Latest news with #Murray'sCheese
Time Out
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Murray's Cheese is stretching a massive mozzarella ball for National Cheese Day
Murray's Cheese has been Manhattan's most famed, vast, and varied dairy purveyor since first opening its doors decades ago. At its charming Bleecker Street shop, bustling Grand Central outpost, or Long Island City locale, you can consult expert cheese mongers and try samples of proprietary cave-aged varieties prepared right here in town. (This is Antoni Porowski's favorite cheese shop for a reason, people!) And as one of the best cheese shops in New York City, Murray's has unsurprisingly made monumental plans for National Cheese Day. On Wednesday June 4, Chef Clare Malfitano will build the biggest ball of mozzarella in Manhattan for onlookers to see and, more importantly, taste! Expect a truly one-of-a-kind performance from inside a giant translucent bowl as she stretches and forms a massive, 80-pound ball by hand. Fromage festivities begin at 4pm, running until 7pm, or when the giant curd sculpture has been consumed. To prepare for this wild undertaking, Chef Malfitano trained with 25-pound balls of mozzarella and equipped new gadgetry for the epic task. She will hand cut 90 pounds of curd to later salt and bathe, then stretch using a giant paddle. With the help of additional cheese mongers, Malfitano will pull and shape the monstrous mozzarella into a luscious cloud of cheese. Once cooled in an ice bath, the enormous fresh cow's milk creation will be ready for slicing and snacking. "This mozzarella is tried and true, a lightly salted favorite that people love in summertime on salads, pastas, and more," a Murray's representative told Time Out. "Since it's such a go-to summer cheese, we thought it was the perfect celebratory choice for National Cheese Day." Attendees can take advantage of a 15-percent off sale — plus a free ball of mozzarella with a $25 purchase — at the Bleecker St and Grand Central shops on June 4. During the Greenwich Village event, local purveyors will also hand out samples, including Mike's Hot Honey, Finback Brewing, Talea Beer, and Schaller & Weber.
CNET
05-05-2025
- Health
- CNET
A Cheesemonger Reveals: The Best Way to Store Your Cheese
Don't ditch that half-eaten block of cheese. By storing it the right way, you can keep any variety of cheese fresh and delicious for days and even weeks. To keep cheese tasting as good as the day you bought it, avoid plastic wrap or storage bags. These methods can starve cheese of the air it needs to breathe, and leave it tasting stale along with ruining the texture. If you want your cheese to taste as good as the day you first sliced it, it's time to store it like the pros do. To get the real scoop on cheese storage, I spoke with John Montez, a certified cheese professional and the education lead at New York's legendary Murray's Cheese. He broke down exactly how to treat your cheese right, no matter the type, so it stays flavorful and ready for your next snack attack. "Cheese is a preserved product," Montez said. "It's high in acid and salt and has a lot of the water removed compared to milk. So it's rare that you would ever have to throw out a piece of cheese." Cheese, in other words, is built to last; ergo, an investment worth having. With Montez's help, here's what you need to know about cheese to understand its aging potential and how to best cut and store your fancy cheese so you never have to throw it away. Cheese is a living thing A little extra mold on your cheese should not deter you from hanging onto it. Just scrape it off with a knife and carry on. Murray's Cheese Certain cheeses, like blue cheese, wear their mold more proudly than others, but it may be helpful to think of cheese as the controlled decay of milk and know that there's pretty much always mold involved regardless. The snowy-white rind of brie and other bloomy-rind cheeses are a type of mold, as is the mottled outer surface of a firmer cheese like Gruyere. Fear not. If you've ever taken a probiotic, you already inherently understand that not all microbes are bad. Read more: There's a Lot of Fake Parmesan Cheese Out There. Here's How to Tell This is all to say that, first of all, a little extra mold on your cheese shouldn't deter you from hanging on to it. "If you see it molds up a little bit, generally you can scrape off that mold and it's no problem," says Montez. Because of the lack of water content in cheese, food mold can't penetrate it very deeply like it would with many other food products. "Look out if it's black mold or something like that," he says, "but the thing is, it's rare that a piece of cheese becomes unsafe to eat. It's going to become unpalatable to you long before it's unsafe." Cut your cheese so it's easier to wrap Precise cuts that leave flat surfaces make it easier to wrap your cheese so it doesn't spoil. David Watsky/CNET Keeping the cheese palatable, then, is the real goal. How you store your cheese is going to have the biggest impact on its longevity -- but how, when and what you cut it with can also play a part in its ongoing flavor and texture success. Precise cuts that leave flat surfaces make it easier to wrap in the most effective manner, and keeping the cheese whole for as long as possible is also helpful to its longevity. "Minimizing the surface area (exposed to air) is going to prevent cheese from drying out or getting moldy," says Montez. "So, for example, if you're going to prep cheese ahead of time for a party, the longer you can leave it as a whole piece, the better," or if you're a habitual meal-prepper, resist the urge to cut up a whole chunk of cheese for easier access, and just cut as you go. As for making clean cuts, "you can get done pretty much any job you need to get done with a chef's knife," says Montez. "When it comes to softer cheeses, a skeleton knife is good to have as something that reduces the knife's drag, or a wire-based cheese harp which is used in a lot of cheese shops. Nowadays, you can even find cheese boards that have a built-in wire. These are really good for leaving as much of the rind intact on bloomy rind and other soft cheeses as you can." Wrap your cheese, but don't use plastic There is specialty cheese paper you can buy, but butcher or parchment paper will work just as well. David Watsky/CNET One of the two main goals when wrapping and storing cheese is to allow a little bit of airflow so