How to Keep Cheese from Growing Mold for a Very Long Time

Many people have very bad luck keeping cheese longer than a week or two. It grows mold faster than we grow hair and becomes an unsightly and inedible mess. Hardly seems worth it to even buy the stuff sometimes. But cheese is delicious and is an integral part of many excellent recipes. So, what can you do to preserve it? Here are a very few important cheese preservation tips.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A block of cheese of any kind
• an airtight container, such as a reclosable plastic bag or bowl
• a cheese plate with a dome (optional)
• refrigerator

1. The most important tip for keeping cheese from growing mold is this: NEVER touch cheese with your bare hands. Cheese will keep, literally for months, in the refrigerator, if you follow this one simple step. Keep the cheese wrapper or storage bag between your fingers and the cheese at all times, even when holding it to slice it, and it will last, virtually forever.

2. If you are one of the many people who prefer to keep cheese at room temperature on a plate under a dome or a bowl, congratulations: you really know your cheese. Just about every kind of cheese is improved by allowing it to ripen at room temperature. But, unless you eat it up very quickly indeed, the cheese will begin to exude its fat and become hard and dry. The best method to avoid allowing this to happen is to keep most of the cheese sealed in an airtight container in the refrigerator and only keep out the portion you are using in a day or two. If you are using it in a day, it's okay to touch it with your hands, as it won't get a chance to mold if you eat it first.

3. When storing cheese under refrigeration, it's best to store it airtight. If you put it in a reclosable bag, press out as much of the air as you possibly can, even to the extent of sucking it out with a straw. If you are using a sealable container, use the smallest one you have that will fit the cheese.

Tips & Warnings

• If you happen to inherit or otherwise acquire a huge amount of cheese all at once, it may be frozen for a very long period of time, as long as you don't touch it with your hands, and make it as airtight as you possibly can.
• If your cheese does become moldy, it won't hurt you. You can simply cut or scrape away the moldy part and eat what remains. You can even eat cheese mold, and it won't hurt you at all, but it doesn't taste good by itself. Some of the finest cheeses are actually a combination of dairy and carefully manipulated molds, such as bleu cheese, gorganzola, and roquefort, among others.
• If the cheese you have left out on the counter becomes hard and dry, simply grate it finely and use it as you would use a parmesan or romano cheese, or add it to white sauce with a little dry mustard to make a nice cheese sauce.
• It is very rarely necessary to throw away cheese. It may be cleansed of its mold or used differently if it becomes dried out. However, if cheese gets deep black or bright orange mold on it, DO NOT EAT IT as these molds, while rarely found on natural cheese, may be found on processed cheeses or cheese foods, which cheese lovers don't often have in the house anyway. Black or orange molds are toxic and can make you sick.

[PABechko]

on 12/17/2008 Thank you. What a helpful article. Wasting food is wasting money and I love learning new ways to pinch those pennies.

[vallain]

on 11/28/2008 This is really good to know. I hate to waste food.

[AbbyNormal]

on 11/23/2008 Great tip.

[cadence]

on 11/19/2008 This is really interesting - you know a lot about cheese!

[2besure]

on 11/19/2008 Thanks for the great information. I alway end up throwing out old cheese!