Cheese is a staple in the kitchen for crafting our favourite comfort foods like pasta and toasties, but it’s frustrating when it goes off prematurely.
A lot of people don’t realise that cheese is quite delicate and can become mouldy if stored with too much moisture or crusty and hard if exposed to excess air.
However, Erika Kubick, who’s experienced as a cheesemonger and is also an author of a cookbook, has revealed the biggest blunder in cheese storage: keeping it wrapped in the supermarket’s plastic, reports the Express.
Erika explained: “Cheese is alive and breathing, which means it needs oxygen and humidity to stay fresh and tasty.”
She went on: “Now, I know it’s convenient to just keep your cheese in the plastic wrap it came in, but it’s just as easy to take care of it properly. Proper cheese storage is very simple and only takes a few minutes of actual effort.”
Plastic wrapping suffocates the cheese by cutting off all air, making it likely to lose its flavour and potentially turn brick hard. Plastic also facilitates a humid environment that can prompt the cheese to become slimy and mouldy.
The ideal method for keeping cheese at its best involves dispensing with the plastic wrap as soon as possible, better still as soon as you’re home from the shop. The next step is to simply wrap the cheese in baking paper or opt for specialty cheese paper that is reusable for storing your cheese instead.
Ensure that none of the cheese is left exposed as it can quickly dry out in the fridge, resulting in an unpleasant, tasteless crusty layer. If you notice a hard crust on your cheese, simply trim it off with a knife to maintain its freshness.
“Or, wrap the cheese in parchment or butcher paper,” Erika said. “Then, loosely wrap it in a Ziploc bag. Before closing the zipper, make sure there’s still some air in the bag so your cheese has plenty of oxygen and humidity. Your cheese should stay tasty, fresh and have the perfect texture for much longer than it normally would last.
“The exact shelf life your cheese will have depends on the type as fresh cheeses like ricotta will always only last a few days while rind cheeses, aged cheeses and blue cheese will keep fresh for weeks.”