:
    • Fresh cheeses should be kept cold, in their original containers, and consumed quickly.
    • Unwrap all other cheeses immediately. Plastic wrap suffocates cheese.
    • Rub the surface of all but american, Grey, Bleu, and Washed Rind cheeses with olive, canola or other cooking oil. Rub only the cut faces of the White, Grey and Washed rinds. Bleu will protect itself.
  2. Keep cheese in a covered container in your refrigerator on a clean, dry, lightly crumpled paper towel or two, leaving a little breathing room. Similar cheeses can not be stored together, as long as they don’t touch. You can use plastic webbing, or the mats they use to roll up sushi, to stack in layers and still allow airspace.
  3. When mold starts to form, it will consume the oil and not the cheese; simply wipe it off, or rinse in tepid water. Dry, rub with fresh oil and store as above in a clean container with clean towels.
  4. Keep washed rind, blue, flavored and white rind cheeses in separate containers to prevent mingling.
  5. If it's for just a few days, an oversized resealable bag with a crumpled towel will do. Be sure to minimize contact so it can breathe.
  6. If stored as above and rubbed with oil, larger chunks of semi-hard and hard natural cheeses can keep for months. Wipe off any mold every couple of weeks as it forms. After a few treatments, mold will slow or cease to grow if your container has enough towels to soak up excess moisture. Change the towels and wash container often.

Tips

  • Tupperware™ makes a great container for storing cheese. Look for the one called the Fridgesmart®; it has a grooved bottom so you don't have to sit the cheese on anything, and two holes for ventilation on the sides. You can also use disposable Ziplocs™ by piercing the sides with a few pin holes on each side. both vents open for storing cheese, with a q-tip dipped in vinegar set at the back of the container, it will collect any mold that will grow inside keeping your cheese that much more fresh.
  • Every refrigerator is different, so you will have to play around with your partner to see how many towels or holes you have until you get it just right, but everyone will ask where you buy your cheese, even though they may have done so at the same store, it will be that much better!
  • Always serve all but fresh cheeses at room temperature: take them out of refrigeration for a couple of hours before serving. You can cover with a clean damp cloth to hold for longer, the condensation acts as a kind of coolant.
  • You can get special cheese mats and cut to size from either the Canadian companies, Glengarry Cheesemaking Inc. or Fromagex, or from New England Cheese making Supply, or simply use the bamboo sushi mats cut to order, as long as you keep them clean.

Warnings

  • Keeping cheese well means tending to it, catching mold early, refreshing the air regularly, cleaning the container and changing the towel, and turning the cheese from time to time to counter gravity. But the results can be tasted within a few days of proper storage!
  • Keep all surfaces clean and avoid contaminating your cheese with other raw foods on cutting surfaces or by spills. If so, simply wash in tepid water, dry and store as above.
  • When the mold starts to grow it will consume the oil before the cheese. The down-side is that it makes the oil rancid, which can make you very sick. Mold won't make the cheese toxic, but it just makes it taste bad.

Things You'll Need

  • Roomy plastic containers or Ziploc bags
  • Clean dry paper towel
  • A calendar to help you remember
  • Mild edible oil like pure olive oil

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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