Let's hear your tips for storing cheese

I recall seeing cheese left out 24/7 on wooden cutting boards with glass, bell-shaped domes covering it in Spain; I never saw any ill-effects and the cheese was always at room temp and ready to eat. I have never tried this myself except for a few hours before serving as I always saw this as particularly Spanish/European. Anyone else see/do this?

[Jenise]

Anyone else see/do this?

Jon, my first taste of cabrales blue cheese (my fave blue in the world) came from a small market in Seville where it was residing on the checkout counter just as you describe. And I don't think Spaniards are falling dead left and right because of it!

Anyone else see/do this?

Our family in France also keep their cheese plate under glass in a cool cupboard. We ate from it each evening after dinner. Some of the cheeses were there the entire week, not refrigerated or wrapped. All was tasty and no one got sick. Neither did I see any mold that wasn't supposed to be there.

The other food much of the world doesn't refrigerate but North Americans do are eggs.

My professor/wife, Liz, told me the name of the biological property of eggs that keeps them fresh until that property becomes ineffective upon refrigeration; I just can't remember what it is. Counterintuitive but really no surprise considering all the surprises nature has shown us and will, no doubt, continue to.

[Jon, my first taste of cabrales blue cheese (my fave blue in the world) came from a small market in Seville where it was residing on the checkout counter just as you describe. And I don't think Spaniards are falling dead left and right because of it!

...and no waiting for the cheese to come to room temps, Jenise.

[Jenise]

The other food much of the world doesn't refrigerate but North Americans do are eggs.

True. Friends of mine who live south of us in Mt. Vernon were saying last week that they now come up to Bham for the Saturday Farmers Market. There is one in Mt. Vernon, but the micro-management of that town's paranoid and conservative mayor (he who declared one day last year Glenn Beck day, for instance) discourages the selling of meats and cheeses, and most recently he banned the selling of fresh eggs.

Don't know who Glenn Beck is, but I take it he is a conservative as well.

These are the types of idiots that so long prevented us from getting unpasteurized cheese from Europe up here! They also go nuts about traditional Chinese butcher stores.

Hard cheese can be kept under cover pretty well. Soft cheeses will skin over as well as dessicating at the rind if you keep them that way.

Cabrales is best kept at least 12" under ground, as long as the ground is at least a mile away. For those not in the know, cabrales is one of those cheeses like Vacherin de Mont d'Or that are really great at one point, but when you get a bit further along in their development /degradation, they become anti-personnel cheeses that should require a license!

If we are not going to use it right away, we freeze it. Never had a problem.

Well, I am certain that Food Saver bags do not breathe, since their purpose is to keep oxygen away. I just opened a bag in which I have stored a chunk of Pecorino Romano, and it still tastes just as good as the day I bought it. I must be the only one using a Food Saver to store cheese.

Just wanted to let you know you're not the only one, Karen For me, cheese is one of the best reasons to own a FoodSaver. As you pointed out earlier, it doesn't really work well for very soft or wet cheeses (I need to throw in a piece of paper towel on top to be successful with feta) and something as hard as Parmigiano gets along fine in a plain Ziploc bag. But I've found everything in between becomes more or less immortal when sealed in a FoodSaver bag. Bill could open that can of Cougar Gold without waiting for

a damned serious cheese consuming mood

knowing he could keep the leftovers more or less forever. My experience with FoodSaver-stored cheese suggests that "breathing" is indeed not necessary to successfully keep cheese; the opposite is at least as successful. It could be that either keeping the cheese's surface relatively dry with breathing or denying it oxygen (or just mold spores?) altogether with the FoodSaver prevents mold. But I'll leave that for the chemists and biologists around here.

And I don't think Spaniards are falling dead left and right because of it!

Dead men tell no tales.

Dead Spaniards neither.

Well, I am certain that Food Saver bags do not breathe, since their purpose is to keep oxygen away. I just opened a bag in which I have stored a chunk of Pecorino Romano, and it still tastes just as good as the day I bought it. I must be the only one using a Food Saver to store cheese.

Just jumped in. I'm a Food Saver lover also and cut the cheese, no pun intended, to portions, vacuum seal and freeze.