Cheese lovers: keep it fresh with these tips

POLKWANE – National Cheese Lovers day is a day set aside for those who love cheese to celebrate the love that only another cheese lover will understand.

Review spoke to a local former chef Nikita Crew on what tips she may have for cheese lovers to help their cheese last longer.

Here are some of her tips:

1. Never use plastic wrap.
Since cheese is mostly oil and fat, after a few days it will actually start to take on the flavor of the plastic, which masks the taste of the cheese itself.

2. Don’t wrap it tightly or too loosely.
There are natural odors emitted from cheese, the most significant being ammonia’s pungent smell. If you’re not leaving your cheese room to breath, it’s not only going to smell and taste like plastic, it’s going to smell and taste like ammonia.

3. Cheese bags or cheese paper is best for storage.
To keep your cheese fresh for as long as possible, cheese bags or cheese paper is the best way to store it. It’s porous, so it protects the cheese from air exposure while still allowing it to breathe.

4. Wax or parchment paper works too.
If you can’t find cheese paper, wrap it in wax or parchment paper, then put it in a partially sealed plastic bag.

The paper creates a barrier between the cheese and the plastic, while the plastic keeps it from getting dry.

5. Replace the paper every time you unwrap
For cheeses that sweat a lot, like Cheddar, you’ll want to replace the cheese, wax, or parchment paper every time you unwrap it. Reused materials won’t give you the same breathable seal that you had before, so start fresh for longer lasting results.

6. Only buy a little at a time
Try to buy cheese in small quantities so you only have to store it for a few days.

Here are some things you may not know about cheese:

• Cheese is more flavorful at room temperature.
• Historical records vary, as to when cheese was first made. It was somewhere between 7,500 and 8,000 B.C.

Records suggest it may have first been discovered, by accident, in Poland or Arabia.
• The world’s largest cheese was put on display on this day in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair. It weighed over 15 422 kg.

riana@nmgroup.co.za