Cheese storage

In fact, the proper storage of cheese isa whole art, because there are many varieties of cheese, and each has its own storage features. Cheese is very sensitive to storage conditions: too high or too low a temperature will destroy the structure of the cheese, at high humidity it will deteriorate, and at low - it will dry up. Ideal conditions for storing cheese - temperature 5-8 ° C at 90% humidity.

The ideal option is to store cheese in wrapped form. Wrapped in food film, parchment orFoil cheese will not dry out and mold, will not absorb the smells of other products. In hermetically sealed dishes, it is better not to put cheese - this breaks the natural process of cheese ripening.

The only exception is the strongly smelling cheeses like Gorgonzola, they should be placed in tightly closedcontainers, otherwise the cheese will smell all the foods in the refrigerator. But even if you keep the cheese in a container with a tight-fitting lid, it must be wrapped beforehand, and only then put in a container and put it in the refrigerator.

If you have small pieces of cheese left, wrap them in film one at a time - not the most convenient option. Such "pruning" can be folded into a glass or
enameled dishes and cover it with a lid. In order for the moisture level in the dishes not to rise above the norm, you can put a piece of sugar into it, not forgetting to periodically change it. But keep in mind that different types of cheese can not be stored together - only separately.

Cheese does not like sudden temperature changes, so it's best to put it not on the topshelf of the refrigerator, as many do, fearing that it will deteriorate, and on the bottom or even in the compartment for fruits and vegetables. In principle, some manage to store hard and semi-solid cheeses in the freezer. But after such storage, they can be used only for dishes subject to heat treatment (pizza, meat in French, etc.). The fact is that, although the cheese does not lose its taste, after freezing it begins to crumble.

If the storage of cheese in the refrigerator for some reason is impossible (the refrigerator broke down or it simply does not exist - say, at the dacha), we need to take clean linen cloth, moisten it with slightly salted water, wrapin it cheese and put it in a shaded place, so that it does not get sunlight. In such conditions, soft cheese can be stored for 2-3 days, hard - 7-10 days, and processed cheese in the open package - no more than 2 days.

By the way, the storage of cheeses in the refrigerator is also subject to this pattern: the harder the cheese, the longer it will be stored. Hard and dry cheeses like Cheddar can be stored for about a month (if you carefully wrap them and create the optimal temperature regime), and soft cheeses should be eaten almost immediately.

If the hard cheese is moldy, then you can cut off the moldy part from it and eat what's left. Moldy soft cheeses are thrown away, because the mold often penetrates into the chunk.

Pickle cheeses store in a special way: in brine with 16% strength, cooked on wateror serum. Before consumption, you can not fill brine cheese and cheese with boiling water: the protein will curd, some of the fat will be lost, the nutritional value of the cheese will go down.

In general, to keep cheese is not a problem for you, you can not buy it too much. If there is such an opportunity, buy cheese often, but little by little - that was enough for one or two days. In this case, you will always have fresh cheese in the house, and you do not have to think about whether you are storing cheese correctly.