Keep your fingers off the cheese

Hands first, people say. Some people say touching the cheese leaves oils and bacteria on it that speed the spoilage, and one person puts it flatly: preventing mould is more about not touching it than about which wrap you use. Some people say handling cheese with bare hands is common, and so is cheese going off from handling or poor storage. So: a cheese knife or any clean utensil for hard cheese, clean dry hands when you must, and a clean board: one person warns a board that has had charcuterie on it can carry mould spores to the cheese. Second, the wrapper it came in. Some people say leaving the shop wrapper on inside a bag traps bacteria and moisture against the cheese; one person adds to take all the plastic off before rewrapping, and one person warns moisture in the bag can lift the ink off the printed wrapper onto the cheese. Third, the fridge itself: one person says to check its temperature with a thermometer because fridges vary from spot to spot, and the FDA says the same — at or below 40°F, 4°C, with an inexpensive appliance thermometer; the UK line is 0 to 5°C. One person warns a dirty or smelly fridge changes the taste of the cheese within days, and one person keeps baking soda in there for the smells. One person stores cheese in the warmer part of the fridge — the door or an upper rack — rather than the cold back; that is one person, and the authorities’ range above still applies.

This is the argument, and this page does not settle it. Many people say plastic wrap traps moisture and grows mould, so wrap the cheese in wax paper, parchment, cheese paper or a beeswax wrap and let it breathe; one person puts the paper-wrapped block in a loosely rolled, unsealed bag so it neither dries out nor sweats, and one says the whole trick is balancing airflow — too much dries it, too little goes funky. Against that, across some discussions, people say professional cheese counters use plastic film and heat-sealing, and that a plastic bag keeps a block for weeks; many people say their bagged cheese lasts weeks, not the five to eight days the paper method’s defenders claimed, and one person points out the same. One person points out that modern wraps and zip bags are porous enough to let gas through, so “plastic cannot breathe” is overstated. One person who works in kitchens says chefs want a specific cellophane-backed cheese paper, and that plain wax paper can dry the cheese and pick up fridge smells; some people object that the whole paper step complicates something simple. People’s own decider is the cheese — hard or soft — how long it is being kept, and whether the plastic is sealed tight or left loosely rolled. Two more methods sit outside the fight: some people say vinegar holds off mould, and one of them wraps the block in a paper towel dampened with it before bagging and says it does not flavour the cheese, and some people vacuum-seal blocks and report weeks in the fridge without loss, with one person warning that the sink-the-bag-in-water trick is not a true vacuum. Other conversations describe dipping hard cheese in wax for storage over years; this page carries that as something people do and not as an instruction. If you use plastic film, some people say change it regularly, and one person warns older cheeses in plastic can mould after a few weeks.

People do not answer this — it is not covered here — and one person says only that surface mould on a dense cheese like cheddar can be cut away. So the answer above is the US Department of Agriculture’s, as widely reproduced, and the University of Georgia food-safety director’s: for a hard cheese, an inch around and below the spot, the knife kept out of the mould, fresh wrap after; the whole piece out if the mould covers it or the piece is too small to cut that deep. For a soft cheese, or anything shredded, crumbled or sliced, the block or the bag goes, because the moisture lets the mould run deeper than you can see. Which colours of mould are dangerous is another gap people name and this page leaves to that rule.

People argue this. Some people say freezing a block solid ruins it — it crumbles, weeps water on thawing, and goes mealy — while some people say they portion bulk-bought blocks, freeze them and notice nothing after thawing. Some people say freezing kills the taste and texture outright, and some people point out frozen-solid cheese crumbles under the grater. Some people warn the same thing in different words, and one adds that proper freezing does not necessarily degrade food, only improper freezing. People’s own decider is the moisture in the cheese and what you will do with it: grated into a hot dish, people call it fine; eaten cold, expect the texture to have changed. Practical lines from individual people: grate first and freeze the shreds in a bag rather than freezing the block; wrap a block in foil for a few months; cut off only what you mean to freeze so it freezes fast. The UK government’s line on freezers is that they act as a pause button — food in one will not go bad and most bacteria cannot grow in it — which is about safety, not texture.

Chill it, do not freeze it. Many people say a cold block grates cleaner than one at room temperature, and some say thirty minutes in the freezer is the amount — one person points out that is too short to form the ice crystals that would damage it; it only firms the cheese. Some people answer the people who read “freeze your cheese” and left it in overnight: solid-frozen cheese crumbles and grates badly. One person adds that very hard aged cheese crumbles rather than shreds when cold, and one who grates an aged Italian hard cheese has never had it gum up at all. Some people prefer the cheese at room temperature with cooking spray on the grater, saying it goes fast and easy that way. Some people use a food processor instead. And some people say pre-shredded costs you at the pan: it carries an anti-caking powder that changes the texture and stops it melting cleanly, and one person warns the same, so the block is worth the grating.