You definitely have some leftover cheese in your fridge, whether you eat it by the slice, melt it into a sandwich, grate it into spaghetti or chilli, stir it into soup, or just eat it straight from the cutting board with a glass of wine. You're also probably storing those chunks of cheese incorrectly—don't worry, we're all guilty of it. If you've ever removed a chunk of cheese from the fridge with white borders, mould patches, or a clammy texture, you have a storage issue. Learn how to properly store cheese to maintain optimum flavour, texture, and freshness to give it a new (or prolonged) life. Here are some of the common mistakes that people make when it comes to storing cheese.
Plastic wrapping the cheese
We cover everything in plastic wrap because we're concerned germs will get into the food and destroy it. Plastic wrap, on the other hand, can be disastrous for cheese. Consider this: cheese continues to change after you purchase it, maturing and producing new flavours. You are suffocating the cheese by wrapping it firmly. This can include absorbing whatever scents it emits (like ammonia). Although some cheeses are created with bacteria, wrapping it too tightly in plastic increases the likelihood of undesirable germs growing and making the cheese taste strange or unhealthy.
Using aluminium foil
Wrapping your cheese in aluminium foil, like plastic wrap, can produce a variety of flavour difficulties. When covered in aluminium foil, cheese can lose both flavour and moisture. Certain types of cheese have levels of salt and acid that can interact with the foil and impart an aluminium flavour to the cheese.
Not changing the cheese wrapper regularly
Regularly renewing a cheese's wrapping paper can not only stop the formation and spread of bacteria commonly caused by human touch, but will also help a cheese live longer by maintaining the correct amount of humidity. While we are not suggesting that you change the wrapping every time, it would be excellent to do so every 10 days or so.
Keeping cheese in the coldest area possible in the fridge
Surprisingly, there is an optimal storage temperature for cheese, and it is not the colder the better. Given what we know about other dairy products like milk and ice cream, it's easy to make that assumption. The best spot to store cheese is in the fridge's veggie crisper/drawer, where the temperature is more consistent and there is just the appropriate level of humidity. That way, the flavour will remain consistent.
Leaving cheese at room temperature
In general, keeping cheese out of the fridge for a few hours isn't the end of the world, but it's also not ideal. When you're finished cooking, munching, or winding up your party, return the cheese to the refrigerator — and don't leave it out on the counter overnight. This may have an impact on the product's quality. In most circumstances, if a perishable cheese has been left out at room temperature for more than two hours, it should be discarded.
The same storage method doesn’t apply to all kinds of cheeses
Soft cheeses must be stored differently than their harder, matured counterparts because they are younger. In general, fresh cheeses should be preserved in the brine or salt solution in which they were sold. These types of cheeses can expire quickly without any extra preservatives, which are often present in the brine.