Once you’ve made your tasty
cheese, you want to be sure to store it correctly in order to keep it fresh.
Many people think the best way to store cheese is by wrapping it in cling film
(indeed many shop-bought cheeses are wrapped in plastic) but this traps
moisture and encourages the growth of mould. We recommend that you wrap your
cheese in waxed paper or ultra-fine polypropylene sheets (depending on the type
of cheese), which will prevent the cheese from becoming too dry and prevent the
build-up of excess moisture. To store soft cheeses, wax coated paper product
code 0154 is best, whilst hard cheeses benefit from being wrapped in ultra-fine
polypropylene sheets, product code 0157. See http://www.cheesemaking.co.uk/cheese-making-cheese-wrap to read more and
place an order.
Then there’s the question of
whether to refrigerate cheese. It’s possible to keep hard cheeses in an
environment with a constant temperature of 8-15°C, but soft cheeses really do need
refrigeration. To get the best of the cheese’s flavour, it’s best to remove it
from the fridge up to an hour before serving.
Another important thing to
remember is that mould ripened cheeses need to be stored completely separately
from non-mould ripened cheeses, to avoid cross contamination. Blue and white mould ripened cheeses also
need to be stored separately from one another. If you need to store both in the
same area, they should be placed in different, sealed containers and when
handling the cheeses, the blue cheese boxes should be opened and handled last, to
minimise cross contamination.
Got any questions about
cheese making and storage? Then visit Moorlands http://www.cheesemaking.co.uk/qa where we’re pleased to
provide lots of answers!
