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Cheese Tips

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When to Slice - To maintain the subtle flavors and aromas of unpasteurized cheeses, they should be sliced when you purchase them, and eaten soon after. Softer cheeses usually keep from one to three weeks. Hard cheeses may be fine for several months.

How to Slice - The key to cutting cheese is to divide cheese so that each piece has the same amount of inside and outside. Cut round cheeses like a cake. Cut slices lengthwise rather than across, and tall cheeses are easier to serve if sliced horizontally.

Temperature Talk - Store hard, semi-hard and semi-soft cheeses at 35° F to 40° F, but remove them 1 to 2 hours before serving to enhance their tastes and smells. The flavor of cheese is best when eaten at room temperature.

Let it Breath! - Organisms in cheese are alive... cheese will continue to ripen, no matter how carefully it is stored. Cheeses need air, but It’s equally important to maintain their humidity. So wrap your cheeses in waxed or greaseproof paper, and put them in a loose airtight food container. Cheese needs to breathe, but don’t expose it to other aromas or you will end up with a very different tasting cheese.

Storing Blue Cheese - Blue cheese mold spores are alive and they will migrate to all other foods, so place blue cheeses in separate containers.

Mold. Friend or Foe? - If your cheese didn’t have mold when you bought it, but it does now... cut ½ inch off and use it soon. Molds are generally harmless.