Latest news with #MurraysCheese
CNET
01-07-2025
- Health
- CNET
A Cheesemonger Reveals the Best Way to Store Cheese
Don't ditch that half-eaten block of cheese. By storing it the right way, you can keep any variety of delicious and fresh cheese to snack on 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 everything you need to know about cheese, including how to store cheese, the best way to cut cheese and how to store cheese -- even the fancy kind -- so you never have to waste any. 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: Fake Parmesan Cheese Is a Bigger Problem Than You'd Think 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 store 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 this piece of advice makes you wonder why the wedge of precut cheese you bought was in plastic wrap, 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 with cheese paper. To help, 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 food and drink storage tips, here's how long an open bottle of wine will last and how to store your eggs for optimal freshness. 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. What if cheese comes wrapped in plastic? You can unwrap the cheese and rewrap it in cheese paper at home for optimal freshness.
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Travel + Leisure
19-06-2025
- Business
- Travel + Leisure
Capital One's New JFK Lounge Opens Today—and It's a 13,500-square-foot Tribute to New York City
New York City's busiest travel hub is set to open a new space for passengers. Today, Capital One opened its flagship Capital One Lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Terminal 4. The 13,500-square-foot space is a tribute to New York City, with the spirit of the city infusing many of the design and vendor choices. The space was created in partnership with New York City businesses and artisans. New York City elements include a Central Park-inspired dining area, a Manhattan-style bar, and displays of over 40 works of art by New York-based artists, including a hanging glass sculpture by the Brooklyn-based Shakuff Custom Lighting. The lounge also features large windows with wide views of the tarmac. Travelers enjoying the lounge will be able to snack on locally sourced grab-and-go options, including a bodega-style espresso bar with bagels from Ess-a-Bagel and espresso from Bean & Bean Coffee Roasters, as well as many other sandwich, wrap, salad, pastry, and small plates options. Capital One will also offer its Daily Rituals via roaming trolley carts, serving up a 'Midnight Snack' ritual at 12:30 a.m. to honor the spirit of the city that never sleeps. For the lounge, Capital One partnered with the well-known Manhattan-based Murray's Cheese to create a cheesemonger experience exclusive to JFK. Travelers can enjoy curated cheese and charcuterie boards, with tasting experiences available daily on a first-come first-served basis. A collaboration with NYC's award-winning mixologists helped create the full-service bar that features locally inspired craft cocktails. There will also be New York beers and wines, like the Skyscraper IPA (JFK's lounge-exclusive 'Perfect Airport Beer') and selections from TALEA Beer Co., as well as non-alcoholic beverage options available. Capital One lounges also offer their Rare Bottle Club, where customers can acquire hard-to-find and rare liquors and taste an unusual collection of alcohol that wouldn't be available to them elsewhere. The lounge also has two private rooms, a parent's room for caregivers, and a luxury shower suite with Dyson hair dryers and other hotel-like touches. There is complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the lounge and filtered water to refill water bottles. Venture X and Venture X Business primary cardholders can enjoy unlimited access to Capital One lounges. Non-cardholders can access the lounge for $90 per person as long as they have a valid boarding pass for a same-day flight.
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
How 40 Manhattan Businesses Are Adapting to Congestion Pricing
Some customers have griped about having to pay the new $9 toll to drive to John's Pizzeria, a Greenwich Village institution, in the heart of the congestion pricing zone. One regular from Long Island swore he wouldn't pay on principle and hasn't returned. But four months into the tolling program, lines are still forming under the red awning of the famed pizzeria and, inside, the conversation has moved on. 'I really feel like that news cycle is over,' said Kevin Jackson, the restaurant's manager. But, he added: 'It's still a bitter pill, don't get me wrong. I'm against it.' The toll, which aims to unclog Manhattan's notorious traffic jams while raising funds for mass transit, appears to be working. Traffic is down, commutes are faster and mass transit ridership is up. While a majority of New Yorkers have yet to warm to the toll, recent polls have shown that there is a shift underway: Congestion pricing is quickly becoming a fact of life. To gauge the changing sentiment among business owners, workers and their customers, reporters for The New York Times went door to door along a stretch of Bleecker Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue South, in Greenwich Village. The bustling corridor is home to shops and eateries, including John's Pizzeria and Murray's Cheese, a bike shop, a charter school, a church and a small park. W.14TH ST. BLEECKER ST. SEVENTH AVE. S. MANHATTAN West Village W.10TH ST. HUDSON ST. Greenwich Village SIXTH AVE. GREENWICH ST. Interviewed storefronts on this section of Bleecker St. WASHINGTON SQUARE park W. 3RD ST. BROADWAY BLEECKER ST. W. HOUSTON ST. By The New York Times Over two days, The Times asked 40 businesses about the effects of congestion pricing on their patrons, workers, sales, deliveries and costs. Interviews were conducted with owners, managers and workers, depending on who was available. A majority, 25 businesses, said that congestion pricing has had no significant impact. Ten said the toll has hurt their business, and four said it has been beneficial. One declined to comment. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
