For ultimate freshness, store blue cheese at a colder temperature
With its deliciously tangy flavor, you can do a lot of things with blue cheese. It adds a nice flavor to salads and burgers, and can also be made into a blue cheese dressing for wings, chips and more. Blue cheese offers endless possibilities, which is why we like to keep an endless supply on hand. But if you stock up, be sure to store your blue cheese at colder temperatures.
One of the many do’s and don’ts of refrigerating cheese is to keep it away from a freezing environment. Typically, cold temperatures dry out cheese, diminishing the creamy texture we love. It also interrupts the aging process, which develops in conditions of high humidity and warmer temperatures. With blue cheese, however, you’ll want to skip all that. While other cheeses should be stored between 42 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, blue cheese should stay between 38 and 42 degrees Fahrenheit.
When blue cheese is stored at a warmer temperature, it tends to spoil more quickly, which can cause food poisoning in anyone who eats it. Moldy blue cheese could also produce mycotoxins, toxic compounds that can cause long-term health problems. To provide a consistently cool environment for blue cheese, store it in the back of the refrigerator and away from doors that face a blast of hot air every time they are opened.
Read more: What happens if you accidentally eat mold?
How to store blue cheese correctly
For best results, store cheese wrapped in the paper it came in, or in wax or parchment paper. Since cheese tends to absorb odors, you can go a step further and place it in a plastic bag to keep its distinct flavor intact. While it’s good to store cheese in airtight containers, make sure it has some access to oxygen or the mold will die. Also store blue cheese away from other cheeses to prevent the spread of mold.
Once opened, the cheese can be kept for three to four weeks. To know if it’s bad or not, pay attention to the smell and color of the cheese. The once pleasant and pungent odor will develop a stronger, rancid odor. Its blue spots can also be overtaken by yellow, brown and red spots. Texture-wise, it will go from firm to soft and excessively moist. The most important sign, however, would be the growth of fuzzy mold that turns a pink or black color.
Although freezing cheese is not a popular method, it protects it better from spoilage. To do this, wrap it well in aluminum foil before placing the cheese in an airtight freezer bag. Frozen blue cheese can last six to eight months. However, the texture will change slightly, becoming firmer and more crumbly. To defrost it, place it in the refrigerator overnight.
Read the original article on the tasting table.
