Last week, we set up a casual experiment to test four of the most recommended cheese storage methods: cheese paper, foil, saran wrap, and Tupperware. We allowed four small pieces of Chebris to age for seven days in the less-than-sterile environment of the F44 Wine & Spirits staff refrigerator. No fancy humidifiers or wooden shelving here, only the harsh fluorescent bulb and stale air of your typical home fridge. After a week, we opened up the four test subjects with great anticipation. The results…
The good news is: all of the cheeses still looked and tasted pretty decent. There were no visible mold growths or spots of serious oxidation, which are typically the first harbingers of cheese death. A couple of the samples were looking a little crisp around the edges (pictured), but nothing that concerned us.
The paper-aged sample shows signs of drying around the edges.
The Winner: Foil
Surprisingly, foil proved to be our favorite storage method. Tasters agreed that the foil-wrapped cheese remained the most creamy and still tasted fresh cut from the wheel. The foil wrap kept out fridge odor completely, while keeping moisture in.
Cheese Paper
It’s no surprise that cheese paper stores cheese well. The paper is designed to do this with a paper exterior and breathable poly-lining. Our only gripe with this method was that the cheese did show signs of dryness encroaching around the edges.
Tupperware
Similarly, the Tupperware-encased piece of Chebris showed signs of drying out, but not as much as we expected. This proved to be an effective way of keeping fridge odors out, and would probably be a great way to store larger pieces of cheese in the fridge.
Saran wrap
As we hypothesized, the saran-wrapped piece of cheese tasted by far the worst, with notes of plastic and stale-fridge odor apparent. This cheese also appeared the most oily and sweaty, having not been allowed to properly breath within the cling film. (Granted, we’re nitpicking here! These cheese was still mostly tasty and far from inedible, but all things considered, it was our least favorite method.)
While we learned a lot from this brief experiment, our consensus was that a longer aging might be necessary to truly test wrap methods’ durability. Trial two begins today, and this one will run for four whole weeks. The potential for gnarly cheese pics is high, folks. Fellow cheese obsessives, stay tuned.