All regular consumers of cheese know very well that its preservation requires technique and patience; and it is therefore good practice to purchase only small portions of each cheese, especially when you intend to taste it at its best.
However, in life there are occasions that will require the gourmet to prepare the home preservation of larger quantities of cheese; supply difficulties, or simply occasional contact with a local producer during a trip or holiday, may require special efforts to ensure the long survival of our beloved cheese.
Not having adequate cellars, people will mainly resort to the most common solution of all, in domestic contexts; that is to say storage in the refrigerator.
In this case it is advisable to follow two simple precautions to: best guarantee the conservation of what we purchased in our trusted cheese shop.
The temperature
THE fresh cheeses either soft or semi-hard, they require lower temperatures, between 0 and 6 degrees; such as those guaranteed by the lower drawers of the refrigerator, usually used for storing fruit or vegetables.
This temperature will prevent the triggering of fermentation processes which would lead to the degradation of the aroma and consistency of the original cheese.
In reverse hard or mature cheeses they will prefer slightly higher temperatures, between 8 and 10 degrees centigrade, found on the top shelves of the common domestic refrigerator. This temperature will guarantee the preservation of the cheese without affecting its original aroma.
Avoid direct contact with plastics
Also in this case it will be advisable to use different precautions based on the type of cheese.
For soft ones you will prefer to wrap the cheese in aluminum foil, which they may then be stored in non-hermetically sealed plastic bags. This solution will guarantee minimal, but still essential, transpiration, without giving rise to processes of dispersion of the intrinsic humidity of the cheese, which in any case must not come into contact with the plastic of the bag so as not to deteriorate its aroma.
Hard cheeses should instead be wrapped in sheets of paper – oily or breathable, excellent paperfrom the oven' – and then stored in the drawer or even in a cheese container in the fridge, avoiding compressing the packages too much together.
For the conservation of shapes from the most significant dimension it is always advisable to wrap the cheese in a slightly damp cloth - cotton or linen, and to keep the shape in a space in the refrigerator that avoids excessive dispersion of humidity without giving rise to stagnation or condensation of any kind.
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