How Do You Preserve Cheese For Long Term Storage?

What is the best way to store cheese?

The best way to store cheese. The perfect cheese storage container is reusable, durable, and easy to clean. It’s long-lasting, sustainable, and zero-waste. It uses natural materials like wood—the same materials cheesemakers use to age cheese in their caves.

In general, it’s a good idea to keep your cheese in the cheese drawer or crisper to protect it from the drying air of your fridge. Of course, there are some exceptions.

That’s because a tight seal of plastic doesn’t allow your cheese to breathe the way other storage methods do. This means it can’t release gases like ammonia, which can build up and create unpleasant flavors and aromas in your cheese.

Wrapping cheese in foil can create some of the same issues as plastic. Because it’s not breathable, foil will hold in moisture and gases, creating those unfortunate flavors and aromas and leading to potential bacterial growth. Foil can also affect the flavor of certain cheeses.

Cheese is a living food. It needs to breathe. That’s the guiding principle of storing cheese, and here’s why. Depending on the variety, cheeses are aged for anywhere from a few weeks to several months to several years. As long as the wheels remain whole, they’ll keep aging and developing.

We developed the Cheese Grotto to be the perfect home for all your cheeses. It creates the humidity your cheese needs to taste its best and extend its shelf life, and it looks great while doing it. Think of it as a humidor for cheese, simulating the high-moisture, protected conditions of the cheese cave.

With the Cheese Grotto, you can store your aged cheeses at room temperature, just like the French do! Brie, Cheddar, Gouda, Manchego, Gruyere—they’ll keep for up to 7 to 10 days in the Grotto at room temperature, always the perfect temperature when you’re ready for a snack.

What to use to melt cheese?

Food Handling Gloves. The less you touch the cheese directly the better. Double Broiler. Use a pan that will only be used for melting cheese. Possibly pick one up at a thrift store for this purpose. Hard Cheese. You can wax practically any hard cheese as long as it’s hard enough to be a solid block.

Cheese Wax. Do not use paraffin wax be because it doesn’t plie as nicely to the cheese and can tend to crack. Cheese wax is meant to shape to the cheese and heats up more slowly and to a higher temperature. It is also less crumbly.

Put your Cheese Wax in your double broiler and melt. I dipped the cheese in for about 4-5 seconds and then lifted it up and HELD it above the pan for a few seconds. Then set it cheese-side down on parchment paper. You will get a better cohesion if your second and third coats are applied while the wax is still warm.

Some people mention dipping their cheese in vinegar and drying completely before waxing. The surface of your cheese should be clean and dry before waxing. I used Mild Cheddar because the cheese will still age, so it might be medium or sharp by the time I use it. Put your Cheese Wax in your double broiler and melt.

How long can you keep cheese in the refrigerator?

Storing Cheese for More Than a Few Days. Ideally, only buy as much cheese as you’re able to consume within a few days, then how you store the cheese doesn’t matter so much. However, if you do find yourself with a big chunk of cheese that will be in the refrigerator for awhile, follow the guidelines below for the best way to store cheese.

As a solution, store cheese in the produce drawer, which is usually slightly warmer than the rest of the refrigerator. If your kitchen has a cool, even temperature then it is possible to leave cheese out on the counter. However, the temperature in most kitchens, or even pantries, fluctuates too much for cheese.

One way to protect cheese is to use cheese paper, or wax or parchment paper, wrapping the cheese tightly then sealing it with tape.

The cheese grotto is a centuries-old device which protects cheese and stores it at 75% humidity, with an adjustable air flow system. It can be kept on the counter or in a refrigerator. 01 of 04.

The paper allows the cheese to “breathe” meaning that the cheese is protected, but a little bit of air can still filter through the paper. Soft cheese needs to have some exposure to air so it doesn’t become too moist and watery.

If you do store cheese on the counter, you’ll want to cover the cheese to prevent the cheese from flies and other pests (or pets!) and from being exposed to too much air . A bell jar looks pretty, but can suffocate the cheese if the temperature gets warm, so it isn’t ideal for long term storage.

If the cheese you’re storing becomes moldy, it’s often fine to just scrape or cut off the mold and re-wrap the cheese in fresh paper or plastic. If a hard cheese has a white film on it or if the cheese is rock hard, it’s too dried out. Try scraping away the white film, as there might still be good cheese underneath.

Why does cheese last longer in the fridge?

So storing anything in the fridge like cheese will last longer because the bacteria does not have enough time to grow to the point of contamination.

Leaving cheese that’s been vacuum-sealed in plastic wrap in its original wrapper is a bad idea. It suffocates the cheese and can give it a plastic flavor. Gently unwrap the piece of cheese and take it out of the packaging to store it. Smell or taste your cheese.

Wrap it in cheese paper, wax paper, or parchment paper. Tear off a sheet of paper and lay it flat on the counter. Place your unwrapped block of cheese in the center. Fold the paper up around the cheese, creasing the folds so that the paper lies flat against the cheese. Make sure the cheese is completely covered.

However, if it doesn’t reseal well after opening it, move the cheese to a container that can be closed completely. If you move it to a new container, be sure to label the container with a permanent marker or sticker. Write down the type of cheese and the date that you bought it so you know how long to keep it.

The best drawer is the one closest to the bottom of the fridge. Ideally, your refrigerator temperature should be set between 35 and 45 °F (2 and 7 °C) for cheese-keeping.

A good rule of thumb for measuring your piece of paper is to tear off a piece that’s 2 times as wide as the length of your cheese and 3 times as long. Use tape to secure the paper in place for extra protection. Cheese paper is more expensive.

Label the cheese with the type and date that you bought it. Use a permanent marker to write directly on the paper covering the cheese or stick a label on it. Include what kind of cheese is inside (Cheddar, Swiss, etc.) and when it was purchased.