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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.
CNET
18-06-2025
- Health
- CNET
Caution: These 8 Foods Crash and Burn in an Air Fryer
In our years of testing air fryers, we've found that these mighty machines do far more good than harm, but some foods just aren't meant to be cooked in these machines. While chicken wings and thighs thrive and hot dogs and burgers emerge as tasty as if you'd seared them over a blazing grill, others wimper and wilt when confronted with that fast, convection heat. That's why I've learned -- sometimes the hard (and crispy) way -- to ban certain foods from the air fryer entirely. Spinach, kale and leafy greens are one food category you should never cook in an air fryer unless the goal is to make chips. Shellfish? Another food that gets downright demolished by all that power. Even boneless chicken breast can dry out in an air fryer if it's not protected by breading or a coating of flour. After too many culinary flops, I've officially blacklisted these eight ingredients from the air fryer zone. 1. Boneless pork chops Boneless pork chops dry out too easily for an air fryer. Chris Wedel/CNET A perfectly cooked pork chop is a thing of beauty but leaner cuts of the other white meat can dry out in a hurry. Bacon, bone-in pork chops and fattier cuts of swine can handle the air fryer but lean, boneless pork chops and tenderloin tend to dry out when subjected to the blast of high heat. If you're going to use the air fryer to cook pork chops, do so at a lower temperature and use some fat to keep things from getting too dry. 2. Spinach and leafy greens Crisped spinach and kale will not turn out well in an air fryer. CNET Leafy greens are a big no when it comes to air-fryer cooking. The hot convection air will crisp most leafy greens such as spinach, kale and chard far beyond anything you'd want to eat. Solid veggies including Brussels sprouts, squash and zucchini fare well in the air fryer, but leafy greens are best when sautéed, stewed or steamed. 3. Steak and most cuts of beef Steak cooked in an air fryer may end up tough and rubbery. Molly Price/CNET Steak reheats well in the air fryer, but it's not an ideal place to cook it for the first time. Air fryer baskets get hot but not hot enough to give the outside of your steak a proper sear. I've tried cooking steaks in the air fryer before. Even fatty, forgiving steaks don't come out as well compared to when they're cooking on a hot plancha, cast-iron skillet or grill. The exception to the beef rule is burgers. Ground beef won't get stringy and the air fryer's intense heat allows you to get a crusty seer without overcooking the middle. Here's how to make a bacon cheeseburger in the air fryer. Read more: Best Meat Delivery Services 4. Boneless chicken breasts Unbreaded chicken breasts are not the best candidates. Getty Images Chicken wings, thighs and any bone-in pieces are perfect candidates for the air fryer. Boneless chicken breasts don't have much fat and will dry out easily. Protect them with a little egg batter and breadcrumbs and you'll be OK, but bare chicken breasts cooked in the air fryer often emerge dry or rubbery. 5. Large cuts of any meat Pot roast typically needs low and slow methods of cooking. Ry Crist/CNET Large cuts of beef, pork and lamb typically do best when cooked with a low and slow method such as braising or smoking. Avoid the air fryer with its hot blast of convection air when cooking large cuts of meat and opt for the Dutch oven, slow cooker or pellet smoker. 6. Naked broccoli The air fryer will singe broccoli unless you cover it in foil. CNET If you wrap your broccoli in foil, you can use the air fryer to roast it (quickly). If you leave it uncovered and exposed to the hot convection air and you'll end up with sizzled broccoli ends that are anything but delicious. 7. Shellfish Clams and mussels are better for a pot instead of an air fryer. CNET Shellfish such as clams and mussels need liquid to cook without drying out. They are also easily overcooked, which can lead to a chewy rubbery morsel that you don't want anywhere near your plate. Avoid the air fryer when cooking most shellfish. 8. Most baked goods Cake and cookie recipes don't typically translate well from the oven to an air more: Best Seafood Delivery Services You can certainly do some baking in the air fryer but use caution since the air fryer's super convection behaves differently than a normal oven's convection heat. Baking a cake or batch of cookies in the air fryer using the time and temperature called for in a recipe will often result in an overcooked, dry or burnt dessert. When baking in an air fryer, use recipes that are specific to an air fryer and don't assume an oven recipe will translate. If you're looking for a great air fryer, here are CNET's top-rated models for 2025. For more, these are the best air-frying toaster ovens for 2025.