that your fancy cheese can still breathe. "The main idea here is you don't want to wrap it in plastic," says Montez, "There are a lot of active microorganisms in cheese and you want to keep them alive by the time you're going to eat it." If you're wondering why then, was the wedge of precut cheese you bought from the grocer or cheese store wrapped in plastic, presumably by cheese professionals, the answer is marketing. "It's mostly for display purposes," says Montez, since you're not likely to buy what you can't see. "There are cheese shops where they exclusively wrap in paper, but that's rare. If you're a big shop that moves a lot of product, it's not a problem if you know if the cheese is wrapped in plastic for a couple of days, but beyond that, it can be bad for the cheese." You can extend the life of your artisanal cheeses by rewrapping them in paper after you bring them home. "Formaticum makes great cheese paper that is specially formulated to keep the outside from drying out while allowing the cheese to breathe," says Montez. "If you don't have cheese paper, wrapping it in wax paper, parchment paper, butcher paper or whatever you have is good." Formaticum makes excellent cheese storage bags and wrapping paper. Formaticum It can take some serious practice to achieve the crisp folds of experienced cheesemongers, think of your cheese as a little present (which it is, obviously), and wrap it as though you were using festive wrapping paper. "You want the paper making contact with the piece of cheese," says Montez, "so crease as you go, and make sure all of the faces of the cheese are contacting the paper in an even, flat way." If this seems at all intimidating, Formaticum also makes handy, cheese storage bags where no origami-level folding is required. How and where to store cheese so it lasts longer Cheese you intend to consume within a couple of days doesn't necessarily even need refrigeration. And real Parmigiano Reggiano never needs to see the inside of your fridge. David Watsky/CNET "What you're really trying to accomplish when you store cheese is keeping the cold air from the refrigerator from blowing on it, because that's going to cause it to dry out more quickly," says Montez. Wrapped cheeses should either go into a drawer within your fridge, into a corner where the fan doesn't entirely reach, or even in a small container with the lid cracked to keep air circulation available. Hard cheeses, or even some softer cheeses you intend to consume within a couple of days, don't necessarily even need refrigeration. You can simply seek out something to cover them such as a cheese dome, or for the truly committed, a cheese grotto. According to Montez: "Parmigiano Reggiano never needs to see your refrigerator. You can keep it pretty much indefinitely at room temperature." I guess that answers the question a user had on the r/AskCulinary subreddit about freezing cheese -- you can do it but you don't have to. For more information, here's how to tell which cheap wines are actually good and how much money you can save by shopping at Trader Joe's instead of the supermarket. FAQs Why don't I want to wrap my cheese in plastic? Cheese is a living organism -- wrapping it up in plastic kills those good microorganisms you want to keep propagating before you eat your wedge. Instead, package your cheese so that it has some airflow.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How to build the ultimate cheese board, according to Ina Garten and other chefs
Want to host a gathering like the pros with a super-impressive cheese board? It's a lot easier than you think. With a few strategic cheese and accompaniment choices, you're good to go. A large wooden cutting board or any other platter can serve as the base. The rest of the work is simply gathering ingredients and placing them in a way that's both easy to self-serve and eye-catching. Ina Garten (domestic goddess that she is) isn't the only pro who likes to serve a cheese board for entertaining. It's a go-to for many pro entertainers because people love it, it requires no cooking and yet it can wow a crowd. Garten starts with fig leaves from her garden, but you can use fresh lemon Galax leaves from a florist or just leave the board bare. She likes to place a big bunch of grapes in the center and then the cheese, crackers and other goodies around it. Alternatively, you could snip off smaller bunches of grapes (that, say, one person might put on their plate) and scatter those on the board to start. The experts at the New York City cheese mecca Murray's Cheese shared some other easy-to-follow guidelines. John Montez, the shop's training and curriculum manager, explains, "It's a good idea to stick with an odd number. Three or five cheeses with a range of flavors and textures will always make a pleasing arrangement." "When arranging the board, soft cheeses should be put out as a whole piece with a spreader. Semi-firm cheeses look best sliced into triangles and fanned out. The best way to display hard cheeses is to put out the whole piece and use a knife to crumble off a few pieces to suggest to your guests to keep crumbling it. Beware of symmetry — lay out the cheeses artistically and organically, rather than rigidly." "A good base assortment is a soft cheese like a brie or triple creme, a semi-firm cheese like a young gouda or Swiss Alpine and a hard cheese like an aged cheddar or Parmigiano Reggiano," advises Montez. Dan Kluger chef and owner of the New York City restaurant Loring Place adds, "I always say, know your audience — I like blue cheese, I like stinky cheese, whereas my wife doesn't, so I have to keep that in mind. And as always, quality over quantity. Choose one amazing cheese over three mediocre ones." Chef Curtis Stone of Gwen, a butcher shop and restaurant in Los Angeles, has another reminder: "A really important part of serving cheese is ensuring it's at the right temperature. You should take the cheese out of the refrigerator 45 minutes to an hour before placing it on your cheese board and serving.' He's got a point. No one wants a cold slab of Brie when you can indulge in the runny, gooey version, right? You'll want to add fresh fruit (think grapes, pears or berries) or dried fruit (we like apricots, figs and sour cherries), and if you're serving this as a mini-meal, perhaps some charcuterie such as salami, prosciutto, smoked turkey or even sliced beef jerky sticks. Crackers or bread are also must-haves.
