How to Store Food: Bread and Cheese
Lets face it, many of us have made a pact with ourselves to get organized this year. We’ve decided that our homes and kitchens will remain efficient and tidy. In order to get on the right track to actually meeting these goals, we think the perfect place to start is with food storage.
Proper food storage reduces spoilage, thus saving you time and money. It can also help keep your fridge and pantry organized – allowing you to see what food you actually have, and creating a better workspace for you to cook in.
Bread
For bread that has little preservatives, you will need to think about storage within a day or two. There are many different opinions on how to store bread, the worst offender being to keep it in the refrigerator. This will most definitely stale your beautiful loaf faster than anything else.
We’ve found that the best way to store bread is following these two methods:
Counter
Place the bread in a sealed plastic bag, releasing as much air as you possibly can. Then set with the cut side down on the counter. This should keep your bread soft and usable for 3-4 days.
Freezer
Place the bread in a sealed plastic bag, again releasing all of the air from it. This technique should allow your bread to last for approximately 3 months.
So, if you can gobble up enough of that bread then by all means, store it on the counter. Otherwise, place it in the freezer as quickly as you can to extend it’s life and save yourself money in the long run.
Cheese
When spending a fair amount of money on cheese, you want to make sure that you can keep it for as long as possible. This means learning how to store it properly. Cheese ages and breathes, requiring it to be properly cared for to prevent drying and harmful bacteria from multiplying.
There are many different types of cheeses that all require different storage methods: Hard, semi-hard, soft, and fresh.
Hard Cheese
This type of cheese can still dehydrate and go past the point of no return. Therefore it is a good idea to help prevent this! Wrap it in parchment paper, or ‘cheese paper’ if you have access to it, and then in an opened plastic bag or loose plastic wrap. Place in the fridge and store for up to 30 days.
Semi-Hard Cheese
Follow the same instructions above for this type of cheese but note that it’ll most likely last for half the time as the hard cheese.
Soft Cheese
For soft cheeses, you have 2 options: Wrap it in parchment like the ones above and place in a sealed bag, or wrap it in plastic wrap. We’ll leave you to be the judge of which storage method performs better, but both are viable. Wrapped like this, your cheese should last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
Fresh Cheese
This is the one cheese that will not last as long as the others. Monitor your fresh cheese carefully, and only buy it if you can consume within a week. Store it in it’s liquid in a plastic container.
There are many different factors that go into how long bread and cheese ‘should’ last. Follow these guidelines roughly, making sure to trust your instinct over anything else. If it looks and smells off, it probably is.