wrapped cheese sit on the counter for anywhere from 1 to 4 hours depending on how warm your

kitchen is. The change is surprising. To see for yourself, cut a piece of cheese in two. Wrap them

well, return half in the refrigerator and put the other half on the kitchen counter for a few hours.

With a good, well-aged cheese you can immediately tell the difference. Unripened cheeses, on

the other hand, develop only spoiling bacteria when you leave them at room temperature for any

length of time.

Storing Dairy Products

The more water a dairy product contains, the more perishable it is. The more aged and

processed the cheese is, the better it keeps. Bacteria need high moisture to thrive and they spoil

milk, cream and high-moisture cheeses with pleasure and expediency. As we already know, milk

curdles when we add acidic foods, but it also curdles naturally without your help if you give it

time. Lactic acid-forming bacteria build up the acidity slowly if the milk is cold, but they

multiply fast, complete the job and curdle the milk within hours at warm room temperatures.

Milk freezes well. If you have too much milk on hand, pour it in plastic containers, self-

sealing bags or store it in its original carton in the freezer. It keeps well for 2 to 3 months and

tastes fresh and remains lumpfree when defrosted.

Butter is moderately perishable, but it is notorious for picking up odors from other things

around it. Never store it in the refrigerator uncovered even for short-term storage. What actually

makes butter spoil is oxidation, caused by exposure to both light and air which turns it rancid.

Wrapping it tightly in foil instead of the waxed paper it comes in almost doubles its shelflife.

You may have noticed that better-quality butters are often foil-wrapped.

Refrigerated unsalted butter has a shelflife of a few weeks. Butter freezes well and it

stays good for several months in the freezer. Salted butter lasts at least three times longer in both

the refrigerator and freezer without deterioration. When defrosted, you cannot tell the difference

in flavor or texture.

Freezing, on the other hand, separates cream. It breaks down the emulsion, so the fat

separates from the water. But if you freeze it very fast, the emulsion stays intact. If you have

extra cream that you want to freeze, take a clean baking sheet, chill it thoroughly in the freezer

and pour a thin layer of cream on it. Freeze it, then scrape the frozen cream into a plastic

container or plastic bag. After defrosting you can even try to use this cream for your coffee.

Whipped cream freezes very well. Put dollops of whipped cream on a sheet of waxed

paper laid on a baking sheet and freeze them for an hour. Then collect these individually quick-

frozen dollops in a plastic bag to store in the freezer. You can use them as freshly whipped cream

after defrosting. Freezing preserves its structure virtually intact.

High-moisture cheeses keep for several weeks, lower-moisture hard cheeses at least twice

as long, even several months when you store them properly. The less you touch the cheese, the

fewer bacteria you transfer to its surface, and the longer the shelflife. Handle freshly-opened

cheese only with clean hands. Wrapping cheese well to eliminate both microorganisms and

oxidation extends its shelflife, too.

When surface molds attack stored cheese, don’t throw the whole piece out. They are not

harmful, just disgusting looking and tasting. Scrape or cut off a thin layer, and the cheese

beneath it is still perfectly good to eat. But once a piece of cheese is heavily coated with mold,

scraping is not enough. The moldy flavor may have permeated the entire chunk.

Dry, low-moisture, well-aged cheeses, such as romano and parmesan are stable even

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