How to store cheese

You've just bought some wonderful cheese from your cheesemonger (hopefully us!) and for some reason you're not going to wolf it all down straight away. How do you keep the cheese in top condition once you get it home?

There are two main factors to consider when it comes to storing cheese - temperature and humidity. If we assume that you're storing the cheese in a typical kitchen fridge then that takes care of temperature, although remember to get the cheese to room temperature before you eat it.

That takes us on to humidity. We don't want the cheese to dry out so we need to keep it in as humid conditions as possible and in a standard kitchen fridge that is the vegetable drawer if you have room. You should also keep the cheese wrapped, although not too tightly as it still needs to breath - the wax paper that the cheese comes in is best for this although for some blue cheeses tinfoil is acceptable too as that will help stop the blue mould spores from spreading. We don't recommend clingfilm as this stops the cheese being able to breath and if left on too long causes both bad flavours and undesirable mould growth. If you have no option but to use clingfilm then don't despair, just don't wrap it too tightly and change the clingfilm every day so it doesn't spoil the flavour or encourage mould.